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Cincinnati ^Society of Natural History. 



six cycles ; when, in the year 1 Tecpatl, on the day 4 Quiahuitl, the 

 destruction was caused by fire and earthquakes, and men were changed 

 into owls. The fourth age lasted 52 years, when, in the year 1 Calli, on 

 the day 4 Atl, the world was destroyed by the flood, and men were changed 

 into fishes. After all these terrible convulsions of Nature had subsided, 

 the gods created the existing fifth sun and fifth moon. The four eras of 

 destruction are precisely those symbolized in the four parallelogrammes, A, 

 B, C, D. 



From the Mexican Almanac, according to Gama, we find that * the let- 

 ter " A " designates 4 Ocelotl, the 17th of May ; the letter " 0," 4 Qui- 

 ahuitl, the 27th of July. These are the dates of the sun's zenith transit 

 at the City of Mexico. 



"H ' designates 10 Ollin, the 22d of September; " N," 1 Quiahuitl, 

 the 22d of March, and " M," 2 Ozomatli, the 22d of June. 



And Mr. Gallatin says : "We have on this stone the dates of the five prin- 

 cipal positions of the sun from the vernal to the autumnal equinox. Three 

 of these, the two transits of the sun by the zenith and the autumnal 

 equinox, are Mexican days, on which these phenomena occurred in the 

 first year of the cycle (1 Tochtli) ; and the two others, the vernal equinox 

 and the summer solstice, are the Mexican days on which these two phe- 

 nomena occurred in the year 13 Acatl. 



" These dates are not founded on conjecture, nor derived from Indian 

 paintings no longer to be found, or of a date subsequent to the conquest, 

 or from the uncertain indications given by the Indian writers who wrote 

 with our alphabet either in Spanish or Mexican language. They are posi- 

 tive facts, engraved by the Indian priests before the conquest, on a stone 

 monument of indubitable authenticity." 



Mr. Grallatin says that it is highly probable that these mythological rep- 

 resentations are connected with celestial phenomena. "And it is found ac- 

 cordingly that the days designated in the parallelograms A and C as 4 

 Ocelotl and 4 Quiahuitl, correspond respectively to the 17th of May and 

 the 27th of July, and these two days are those of the transit of the sun by 

 the zenith of the City of Mexico, which is situated in north latitude, 19°, 

 25', 57", and in the longitude, 101°, 25', 20/' west of Paris." 



Every date inserted in the Calendar Stone refers to the period from the 

 vernal to the autumnal equinox, and the days agree with those that all 

 astronomers now assign to them. And Gama concludes that a stone some- 



* See Trans. Am. Ethnological Society, Vol. I, p. 98, and Table C. The dates 

 are according to our calendar. 



