Page:Stone of the Sun.djvu/23

 considering solar. Six of these zones contain ten glyphs, and each of the other two contain five: in all there are seventy glyphs of the same kind, to which are added the three which border each of the eight asps before mentioned, and the ten, a little smaller but of identical form, placed between the face and the talons of Tonatiuh. In total, they sum 104 solar glyphs, indicative of so many other years. Here as little is it a question of days, as the archaeologists have claimed, identifying dissimilar glyphs of the relief in order to compute the 365 days of the year: a procedure arbitrary and of course illogical in a work of the magnitude of the one we consider here. In reality the circle expresses the Indian century, or huehuetiliztli, period already read in the face of the center. Later we shall see the motive for the repetition of the cipher.

Nothing concrete has been said until now about the following circle. Some call the figures that compose it temples; others have seen them to resemble leaves or mountains; some simply call them little arches; but no one has penetrated their exact significance. In the most authorized descriptions they have generally been designated with the descriptive term “pentagons” (Chavero) or “trapeziodal figures,” symbolism of the most general kind having been attributed to them. If in passing beyond the third zone Peñafiel has said that the archaeologist entered upon the field of conjecture, with respect to this zone, the sixth in the relief, it may be affirmed that up to the present it has been enveloped in impenetrable mystery.

The monolith has no more interesting glyphs. Their number, their distribution, the form of the figure say sufficiently what they represent. They appear in four groups, separated by the great solar rays. The two upper groups present thirteen signs; and each one of the lower, twelve, it being necessary to presume the missing one, hidden by the plumes of the serpents which adorn this part of the stone. In total they sum up four groups of thirteen glyphs of the same form, the significance of which is somewhat of the most important which the relief contains; there is concentrated not only its own significance, but that of many of the other aboriginal monuments. It explains the tenacity with which the glyphs guard their secret.

The archaeologists have said that the characters of which we treat are a kind of pentagons. Without being such, speaking precisely, they may be considered as made up of five somewhat irregular sides; there is noticed, at the same time, the concavity of the inferior side.