276 
RELIEF IN 'BASALT^ 
REPRESENTING THE 
MEXICAN CALENDAR. 
PLATE XXIII. 
Among the humber of monuments which seem 
•to prove, that the people of Mexico, at the time 
of their conquest by the Spaniards, had attained 
a certain degree of civilization, we may assign 
the first rank to the calendars, or dilferent divi- 
sions of time, adopted by the Toltecks and the 
Aztecks ; either for the use of society in general, 
or to regulate the order of sacrifices, or to facili- 
tate the calculations of astrology. This kind of 
monument is so much the more worthy of fixing 
our attention, as it is a proof of knowledge, 
which we have some difficulty in considering as 
the result of observations made, by a nation of 
mountaineers, in the uncultivated regions of the 
New Continent, We might be tempted to com- 
pare the circumstance of the Azteck calendar, 
