288 



Hindoos, finished at the winter solstice ; "when" 

 as the first missionary monks sent to Mexico 

 with simplicity say, " the Sun, in his annual 

 course, begins again his labours, quando desanda 

 lo andado" This same beginning of the year 

 is found among the Peruvians, whose calendar, 

 in other respects, sufficiently indicates, that they 

 are not descended from the Toltecks, as several 

 writers have gratuitously supposed *. The in- 

 habitants of Cuzco preserved a tradition f, ac- 

 cording to which the first day of the year cor- 

 responded formerly to our first of January, till 

 the Inca Titu-Manco-Capac, who took the sur- 

 name of Pachacutec (reformer of time), ordered, 

 that, when the Sun trod back his steps, that 

 is at the winter solstice, the year, should 

 begin. 



A great confusion exists among the Spanish 

 writers on the denomination and the series^ of the 

 18 Mexican months. Several of these months 

 had three or four names ; and some authors, for- 

 getting that the Mexicans, when they had to re- 

 present a periodical series of signs, or hierogly- 

 phics, wrote from write to left, and began at the 

 bottom of the page, have taken the last month 



* See page 173, and m} r Essay on the primitive Population 

 of America. Berlin. Monatscbrift, 1806. Merz. p. 177, 

 208. 



f Acosta, p. 260. 



