574 
noxial signs presiding over every period of thir- 
teen years. 
Though the same signs were used and ar- 
ranged in the same order^ in every part of the 
Mexican empire^ some difference was neverthe- 
less observed in the choice of the solstitial and 
equinoxial sign placed at the head of the xiuh- 
molpllli, or ligature of the years. The inhabit- 
ants of Tezcuco began the great year by acatl ; 
those of Teotihuacan, by calli ; the Toltecks by 
tecpatl. It has been doubted^ whether, among 
the same nations, notwithstanding the difference 
we have just indicated, the first day of the year 
was constantly the, sign cipactli ; but the frag- 
ments of their historic annals, preserved in the 
Boturini Museum, and in the collection of P. 
Pichardo, at Mexico, seem to indicate, that the 
variety of dates proceeds from the time at which 
the intercalation of the thirteen days was made, 
and not from the different manner of marking 
the beginning of the cycle. 
We are ignorant whether the twenty signs of 
the Mexican days are the remains of an ancient 
, division of the zodiac into twenty-eight lunar 
mansions ; or whether with the four signs of the 
night, the names of which are not found among 
those of the days, they anciently formed twenty- 
four asterisms, like the tsieki of the Chinese 
zodiac. An equal number of signs had perhaps 
