OCR Text |
Show 294 BOOK VI. '--v----.1 H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. in that which was juft commencing, nor did they continue in them their peri~ds of days which they always reckoned from the firft day to the laft day of the century. When the intercalary days were elapfed, they bega11 the new century with the year I. Tochtli, and the day I. CipaCl:li, upon the 26th day of our February, as they did at the beginning of the preceding century. We would not venture to relate thefe particulars, if we were not fupported by the teftimony of Dr. Siguen~a , who, in addition to his great learning. hi critical ikill and fincerity, was the perfon who mofl: diligently exerted himfelf to illufl:rate thefe points. and confulted both the befi: inftruCl:ed Mexicans and Tezcucans, and ftudied their hiftorics and paintings. Boturini affirms, that a hundred and more years before th Chriftian era, the Toltecas adjufted their calendar, by adding one day every four years, and that they continued to do fo for feveral centuries, until the Mexicans eftablifhed the method we have mentioned : that the caufe of the new metbod was, that two feftivals concurred upon the fum: day; the one the moveable feftival of Tezcatlipoca, the other that of Huitzilopochtli, which w:1s fixed; and that the Colhuan nation had celebrated the latter, and pa!Ted over the former; upon which Tezcatlipoca in anger prediCted, that the monarchy of Colhuacan would foon be di!Tolved; that the worihip of the ancient gods of the nation would ceafe, and that it would remain confined to the worihip of one fole divinity, which was never fc:en nor underftood, and fubje&d to the power of certain ftrangers who would arrive from diftant countries; that the kings of Mexico being made acquainted with this predicHon, ordered, that whenever two feftivals concmrcd upon the fame Jay, the principal feftival was to be cekbrJtcd on fuch day, and the other on the day after; and that the day which was ufu ally added every four years, fhould be omitted; and that at the end of the century, the thirteen days 010uld be added inftead of them. But we are not willing to give credit to this account. T_wo things mn~t appear truly ftrange in the Mexican fyftem, the one t~, that they dtd not regulate their months by the c~anges of the moon; the other that they ufed no pa~·ticul ar cho.racrer to di fting\ tilh ope century from another. But with refpeCl: to the firft, we do not mean that their aftronomical months did apt accord with the huaar periods; •' • .. |