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18, Atemoztli, the descent of water and of 

 snow ; snow begins towards the end of Decem- 

 ber to cover the mountains, which surround the 

 valley of Mexico. From the 15th of December 

 to the 3d of January. 



In the first year of the cycle, the five comple- 

 mentary days correspond to the 4th, 5th, 6th, 

 7th, and 8th of January. A nation, which 

 makes no intercalation but every 52 years, finds 

 the commencement of its year retrograde nearly 

 a day every four years, and consequently, twelve 

 or thirteen days at the end of the cycle, xtuh- 

 molpilli. Hence it results, as we shall see far- 

 ther on, that the last complementary day, or 

 nemontemi, of the last year of the Mexican cycle, 

 corresponds to the 26th of December. Now the 

 five nemontemi being reckoned vague and unlucky 

 days, the day of the winter solstice, or the 21st 

 of December, was considered as the end of the 

 Xiuhmolpilli. The nemontemi, or epagomenes, 

 as well as the twelve or thirteen intercalary days, 

 belong to neither of the two years between 

 which they fall ; and it is for this reason, that we 

 have named the winter solstice the end, not the 

 beginning, of a cycle of 52 years. 



In the 3d, 4th and 5th months, which answer 

 to our months of February, March, and April, 

 solemn festivals were instituted in honor of Tla- 

 locteutli, the god of water ; this period being the 

 time of the great droughts, which last in the 



