194 
tion of bass-reliefs thrown over the study of 
medals ! 
Zoega, Fabrega, and others, who have studied 
the Mexican manuscripts in Italy, consider the 
Codex Vaticanus, like that ofVeletri, as consist- 
ing of tonalamatls^ or ritual almanacks ; that is 
to say, as books which showed the people, for a 
space of several years, the divinities that presided 
over the small cycles of thirteen days, and who 
governed, during this space, the destinies of 
men ; the religious duties, which ought to be 
practised.; and especially the offerings, which 
were to be made to the idols. 
The thirteenth plate of my Atlas, which is a 
copy of the ninety-sixth page of the Codex 
Vaticanus, represents on the left an adoration : 
the deity has on a helmet, the ornaments of 
which are very remarkable : he is seated on a 
small bench, called icpalli, before a temple, of 
which only the top, or small chapel placed, on 
the upper part of the pyramid,' is represented. 
The adoration consisted at Mexico, as well as 
in the East, in the ceremony of touching the 
ground with the right hand, and carrying the 
left to the mouth. In the drawing, No. I, the 
homage is rendered by a genuflexion ; the atti- 
tude of the figure, which prostrates itself before 
the temple, is found in several paintings of the 
Hindoos. 
