[11] The use of the rising of the morning star to commence a solar time-count would explain the peculiar fact that the commencement of the year never coincided with that of the tonalamatl. It has been stated (p. 77) that the initial days of the Venus-periods were cipactli, coatl, atl, acatl, and olin; cipactli being the initial day also of the tonalamatl. But the day acatl was not only one of the initial days of the 365-day year, but was the initial day also of the Mexican double cycle of 104 years, which was in addition the initial day of a complete cycle of Venus-periods. The conclusion is tempting, that after the invention of the tonalamatl, correlated with the observation of the planet Venus, a change was made to solar time as near as it could be observed. As a starting-point for the new system, the next heliacal rising of the planet was awaited, and this occurring on an acatl day fixed the “year-bearers” as acatl, tecpatl, calli, and tochtli. It will be remembered that the Mexicans believed that the historical sun rose on the day 13. acatl (p. 73). At any rate, the Venus-period seems to form a link between the tonalamatl and the year of 365 days. The fact that none of the gods of the hunting-tribes find a place among the deities presiding over the tonalamatl would seem sufficient proof that the Chichimec, Aztec, and Otomi had no hand in its invention. Transcriber’s Notes: 1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected silently. 2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the original. 3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have been retained as in the original. 4. Italics are shown as _xxx_.