AZTEC CALENDAR. 



119 



which clouds and storms originated. These fanciful interpreta- 

 tions, however, are unavailable in all scientific descriptions, and 

 Mr. Gallatin supposes the figures to be altogether ornamental. 



The whole circle is divided into eight equal parts by the eight 

 triangles R, which designate the rays of the sun. The intervals 

 between these are each divided into two equal parts by the small 

 circles indicated by the letter L. At the top of the vertical ray 

 is found the hieroglyphic 13 Acatl, which shows that this stone 

 applies to that year. It must be recollected that, although this 

 Mexican calendar is in its arrangement the same for every year in 

 the cycle, there !was a variation at the rate of a day for every four 

 years, between the several years of the cycle and the corresponding 

 solar years. Gama presumes that this date of 13 Acatl was se^ 

 lected on account :of its being the twenty-sixth year of the cycle 

 and equally removed from its beginning and termination. Beneath 

 this hieroglyphic, in correct drawings of the stone — but not in 

 that of Gama which has been reproduced by Mr. Gallatin — will 

 be found, between the letters Y and G, the distinct sign of 2, Acatl, 

 and the ray above it points to the sign of the year 13 Acatl, which 

 coincides with our 21st of December, and is undoubtedly the 

 hitherto undetermined date of the winter solstice in the Mexican 

 calendar. 1 



The smaller interior circle^ we have already said, contains the 

 image of the sun, as usually painted by the Indians ; and to it are 

 united the four parallelograms, A, B, C, D, which are supposed by 

 some winters to denote the four weeks into which the twenty days 

 of the month were divided, but which contain the hieroglyphics, 

 A, of 4 Ocelotl ; B, of 4 Ehecatl ; C, of 4 Quiahuitl ; and D, of 4 

 Atl. The lateral figures E and F, according to Gama denote 

 claws, which are symbolical of two gr^at Indian astrologers who 

 were man and wife, and were represented as eagles or owls. 



The representations in these parallelograms, are believed to have 

 originated in the Mexican fable of the suns, which will be here- 

 after noticed. The Aztecs believed that this luminary had died 

 four times, and that the one which at present lights the earth, was 

 the fifth, but which nevertheless was doomed to destruction like the 

 preceding orbs. From the creation, the first age or sun, lasted 676 

 years, comprising 13 cycles, when the crops failed, men perished of 

 famine and their bodies were consumed by the beasts of the field. 

 This occurred in the year 1 Acatl, and on the day 4 Ocelotl, and 



1 See Ethnological Trans. 1 vol., p. 96, and Am. Journal of Science and Arts, 

 second series, vol. vii., p. 155. March No. for 1849. 



