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unfolding of astronomy prevent us from deciding* 

 whether the hieroglyphics of the days and the 

 years of the Tolteck and Azteck calendar, like the 

 Chinese tse and tchi, belong only to an imagi- 

 nary or fictitious zodiac, or whether they denote 

 zodiacal constellations. We have already ob- 

 served, that the great wheels, which represent 

 the cycle of fifty-two years, were encircled by a 

 serpent biting his tail, and with four folds to 

 mark the four indictions. The hieroglyphics 

 being arranged in periodical series of four terms, 

 and the intervals that separate one fold from 

 another containing twelve years, each knot of 

 the serpent corresponded to another sign. I think 

 these four knots, denoted by the asterisms rabbit, 

 cane, silex, and house, alluded to the points of 

 the solstices and the equinoxes, or the intersec- 

 tion of the colures with the ecliptic. The most 

 ancient division of the zodiac,, says Albategni # , 

 is that into four parts. In fact, in the first year 

 of the great cycle of the days matlactli tochtli 

 (10 rabbit) chicuei acatl, (8 cane), chicome colli 

 (7 house), and matlactli tecpatl, (11 flint), an- 

 swered to the 22d of December, the 22d of 

 March, the 20th of June, and the 23d of Sep- 

 tember. These days are but little distant from 

 the equinoxes and solstices ; and as the Mexican 



* J)% Scientia Stellarura, cap. 2, (ed. Bonon., 1645, 

 page 3). 



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