374 



noxial signs presiding over every period of thir- 

 teen years. 



Though the same signs were used and ar- 

 ranged in the same order, in every part of the 

 Mexican empire, some difference was* neverthe- 

 less observed in the choice of the solstitial and 

 equinoxial sign placed at the head of the xiuh- 

 molpilli, or ligature of the years. The inhabit- 

 ants of Tezcuco began the great year by acatl ; 

 those of Teotihuacan, by colli ; the Toltecks by 

 tecpatl. It has been doubted, whether, among 

 the same nations, notwithstanding the difference 

 we have just indicated, the first day of the year 

 was constantly the sign cipactli ; but the frag- 

 ments of their historic annals, preserved in the 

 Boturini Museum, and in the collection of P. 

 Pichardo, at Mexico, seem to indicate, that the 

 variety of dates proceeds from the time at which 

 the intercalation of the thirteen days was made, 

 and not from the different manner of marking 

 the beginning of the cycle. 



We are ignorant whether the twenty signs of 

 the Mexican days are the remains of an ancient 

 division of the zodiac into twenty-eight lunar 

 mansions ; or whether with the four signs of the 

 night, the names of which are not found among 

 those of the days, they anciently formed twenty- 

 four asterisms, like the tsieki of the Chinese 

 zodiac. An equal number of signs had perhaps 



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