402 
other^ the Moon^ Meztli, as emblems to show^ 
that the Moon is the real cause of the eclipse of 
the Sim. 
Beside the asterisms of the Mexican zodiac, 
and the figures of the sign nahul ollin, the stone 
gives also the dates of ten great festivals, which 
were celebrated from the spring to the autumnal 
equinox. As several of these festivals were 
correspondent with celestial phenomena, as the 
Mexican year is vague during the space of a 
cycle, and as the intercalation takes place only 
every fifty-two years, the same dates do not de- 
note four years successively the same days. The 
winter solstice, which, the first year of the cycle, 
took place on the day 10 tochtli, retrograded 
two signs eight years later, and fell on the day 
8 miquiztli. Hence it follows, that, in order 
to indicate the dates by the signs of the days, 
we must add the year of the cycle with which 
these dates correspond. In fact the sign 13 
canes, or matlactly omey acatl, placed above the 
figure of the Sun, toward the upper edge of the 
stone, shows, that this monument contains the 
fasti of the twenty-sixth year of the cycle, 
from the month of March to the month of Sep- 
tember. 
In order to give a clearer view of the signs, 
which indicate the festivals of the Mexican re- 
ligion, I must again observe, that the rounds 
