Page:Stone of the Sun.djvu/30

 the planet will find itself in the same position; and seeing it then so near the star of day, well might the aboriginal priests imagine that the deities confronting each other kissed, touching tongues, at beginning the new pilgrimage through the vault of space. (Here we will mention the following interesting fact: According to calculations of the Berlin astronomer, Berberich, undertaken at the suggestion of Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, the evening star and the new moon were visible on the horizon of the valley of Mexico, half an hour after sunset, on March 14, 1507, date of the new fire for the Indians.) Together with so poetical, exact, and admirable an allegory, they cherished the persistent tradition that one of these encounters was to bring about the destruction of the world.

Let us continue the analysis of the seventh zone. If the heads which face each other, joining tongues, give the huehuetiliztli, in the body of the serpents is directly indicated the number 416 which we have met in other parts of the relief. The reading is made from the groups of four rays, interpreted until now as symbols of fire and in various other fashions, all arbitrary or at least vaguely symbolical, as emblembs of the highest indefiniteness. Nevertheless, their meaning is most clear: each group says ácatl, técpatl, calli, tochtli, names of the four successive years in the ordinary chronology. Very well, the serpent symbolical of the sun presents 52 groups of four rays equivalent to 20 years; added to the 208 corresponding to the other serpent, we have the total of 416 solar years, expressed this time directly, a most interesting fact which we are the first to indicate. Here there is no necessity of recurring to allegorical conceptions. And so deliberate was the intention of inscribing in each one of the serpents precisely 52 groups of rays that the artist, not having sufficient space, was compelled to add those bands which issue from the points of the tails, the only element of the relief which might appear somewhat arbitrary or at least not rigorously aesthetic. They are indispensable for the placing of the four groups that were lacking, already three having been distributed at the border of the monument, above the tails, five in the triangular ends of these, three in each are of its twelve scales, and four in the throats and plumage. The total figure is classic in Indian chronology: there are 52 groups. This number appears in each serpent, a careful examination of the stone sufficing to demonstrate the fact: if up to the present none of the draughtsman and lithographers who have reproduced the stone—except the most skilful