27G 



RELIEF IN BASALT. 



REPRESENTING THE 



MEXICAN CALENDAR. 



PLATE XXIII. 



Among the number of monuments which seem 

 to prove, that the people of Mexico, at the time 

 of their conquest by the Spaniards, had attained 

 a certain degree of civilization, we may assign 

 the first rank to the calendars, or different divi- 

 sions of time, adopted by the Toltecks and the 

 Aztecks ; either for the use of society in general, 

 or to regulate the order of sacrifices, or to facili- 

 tate the calculations of astrology. This kind of 

 monument is so much the more worthy of fixing 

 our attention, as it is a proof of knowledge, 

 which we have some difficulty in considering as 

 the result of observations made by a nation of 

 mountaineers, in the uncultivated regions of the 

 New Continent. We might be tempted to com- 

 pare the circumstance of the Azteck calendar, 



