AZTEC CALENDAR. 



121 



Humboldt, lies in 19° 25' and 57" north latitude and in 101° 25' 

 20" west longitude from Paris. The two other days 4 Ehecatl, 

 and 4 Atl, do not correspond either in the first year of the cycle or 

 in the year 13 Acatl, with any station of the sun or any other 

 celestial phenomena. 



" There are three other hieroglyphics contained within the inte- 

 rior circumference or representation of the sun, which indicate the 

 dates of some celebrated feasts of the Aztecs. The three follow- 

 ing indications or hieroglyphics are found immediately below the 

 figure of the sun. The first of these, designated by the letter H, is 

 placed between the parallelograms C and D, and consists of two 

 squares of five oblongs each, indicating the Aztec numeral 10. 

 The symbol of the day is not annexed, but the whole of the central 

 figure is itself the sign Olin Tonatiah, and the hieroglyphic of the 

 day Olin, as delineated on the stone among the other emblems of 

 the days, is on a small scale and abbreviated form of that central 

 and principal figure of the stone. The day designated here, is 

 consequently, 10 Olin. Below this, and on each side respectively 

 of the great vertical ray of the sun, are found the hieroglyphics of 

 the days 1 Quiahuitl, and 2 Ozomatli. Of the last mentioned 

 days, — 10 Olin corresponds in the first year of the cycle, with the 

 22d day of September, new style ; — 1 Quiahuitl with the 28th of 

 March, and 2 Ozomatli with the 28th of June, as will be seen by 

 the table at the end of this description of the calendar. 



" We find, therefore, delineated on this stone all the dates of the 

 principal positions of the sun, and it thus appears that the Aztecs 

 had ascertained with considerable precision the respective days of 

 the two passages of the sun by the zenith of Mexico, of the two 

 equinoxes, and of the summer and winter solstices. They had 

 therefore six different means of ascertaining and verifying the 

 length of the solar year by counting the number of days elapsed 

 till the sun returned to each of these six points, — the two solstices, 

 the two equinoxes, and the two passages by the zenith." 1 



1 See Trans. Amer. Ethnol. Soc'y., vol. 1, p. 94. We should remark that the 

 letters Q. Q,., X. Z., P. P., S. Y., on the edge of the stone, denote holes out 

 into it, in which it is asserted that gnomons were placed whose shadows on the 

 calendar converted it into a dial. 



