﻿Gama on Calendar Stone. 



21 



Tecpatl, " corresponding to the year 1064 of the Christian era; 

 but as the most of the year had passed, and the remainder was 

 spent in wanderings, without making any settlement, until the 

 year "11 Acatl" (1687), when they arrived at "Talisco," other- 

 wise called "Acahualtzinco," where they remained for nine years, 

 in which occurred the "ce Tochtli," which became the origin of 

 the indiction, and they corrected their time, and began from it to 

 reckon their cycle by the order of Chalchinhtlatonac, who was 

 then their leader; but out of respect for their principal commander, 

 Huitzilopochtli, whom they subsequently adored as the god of 

 war, they transferred "the festival of fire" and ''the binding of 

 the years," on Xiuhmolpia, to the following "ome Acatl," because, 

 in that year, Huitzilopochtli was born, on the day ce Tecpatl, as 

 has been determined by the said author. 



And in this region of Tlalixco their years were bound anew, and 

 the first time of their new reckoning made, as is declared also by 

 Chimalpain and others ; and in the subsequent cycles, and in the 

 places where they completed them, one finds in their pictures the 

 hieroglyphic of "the binding," which is a handful of reeds tied 

 together with numerical characters, to show how many years had 

 elapsed, or how many festivals of fire were yet to come after that 

 which they had celebrated in Tlalisco, or Acahualtzinco — the 

 year "ome Acatl," corresponding to 109 1 of the Christian era. 

 Thus matters are determined in the same manner by the manu- 

 scripts of the Indian authors. 



8. The epoch of the Mexicans, as has been stated, was the 

 year "ce Tecpatl," but the beginning of their cycle was "ce 

 Tochtli," which is the origin of the indiction, although a species 

 of religious ceremony was consecrated to the honor of Huitzito- 

 pochtli, the year following "ome Acatl," celebrating in it the secular 

 feast of Xiuhmolpia ; hence, result two things, which it is neces- 

 sary to notice, in order to obtain a perfect comprehension of the 

 time alluded to in their histories. The first is, that having com- 

 pleted a cycle when they made their first festival at Tlalixco, and 

 reckoning them in relation with the number of cycles, or 

 Xiuhmolpille, since this festival (which was on the time they cor- 

 rected their years, and determined to reckon them from the "ce 



