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AZTECS ASTRONOMICAL SCIENCE. 



We have thought it proper and interesting to preface the 

 description of the calendar stone by the preceding account of the 

 Aztec festival of the New Fire, which illustrates the mingled ele- 

 ments of science and superstition that so largely characterized the 

 empire of Montezuma. The stone itself has engaged the atten- 

 tion, for years, of numerous antiquarians in Mexico, Europe and 

 America, but it has received from none so perfect a description, as 

 from the late Albert Gallatin, who devoted a large portion of his 

 declining years to the study of the ancient Mexican chronology and 

 languages. In the first volume of the Transactions of the American 

 Ethnological Society he has contributed an admirable summary of 

 his investigations of the semi-civilized nations of Mexico, Yucatan 

 and Central America, and from this we shall condense the por- 

 tion which relates to this remarkable monument. 



Around the principal central figure, representing the sun, are 

 delineated in a circular form the twenty days of the month ; which 

 are marked from 1 to 20, with figures in the plates, and, in this 

 order, are the following : 



1 Cipactli. 8 Ocelotl. 15 Mazatl. 



2 Xochitl. 9 Acatl. 16 Miquiztli. 



3 Quiahuitl. 10 Malinalli. 17 Cohualt. 



4 Tecpatl. 11 Ozomatli. 18 Cuetzpalni. 



5 Ollin. 12 Itzeuinitli. 19 Calli. 



6 Cozcaquauhitli. 13 Atl. 20 Ehecatl. 



7 Quauhtli. 14 Tochtli. 



The triangular figure I, above the circle enclosing the emblem 

 of the sun, denotes the beginning of the year. Around the 

 circumference which bounds the symbols of the days and months 

 are found the places of fifty-two small squares, of which only 

 forty are actually visible, the other twelve being covered by 

 the four principal rays of the sun marked R. These doubtless 

 denote the cycle of 52 years ; and each of these squares contains 

 five small oblongs, making in all 260 for the 52 squares. They 

 are presumed to represent the 260 days or the period of the twenty 

 first series of thirteen days. All the portion, included between the 

 outer circumference of these 260 days and the external zone, has 

 not been decyphered accurately. The external zone consists, 

 except at the extremities, of a symbol twenty times repeated, and is 

 alleged by Gama, a Mexican who first described and attempted to 

 interpret the stone, to represent the milky way. The waving lines 

 connected with it are supposed by this writer to represent clouds, 

 while others imagine them to be the symbols of the mountains- in 



