Page:Stone of the Sun.djvu/90

 in which the Indians could contemplate the face of their deity and read the Teoamoxtli, the marvelous page written on the surface of the relief; the history of the world divided into periods of 416 years, formed by the continuous gyration of the 20 days of the month, of the 260 days of the tonalámatl, of the 365 days of the civil year, of the 2,920 of the Venus period, of the 18,980 of the sacred cycle in which they adjusted the tying, of the 37,960 of the greater cycle in which the movements of the sun and star combine, and of the 151,840 of the great era in which all teh elements of the chronology harmoniously adjust their admirable mechanism. And as religion and time measurement formed with the observation of the heavens one single body of ideas, the stone came to be actually the sum total of the mythologico-astronomical conceptions of the natives.

In the cycle of 52 years the elements of the solar calendar closed their round, in order to repeat themselves in the following period: this was the famous festival of the making of the new fire, of which all the histories speak. The cycle of 104 years, adjustment of the calendars of the sun and Venus, was much less celebrated, because of its long duration; the citation from Sahagún and the hieroglyphs of codices and monuments demonstrate, nevertheless, that the Indians considered it also, certainly with extraordinary solemnity. Lastly, the great period of 416 years, of extreme amplitude, was rather a calculation of mathematicians, a theoretical rather than practical arrangement; nevertheless, the occasion for its celebration presented itself once during the history of the Aztecs: when the people of Tenoch counted 416 years from the time of their exodus from Aztlan. It occurred in 1479. The unusual importance of the anniversary explains the construction of so grandiose a monument: they desired to stamp thereon, succeeding admirably, the fundamental ideas of their culture and the supreme dates in their past. The great stone of the museum, Cyclographic Stone of the pre-Columbian civilizations of America, is certainly the stone of the history of the world, according to the cosmogony and beliefs of the Indians, and in particular of the history of the constructing race up to the moment when the monolith was erected. We know of no people which has raised another more admirable and marvelous.