70 
its migrations. I think the ligature (No. 2) 
indicates the cycle that terminated at Tlalixco ; 
for^ according to Chimalpain, the festival of the 
second cycle was celebrated at Cohuatepetl ; and 
that of the third cycle, at Apuzco ; while the 
festivals of the fourth and fifth cycles took place 
at Colhuacan, and at Tenochtitlan. 
The singular idea of recording on a single 
sheet of small size what in other Mexican paint- 
ings often fills pieces of cloth, or skins, ten or 
twelve metres in length, has rendered this histo- 
rical abridgment extremely incomplete. It treats 
of the migration of the Aztecks only, and not 
of that of the Toltecks, who preceded the Az- 
tecks more than five centuries in the country of 
Anahuac ; and who differed from them by that 
love of the arts, and that religious and pacific 
character, which distinguished the Etruscans from 
the first inhabitants of Rome. The heroic times 
of the Azteck history extend to the eleventh cen- 
tury of the Christian era. Till then, the divini- 
ties mingled in the action pf men ; and it was at 
this epocha that Quetzalcohuatl, the Bouddha of 
the Mexicans, a white and bearded man, priest 
and legislatdr, devoted to the most rigorous pe- 
nances, founder of monasteries and congregations 
dike those of Thibet and western Asia, appeared 
on tlie coasts of Panuco. Every thing anterior 
to the emigration from Aztlan is mixed with 
childish fables. Among barbarous nations, with- 
