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Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



called it "Metztlapohualli ;" that is, the "reckoning of the moon." 

 And because they used it for the feasts which they celebrated daily 

 for their divinations and for other superstitious rites, they gave it 

 various other names ; and, hence, in one of these same calendars 

 it is called " Cemilhuitlapohualliztli," "count of the ritual feast," 

 and, in another of the highest superstition, was named "Tonala- 

 matl, " which literally signified nothing more than "decree 

 of the sun," or of the days; but it possessed an allusion to the 

 influences of the planets, although this species of calendar is 

 described and represented in a distinct form and manner. 



1 1. The numbers of the 18 months of the first calendar were varied 

 in applying them to the purposes for which they were prepared, 

 or to the seasons in which they occurred, or to the customs of the 

 other Pueblos subjected to the Government of Mexico, and this 

 variety in numbering them occasioned the great confusion which 

 the writers about them fell into, thus, in regard to the order of ar- 

 ranging them as to their legitimate and primitive numbers, and 

 likewise in regard to the figures by which they were symbolized ; 

 hence originated some apocryphal representations of this first cal- 

 endar, and doubts as to which was the first month of the year, 

 upon which matter we will not delay at present, reserving for here- 

 after to explain it all. We will only give notice, in passing, that one 

 of the apocryphal calendars is that which you find at the begin- 

 ning of the "Cortez Letters," which were printed in Mexico in 

 1770, under the title of "History of New Spain," written by its 

 illustrious conqueror, Hernan Cortez, in which engraving, is rep- 

 resented the five days of the "nemontemi," contrary to the system 

 observed by the Mexicans, who made use of them only for the 

 correction of their time, and could not represent them in their 

 calendars without interrupting the invariable arrangement of their 

 months, and on that account some of the historians expressly 

 assert that they were not included in their calendars. The truth- 

 ful and legitimate representation is the one you find engraved by 

 Dr. Gemelli in his book called "Giro del Mundo, " revolution of 

 the earth, copied from one given him by D. Carlos de Sigwenza, 

 as we will see at the proper time. 



