70 



its migrations. I think the ligature (No. 2) 

 indicates the cycle that terminated at Tlalixco : 

 for, according to Chimalpain, the festival of the 

 second cycle was celebrated at Cohuatepetl ; and 

 that of the third cycle, at Apuzco ; while the 

 festivals of the fourth and fifth cycles took place 

 at Colhuacan, and at Tenochtitlan. 



The singular idea of recording on a single 

 sheet of small size what in other Mexican paint- 

 ings often fills pieces of cloth, or skins, ten or 

 twelve metres in length, has rendered this histo- 

 rical abridgment extremely incomplete. It treats 

 of the migration of the Aztecks only, and not 

 of that of the Toltecks, who preceded the Az- 

 tecks more than five centuries in the country of 

 Anahuac ; and who differed from them by that 

 love of the arts, and that religious and pacific 

 character, which distinguished the Etruscans from 

 the first inhabitants of Rome. The heroic times 

 of the Azteck history extend to the eleventh cen- 

 tury of the Christian era. Till then, the divini- 

 ties mingled in the action of men ; and it was at 

 this epocha that Quetzalcohuatl, the Bouddha of 

 the Mexicans, a white and bearded man, priest 

 and legislator, devoted to the most rigorous pe- 

 nances, founder of monasteries and congregations 

 like those of Thibet and western Asia, appeared 

 on the coasts of Panuco. Every thing anterior 

 to the emigration from Aztlan is mixed with 

 childish fables. Among barbarous nations, with- 



