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Cincinnati Society of Natural History, 



affixed no numerical character, and they were distinguished only 

 by the order which they maintained (which was never altered in 

 this calendar, unless it was in the i{ Tonalmatl" in which the 

 priests were accustomed to transfer some particular festival, in 

 order to make it agree with some other, or for some special mo- 

 tive ; but except for some such interruption, they continued in the 

 same order as they commenced), as to the numbers that accom- 

 panied the symbols of the days. 



The Indians regarded the "nine companions" with such con- 

 sideration, as to bestow a special designation, the title of Quecholli 

 which is the name of a bird of rich and beautiful plumage, that 

 was held by them in great estimation, and they dedicated an en- 

 tire month to its name. It was the symbol of lovers, and they in- 

 voked it at weddings, with epithalamiums, just as the Romans 

 invoked Hymen. The names and the order of the nine compan- 

 ions are as follows : 



Xiuhteuctli — Tletl, fire, Lord of the year. 



Tecpatl — Flint. 



Xochitl — Flower. 



Cinteotl — Goddess of maize, or Ceres. 

 Miquiztli— Death. 



Atl — Water, symbol of the Goddess CJialchiuheueye. 



Tlozolteotl — Goddes of love, or Venus. 



Tepeyototli — Goddess of the center of mountains. 



Quiahuitl — Rain, symbol of the God Tlaloc. 



16. Senor Boturini makes mention of these "Lords of the night, " 

 but he confuses them with another set of "companions" which 

 was added by the Judicial Astrologers in the Tonalamatl, and it is 

 to be wondered at since he had the original representation of this 

 species of the superstitious calendar called " The Ritual," and 

 quoted it in § 30, number 2, of the Museum Catalogue, where you 

 find the two sets of "companions" with the days of the "trecenas;" 

 he did not know how to discriminate between those which were 

 Lords of the night, and those signs which the Indians used for 

 their false divinations, and heathen prognostications, and he has 

 greatly confused the whole matter ; although it is sufficiently diffi- 

 cult to comprehend perfectly this species of calendar, for it con- 



