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Show 86 B'O 0 K II. ·~ SF.cT. n. T he grc:lt ci' V ili zntiou of t he Tolle- H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. bw of that people, according to which, no king ~as fuffered to reign either longer or ihorter than a Toltecan ·age; whtch, as we {}~all mention in another place, confi!l:ed of fifty -two years. If a kwg completed the age, upon the throne, he immediatel~ refigne~ the government and another was put ir1 his place : and tf the ktng happened to' die before the age was expired, the noble.s aftumed the adminifiration, and, in the name of the deceafcd kmg, governed the kingdom for the t'emaining years of the age.' T his was the cafe with thc ·Qgeen Xiutzaltzin, after whofc death m the ~fth year of ~1er reign, the nobles held the government for the forty-e1ght years whtch fuccecded. The Toltecas were the moO: celebrated people of Anahuac, for their fuperior ivilization, and ik.ill in the arts; whence, in after ages, it h;:ts been common to difiinguifh the moil remarkable artifts, in an honourable manner, by the appellation of Toltecas. They always lived in fociety, collected into cities, under the government of kings, and regular laws. They were not very warlike, and lefs turned to the exercift: of arms than to the cultivation of the arts. The nations that have fuccccded them, have acknowledged themfclves indebted to the T oltccas for their knowledge of the culture of grain, cotton, pepper, and other mofl: ufeful fruits. Nor c\id they only p ractife ,thofe arts which arc diClated by ncceflity, but thofe alfo which minifier to luxury. They had the art of cafting gold and fil ver, and melting them in wln tevcr forms they 1Ieafed, and acquir d the ,greate!l: reputation from the cutting of all kinds of gems : but nothing, to us, raifcs their character fo high as their having been the inventors, or at leaf!: the reformers of that fyftem of the arr.tngement of time, whi h was adopted by all the civilized nations of Anahuac ; .!tnd whicl1, as we !hall fee afterwards, implies numerous obfc rvation s, ana a wonderfnlly correct afl:ronorny. c~w. Boturini (g), upon the faith of the an cient hifl:ories of the Toltecas, fays, that obferving in their own country of 1-luehud lapallan, how the fobr year exceeded the civil one by which they .('1') Tn :1 work of. hi ~ , printed at M ;~ d rid, in 1746, unde r the title of, S!:rtd.J ~( n gr11rrnl /Ii!ory ~f Nr·w Spnm, f q'":"d,lupo" n g1·rnt Numbc1· fl..f F~r:lfrc1, Symbols, CI.J.?rnc'7n·s, }/iuog6·· .fhu:s, .l.{y11111J, n11tl llfmwfcnpts of !lldiall AutiJOI·s, lt11~1y di.fl·ov c·1·4·tl. re ckoned ~ II I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. reckoned, about fix hours, they regulated it by interpofing the intercalary d.1y once in the fonr years ; which they did, more th a11 one hundred years before the Chriftian era. He fays beli des, th at in the year 66o, under the reign of Ixtlalcuecba!,uac, in T ula, a cekhrated aftronomer called Iiucmat zin, aifembled, by the ki ng's confcnt, all the wife men of the nation ; and with them pai·nted tl a.t famous book called 'l'eoamoxtli or Divine Book, in which were rcprcfcn.ted, in very plain figures, the origin of the Indians, their difperfion after th(; confufion of tongue at ll;:tbel, their journey in Afia, their firil: fcttlemcnts upon the ontinent of America, the found ing of the king dom of Tula, and their prog refs till that time. T here were dcfcribed the heavens, the planets, the conll:elhtions, the Toltecan calendar with its cycles, the mythological transformations, in which were included their moral philofophy, and the myfteries of their deities con• cealed by hieroglyphics from common underftandings, together with all that appertained to their religion and manners. The above mentioned author adds, that that eclipfe of the fun which. happened at the death of our Saviour, was marked in their paintings, in the year 7· 'I'ochtli (h),; and that fome learned Spaniards, well acquainted with the hi!l:ory and the paintings of the Toltecas, having. com,.. pared their chronology with ours, found that they reckoned from the creation of the world to the birth of Chrifl:, .five thoufand one hundred and ninety- nine years, which. is exactly the computation of the Roman calendar. Whatever may be in thefe things mentioned by Hoturini, upon' which I leave the pmdent reader to form his. own judgment, there cannot be a doubt, with tbofe who have ftudied· the hiil:ory of that. people, that the Toltecas had a clear and diil:intt knowledge of the . univerfal deluge, of the confufion· of tongues; and of the difperfion. of the people ; and even pretended to give the names of their .fir.l1:' anceftors who were divided from the re!l: of the families upon that (/..) All thofe who have fiu died c :~re full y the hi!lory of the nations of An ahur~c, kn ow '¥Cry well that thofc people were accu!l:omed to mark eclipfcs, comets, and other ph:enomena of the heavens, in their paintings. Upon reading Boturini I fet about comparing the Toltecan years with 0\11'81 and l found the 34th year of Chrifl, or 30th of our era, w be the 7· :Tocbtli: bUt I did this mere ly to fatisfy my own curiofiry, and I do not mean either to confirm or give credit to the things told Uli by th at author, univerfal! B'OOK j.I. ~. |