193 
thirteen days each, it follows, that the series of 
the hieroglyphics passes from one cycle to an- 
other. The whole of the Codex Vaticaniis con- 
tains a hundred and seventy-six of these small 
cycles, or two thousand two hundred and ninety 
days. We shall not enter here into any detail 
on these subdivisions of time, proposing to give 
an explanation of the Mexican calendar, one of 
the most complicated, but also one of the most 
ingenious to be fonnd in the history of astrono- 
my. Every page exhibits, in the two subdivisions 
of which we have already spoken, two groups of 
mythological figures. We should lose ourselves 
in vain conjectures, were we to attempt inter- 
preting these allegories ; the manuscripts of 
Rome, Veletri, Bologna, and Vienna having 
none of those explanatory notes, which the vice- 
roy Mendoza added to the manuscript published 
by Purchas. It were to be wished, that some 
government would publish at its own expense 
these remains of the ancient American civiliza- 
tion ; for it is only by the comparison of several 
monuments, that we can succeed in discovering 
the meaning of these allegories, which are partly 
astronomical, and partly mystic. If of all the 
Greek and Roman antiquities there only re- 
mained a few cameos, or solitary coins, the most 
simple allusions would have escaped the sagacity 
of antiquaries. How much light has the inspec- 
YOL. XIIJ, 
o 
