Page:The Conquest of Mexico Volume 1.djvu/34

 souls of the buried entered the paradise of Tlaloc, which was regarded as hardly less desirable. The modern anthropologist sees in this dual practice a clear indication that the immigrant worshippers of Huitzilopochtli habitually practised cremation, while the early dwellers in the Valley, who acknowledged the supremacy of Tlaloc, buried their dead unburned. And the evidence of archeology supports this conclusion. Prescott saw clearly the composite nature of Mexican beliefs and ritual, and calls attention to it in more than one passage; but he had not the material which could lead him to an analysis of the complex.

A good illustration of this fact is afforded by his treatment of the Mexican calendar. He hardly seems to realise that the Mexican method of dating the solar year was based upon the ritual calendar of 260 days, which bears every sign of being much older than the solar reckoning. To this ritual calendar he refers as a "lunar reckoning," adding "though nowise accommodated to the revolutions of the moon." And indeed the first phrase is an absolute misnomer, since the system which he describes bears no relation whatever to lunar reckoning of time. The ritual calendar, or Tonalmatl, of the greatest importance in the art of divination, was based upon the combination of twenty signs with the numerals one to thirteen. Since 20 and 13 have no common factor, it is evident that 20 x 13=260 days must pass until the combination of a given numeral and sign repeats itself. Now the Tonalmatl reckoning ran continuously and concurrently with the 365-day period of the solar year. The year was distinguished by the sign and numeral of the days on which it began, and, since 20 (the number of the signs) when divided into 365 leaves 5, it follows that each year bore a sign fifth in order from the previous year. And since 5 occurs four times in a series of 20 without remainder, it follows that there were only four signs which could give their name to a year. With regard to the numerals, 365 is divisible by 13 with 1 as remainder. Hence each year bore a numeral one in advance of the preceding year, and all the numerals appeared in the year-names. The same numeral would not appear in combination with the same sign until after the lapse of 4x13=52 years, and this was the lesser cycle of the Mexicans. But, as Prescott records, a greater cycle of 104 years was recognised, though he did not know the reason. Concurrently with the solar year, the Mexicans observed the synodical revolution of the planet Venus, the heliacal rising of which, occurring on five of the day-signs