224 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 



events, give astronomical information and present much 

 pictographic evidence on various ceremonies and 

 religious usages. In giving a date a somewhat different 

 method is used than we have seen in the historical 

 records from the Valley of Mexico. There is a definite 

 year sign (Fig. 81) and with it is combined the 

 year bearer, or initial day of the year, and often the 

 particular day of the event. Unfortunately, this is not 

 entirely satisfactory because no month signs are 

 recorded and a day with a certain name and number 

 frequently occurs twice in one year. The year bearers 

 are the same as among the Aztecs for most of the docu- 

 ments, namely, Knife, House, Rabbit, and Reed, but in 

 a manuscript ascribed to a tribe in southern Mexico 

 called the Cuicatecs, the year bearers are Wind, Deer, 

 Herb, and Movement (Fig. 82) . Conquest of a town is 

 shown by a spear thrust into the place name. Individu- 

 als are often named after the day on which they were 

 born. Thus 8 Deer is a warrior hero in the Codex 

 Nuttall and 3 Knife is a woman who also plays a promi- 

 nent part. In some of the manuscripts from southern 

 Mexico we see details that are very close to those in the 

 codices of the Mayas. 



Aztecan Influence in Central America. The 



influence from the late Mexican cultures can be traced 

 far to the south. In Salvador the cults of Tlaloc, Xipe 

 Totec, and other Aztecan gods were fully developed. 

 The occurrence of the "Chacmool" in Salvador has al- 

 ready been pointed out and it may be added that the 

 Mexican ball game, tlachtli, seems also to have been 

 known here. 



Decorative motives that show affiliations to those of 

 the Aztecs and their immediate predecessors are found 

 as far south as Costa Rica but the strain is thin and not 



