403 



placed near the hieroglyphics of the days are 

 terms of the first of the three periodical series, 

 of which we have already explained the use. 

 Reckoning from right to left, and beginning at 

 the right of the triangle resting on the forehead 

 of the god, Ollin Tonatiuh, with the point to- 

 ward cipactli, we find the eight following hiero- 

 glyphics : 4 tiger ; 1 silex ; tletl, fire, without 

 marking the number ; 4 wind ; 4 rain ; 4 ram ; 

 2 ape ; and 4 water. We now come to the ex- 

 planation of the Mexican festivals, according to 

 the calendar of Mr. Gama, and the order of the 

 festivals indicated in the works of the historians 

 of the sixteenth century. 



In the year 13 acatl, which is the last year of 

 the second indiction of the cycle, the beginning 

 of the year retrograded six days and a half, be- 

 cause the intercalation had not taken place for 

 twenty-six years. The first day of the month 

 titill, which bears the sign, 1 cipactli tletl, conse- 

 quently corresponds not to the 9th but the 3d of 

 January ; and the sign, which presides over the 

 seventh period of thirteen days, 1 quiahuitl, or 

 1 rain, coincides with the 22d of March, or 

 with the vernal equinox. It is at this period, 

 that the festivals of Tlaloc, or the god of water, 

 were celebrated ; which indeed had already be- 

 gun ten days before the equinox, on the day 

 4 atl, or 4 water ; without doubt, because on the 

 12th of March, or the 3d of the month Tlacaxi- • 



