194 



tion of bass-reliefs thrown over the study of 

 medals ! 



Zoega, Fabrega, and others, who have studied 

 the Mexican manuscripts in Italy, consider the 

 Codex Vaticanus, like that ofVeletri, as consist- 

 ing" of tonalamatls, or ritual almanacks ; that is 

 to say, as books which showed the people, for a 

 space of several years, the divinities that presided 

 over the small cycles of thirteen days, and who 

 governed, during this space, the destinies of 

 men ; the religious duties, which ought to be 

 practised; and especially tire offerings, which 

 were to be made to the idols. 



The thirteenth plate of my Atlas, which is a 

 copy of the ninety-sixth page of the Codex 

 Vaticanus, represents on the left an adoration : 

 the deity has on a helmet, the ornaments of 

 which are very remarkable : he is seated on a 

 small bench, called icpalli, before a temple, of 

 which only the top, or small chapel placed on 

 the upper part of the pyramid, is represented. 

 The adoration consisted at Mexico, as well as 

 in the East, in the ceremony of touching the 

 ground with the right hand, and carrying the 

 left to the mouth. In the drawing, No. 1, the 

 homage is rendered by a genuflexion ; the atti- 

 tude of the figure, which prostrates itself before 

 the temple, is found in several paintings of the 

 Hindoos. 



