385 
> 
P. Torquemada, speaking of the secular festi-^ 
val, marks the moment of the sacrifice apparent»> 
iy in a very exact manner^ but which contains a 
real contradiction. When the procession 
says he, reached the foot of the mountain of 
Huixachtecatl, the priests waited till mid-- 
night, which they knew by the position of the 
Pleiades, which at this hour had attained the 
mid-sky, (estavan encumhradas en medio del 
cielo) : for the time of the jubilee or secular 
festival was arrived, when these stars rose at 
the beginning of the night ; which for the 
horizon oj Mexico is generally in the month 
of December.” The expression, when the . 
Pleiades had attained the mid-sky,” means, 
without doubt the passage of the stars across the 
meridian, or what is nearly the same thing for 
the calendar of Mexico, their passage through 
the zenith. Now the last secular festival wa^ 
celebrated in the sixth year of the reign of 
Montezuma ; and at that epoch, the culmination 
of the Pleiades took place at midnight, if we 
take into account the procession of the equinoxes, 
not in the month of December, but on the 8th of 
November. On the 26th of December^ this con- 
stellation rose 3^ 23^ before sunset, and its pas- 
sage across the meridian was at 8^ 33" in the 
^ Torqeuraada, Tom. S, p. 313; b. ct 321 k 
VOL. XIII. € € 
