312 
month tititl has the sign calU, the sixth of alf 
the following months will be tochtli^ the eleventh 
acatly and the sixteenth tecj)atl : each month will 
begin as it were by a Sunday, and these Sundays 
will fall during the whole year on the same days 
of the months. The Mexicans paid particular 
regard to the events, that happened on one of 
the four days which had the hieroglyphics of the 
cycle of the years. We find traces of this su- 
perstition among the Persians ; who, in order to 
give a sign (harlmnan ) to each day of the month, 
added to the twelve celestial spirits, who pre- 
sided over the months, eighteen ministers of an 
inferior order. The Mexicans considered those 
days as lucky, which bore the sign of the. year. 
The Persians * distinguished the days ’governed 
by the same angel, that presided over the whole 
month. 
As most of the hieroglyphic paintings re- 
presented in the plates accompanying this 
work relate to the sacrifices, which were to be 
made in each period of thirteen days, we find 
the figures of the twenty signs of the days 
several times repeated. I shall here mention 
only the plates 13, 23, and 27. The following 
are the names of these signs : 
^ Langles, sur Ic Caieiidrier Fe 'i a.), dans Chardin, Voy- 
age a Ispahan, vol. 2, p. 265. 
