130 



MEXICO. 



solemn occasions. I have but little hesitation in assert- 

 ing that the groove in the upper surface formed no part 

 of the original design. 



It has been surmised that this is the "exceedingly 

 great stone" which was discovered by the Mexicans as 

 late as the reign of Montezuma, when it is recorded that 

 it was brought to the capital with great labour and pomp 

 for the sacrifices : on which occasion 12,210 victims 

 were immolated. 



It may fairly be credited that many of these antiquities 

 were the work of a people anterior to the Aztecs. 



No doubt can be entertained but that their systems for 

 the computation of time were transmitted to them from 

 the Toltecs. 



The great Calendar Stone is a vast mass of basaltic 

 porphyry, twenty-four tons weight, covered with the 

 most symmetrical and admirable hieroglyphics. 



Two several calendars were in use among the abo- 

 rigines, namely: the Reckoning of the used for civil 

 purposes, and the Calendar of the Moon, employed to 

 reguHte their religious festivals.* 



The Reckoning of the Sun was briefly as follows.f 

 The civil year consisted of three hundred and sixty four 

 days, divided into eighteen months of twenty days each, 

 with exception of the last, to which the five odd days 

 were added. But evidently knowing that the tropical 

 year exceeded their year by six hours, they, after the 

 termination of each cycle of fifty-two years, added thir- 

 teen days before they recommenced the first month of 

 the following cycle, and thus adjusted their time. 

 Each of the eighteen months has a certain name from 

 some natural object characteristic of the particular 

 season which it indicated, or from some particular 

 festival or employment in which they were engaged at 



* Their numerals were indicated as far as nineteen by round dots ; 

 the number twenty had a particular sign, as well as 400 and 8000, and 

 this is all that is known of their system of notation. 

 t f 3ee Humboldt, M'Culloh, &c, &c. 



