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days are suppressed, those of water, the dog, the 

 ape, grass (malinalli) , the cane, the tiger, and the 

 eagle. P. Fabrega supposes, in his manuscript 

 commentary, that this omission refers to a pe- 

 riodical reform of the Julian intercalation, be- 

 cause a subtraction of seven days, at the end of 

 a cycle of one thousand and forty years, reduces, 

 by an ingenious method, a year of 365 '25 days 

 to a year of 365*243 days, which is only V 26", 

 or 0*001 of a day, greater than the real mean 

 year, as it is laid down in the tables of Mr. 

 Delambre. After the examination of a great 

 number of hieroglyphic paintings of the Mexi- 

 cans, and having seen the extreme care with 

 which they are executed in the minutest details, 

 we cannot admit, that the omission of seven 

 terms in a periodical series is owing to mere 

 chance. Fabrega's observation without doubt 

 deserves notice here; not that it is probable, 

 that a nation should in reality employ a reform 

 of the calendar only after long periods of a thou- 

 sand and forty years ; but because the manu- 

 script of Veletri seems to prove, that its author 

 was acquainted with the real duration of the 

 years. If at Mexico, on the arrival of the 

 Spaniards, an intercalation of twenty-five days 

 in one hundred and four years existed, it is to be 

 supposed, that this more perfect intercalation 

 was preceded by an intercalation of thirteen days 

 in fifty-two years. Now the remembrance of 



