Page:Stone of the Sun.djvu/26

 With the beginning of the 66th year of the series, Cipactli, with the numeral 1, returns to begin the count like that of the 37,960 days passed, and on this same day the sign with the same number gives beginning to the 105th year of the solar calendar; one and the other count are thus adjusted to each other. Serving as a base to both the tonalámatl finds itself exactly at its first day:

584×65=365×104=260×146

Now we may understand the thirteen pentagons inscribed in each one of the four parts of the circle of the monument. They denote the number of times that the five characters enter as initials of the Venus year in one huehuetiliztli. They figure in this fashion thirteen times, and just so many times was celebrated in said cycle the festival of the planet, atamalqualiztli, always coinciding with Cipactli. And that the intention of the astronomer-director of the engraving of the relief was to inscribe this number of glyphs, is plainly seen in the upper groups of the sixth circle; without aesthetic prejudice and almost compelled by the demand of symmetry, other pentagons might very well have been located in the space covered by the bands which issue from the serpents' tails. The artist might, with the greatest good taste, have placed six glyphs in this double empty space, but he deliberately prolonged the bands instead. His proposition could not be made more manifest The purpose was the engraving of a number, not of an ornament. This suffices to show us that there are no simply decorative signs in the relief, incomparable synthesis of art and science.

But there are four groups of Venus cycles, four zones of thirteen pentagons. To what necessity of the system can this repetition correspond? The synodical movement of Venus being taken as 584 days, there result 37,960 for each group, or 151,840 for the total of 52 pentagons of the circle. This period represents exactly 416 solar years. In other terms, if each group signifies 65 Venus years, equivalent, as we know, to a huehuetiliztli, the four correspond to as many sacred cycles, winch [sic] is what is indicated by the great numerals that surround the head of Tonatiuh, comfortably to the interpretation which we have already given. One and another circle, the second and the sixth, say exactly the same thing: 416 solar years. The fourth zone expresses an equal thing: 260 Venus years, number which is considered sacred. Everything in the monolith concurs in declaring one single and well-considered thought; we shall speak of its origin and admire its profundity and transcendence. Meantime we