Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 1 of 2: A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of That Country From the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time.Mayer, Brantz
History
Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 1 of 2: A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of That Country From the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time.
||20| Flower |Xochitl | 1 c| 8 e| 2 g| 9 i| ||
||-------------------------------+----+----+----+----+----||
||Day of the year corresponding }|300 |320 |340 |360 |365 ||
|| with last day of each month. }| | | | | ||
||Day of the Julian year, N. S.,}|Nov.|Nov.|Dec.|Jan.|Jan.||
|| on which each month ends. }| 4 | 24 | 14 | 3 | 8 ||
============================================================
In this perpetual almanac, each day in the year is designated by
three characteristics derived from the combination of three
series, viz.: That of the 20 days of the month, each of which has
a distinct name and hieroglyphic, from Cipactli to Xochitl; and as
these names are the same and in the same order in every month, the
column in which they are set down answers for every month. The
series of 13 days, designed by its proper numeral from 1 to 13.
And the series of the 9 night companions, designated in this Table
by the letters a, b, ... h, i, viz.:
a. {Xiuhteuctli.
{Tletl.
b. Tecpatl.
c. Xochitl.
d. Cinteotl.
e. Miquiztli.
f. Atl.
g. Tlazolteotl.
h. Tepeyolotli.
i. Quiahuitl.
Thus every day in the year is so distinguished that it can never
be confounded with any other. The day 4 Ollin is the 17th day of
both the first and the fourteenth month; but in the first instance
it is distinguished by the letter _h_, and in the second by the
letter _g_. If the characteristics of the 9th day of the 10th
month be required, the Table shows that it is 7 _Atl i_; and thus
also the 13th day of the 16th month (Quecholli) is shown to be 1
_Acatl g_, and the 313th of the year.
But it is only for the first year of the cycle (1 Tochtli) that the
Mexican year corresponds with ours in the manner stated in the
Table. For, on account of our intercalation of one day every
bissextile year, the Mexican year receded, as compared with ours,
one day every four years. This correction must therefore be made,
whenever a comparison of the dates is wanted for any other than the
first year of the cycle. The Mexican intercalation of 13 days at the
end of the cycle of 52 years made again the first year of every
cycle correspond with our year, in the manner stated in the Table.
Another correction is again necessary, when we have a Tescocan
instead of a Mexican date. For the first year of the Mexican cycle
was 1 Tochtli, and that of Tescoco was 1 Acatl; which caused a
difference now of three, now of ten days in their calendars, which
in every other respect were the same. Both corrections appear in
the second Table.--Trans. Amer. Ethnol. Soc., vol. i, p. 114.
Tables C^1, and C^2.
Column Headings:
A: Mexico.
B: Tescoco.
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