Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 2 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. 2 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.
"The Yucatecs differed materially from the Mexicans with regard to the
time of the solar year, when their year began. Don J. P. Perez informs
us, that the first day of the Yucatan year corresponded with the
sixteenth day of July; and that this was the day of the transit of the
sun by the zenith of a place which he does not mention. But he adds
that, for want of proper instruments, the Indians had made a mistake of
forty-eight hours. In point of fact, it is in the latitude of about
twenty-one degrees and a half that the transit of the sun by the zenith
occurs on the 16th of July; and Yucatan lies between the latitudes of
about eighteen degrees and a half and twenty-one degrees and a half. To
commence the year on the day of the transit of the sun by the zenith, is
attended with the great inconvenience, that this commencement must vary
from place to place, according to their respective latitudes. As Don J.
Pio Perez counts every year as having 365 days, and without regard to
the omitted bissextile days, it is clear that the day in the Yucatan
calendar, on which the transit of the sun by the zenith of any one place
occurs, would vary twenty days, or a whole Indian month, in the course
of eighty years. This would create such confusion that, if it be a well
ascertained fact, that the Yucatan year began on the zenith day, this
renders it highly probable that the calendar was, like that of the
Mexicans, corrected by an intercalation of thirteen days at the end of
the cycle.
* * * * *
"The names of the eighteen months of the Yucatecos, together with such
interpretations as Don Pio Perez has given us, their order and their
correspondence with our year, new style, appear in the following table:
TABLE OF YUCATESE MONTHS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account