402 



other, the Moon, Meztli, as emblems to show, 

 that the Moon is the real cause of the eclipse of 

 the Sun. 



Beside the asterisms of the Mexican zodiac, 

 and the figures of the sign nakui ollin, the stone 

 gives also the dates of ten great festivals, which 

 were celebrated from the spring to the autumnal 

 equinox. As several of these festivals were 

 correspondent with celestial phenomena, as the 

 Mexican year is vague during the space of a 

 cycle, and as the intercalation takes place only 

 every fifty-two years, the same dates do not de- 

 note four years successively the same days. The 

 winter solstice, which, the first year of the cycle, 

 took place on the day 10 tochtli, retrograded 

 two signs eight years later, and fell on the day 

 8 miquiztli. Hence it follows, that, in order 

 to indicate the dates by the signs of the days, 

 we must add the year of the cycle with which 

 these dates correspond. In fact the sign 13 

 canes, or matlactly omey acatl, placed above the 

 figure of the Sun, toward the upper edge of the 

 stone, shows, that this monument contains the 

 fasti of the twenty-sixth year of the cycle, 

 from the month of March to the month of Sep- 

 tember. 



In order to give a clearer view of the signs, 

 which indicate the festivals of the Mexican re- 

 ligion, I must again observe, that the rounds 



