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thirteen days each, it follows, that the series of 

 the hieroglyphics passes from one cycle to an- 

 other. The whole of the Codex Vaticanus con- 

 tains a hundred and seventy-six of these small 

 cycles, or two thousand two hundred and ninety 

 days. We shall not enter here into any detail 

 on these subdivisions of time, proposing to give 

 an explanation of the Mexican calendar, one of 

 the most complicated, but also one of the most 

 ingenious to be fonnd in the history of astrono- 

 my. Every page exhibits, in the two subdivisions 

 of which we have already spoken, two groups of 

 mythological figures. We should lose ourselves 

 in vain conjectures, were we to attempt inter- 

 preting these allegories ; the manuscripts of 

 Rome, Veletri, Bologna, and Vienna having 

 none of those explanatory notes, which the vice- 

 roy Mendoza added to the manuscript published 

 by Purchas. It were to be wished, that some 

 government would publish at its own expense 

 these remains of the ancient American civiliza- 

 tion ; for it is only by the comparison of several 

 monuments, that we can succeed in discovering 

 the meaning of these allegories, which are partly 

 astronomical, and partly mystic. If of all the 

 Greek and Roman antiquities there only re- 

 mained a few cameos, or solitary coins* the most 

 simple allusions would have escaped the sagacity 

 of antiquaries. How much light has the inspec- 

 vol. XIII. o 



