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Show I'I .X. ')I /,· .. Nt'l/11 • lh•ttl', HISTORY OF MEXICO,. ' periods; becaufe we know that their year was jufily regulated by the fun, and becaufe they ufed the fame name, which was Metztli, indifferently for month .or moon. The month now mentioned by us is their religious 'month, according to which they obfcrved the celebration of feHivals, and praCt:if~d divination ; not · their a!l:ronomical month, of which we know nothing unlcfs that it was divided into two . periods, that is, into the period of the watchz'ng, and into that of the jleep of the moon. W c arc however porfuadcd, that they mufl: have made ufe of fome charatl:ers to di!l:inguiih one century from another, as this di!l:inCl:ion was fo very eafy and neceffary; but we have not been able to afcertain this upon the authority of any hi!l:orian. The di!l:ribution of the figns or charaCters, poth of days and years, ferved the Mexicans as fupcdl:itious progno!l:ics, according to whic;h they prediCted the good or bad fortune of infants from the fign under which they were born; and the happinefs or misfortune of marriages, the fnccefs of wars, and of every other thing from the day on which they were t~ndertakcn or put in execution; and on this account alfo they confidcrcd not only the peculiar charaCter of every day and year, but likewife the ruling charaCter of every period of days or years ; for the fir!l: fign or <..:h.1raCt:er of every period, was the ruling fign through the whole of it. Of merchan'ts we find, that whenever they wia1ed t~ undertake any journey, they endeavoured to begin it on f011,1e day of that pwriod, during which the fign Coatl (ferpcnt) ruled, and then they promifed themfclves muc:1 il.1ccefs in their commerce. Thofe perfons who were born under the fign f<.!:_wubtlt' (eagle), were fufpecred to prove mockers and f1anderers. if they were maics; if females, loquacious and impudent. Th<.: concurreuce of the year with the day of the Rabbet was e!l:ecmcd the mofl: fo rtunate fc<tfon. To reprt:Cent a month they painted a cin. .' lc or wheel, divided into twenty figures fignifying twenty cbys, as app'ears in th<.: pbte we have given, which is a copy from one publifhcd by Valad .... s, in his Rettof'ica Cri.fliamr, and th~ only one hitherto publi!hed. To reprcfcnt the year they painted another, which they divideq into eighteen figures of the eighteen months, and frequently painted within the wheel the image uf the moon. The rcprcfentation which we have given of this image, was taken from that publifhed by Gemelli, which was a copy from an ancient 295 BOOK VI • ~ S II C T, XXVII. Divination. S 1! CT. XXV liT. Figures of the century, the year, aud month. . . . ·, • ' •• • |