Page:The Conquest of Mexico Volume 1.djvu/482



Page 69 (2).—See, among others, the Cod. Tel.-Rem., Part 4, PI. 22, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vol. i.

Page 69 (3).—"It can hardly be doubted," says Lord Kingsborough, "that the Mexicans were acquainted with many scientifical instruments of strange invention, as compared with our own; whether the telescope may not have been of the number is uncertain; but the thirteenth plate of M. Dupaix's Monuments, Part Second, which represents a man holding something of a similar nature to his eye, affords reason to suppose that they knew how to improve the powers of vision."—(Antiq. of Mexico, vol. vi. p. 15, note.) The instrument alluded to is rudely carved on a conical rock. It is raised no higher than the neck of the person who holds it, and looks, to my thinking, as much like a musket as a telescope; though I shall not infer the use of fire-arms among the Aztecs from this circumstance.—(See vol. iv. PI. 15.) Captain Dupaix, however, in his commentary on the drawing, sees quite as much in it as his lordship.—Ibid. vol. v., p. 241.

Page 69 (4).—Gama, Descripcion, Parte i, sec. 4 ; Parte 2, Apend. Besides this colossal fragment, Gama met with some others, designed, probably, for similar scientific uses, at Chaoltepec. Before he had leisure to examine them, however, they were broken up for materials to build a furnace! A fate not unlike that which has too often befallen the monuments of ancient art in the Old World.

Page 69 (5).—In his second treatise on the cylindrical stone, Gama dwells more at large on its scientific construction, as a vertical sun-dial, in order to dispel the doubts of some sturdy sceptics on this point.—(Descripcion, Parte 2, Apend. i.) The civil day was distributed by the Mexicans into sixteen parts; and began, like that of most of the Asiatic nations, with sunrise. M. de Humboldt, who probably never saw Gama's second treatise, allows only eight intervals.—Vues des Cordillères, p. 128.

Page 70 (1).—La Place, who suggests the analogy, frankly admits the difficulty.—Système du Monde, liv. 5. ch. 3.

Page 70 (2).—M. Jomard errs in placing the new fire, with which ceremony the old cycle properly concluded, at the winter solstice. It was not till the 26th of December, if Gama is right. The cause of M. Jomard's error is his fixing it before, instead of after, the complementary days—See his sensible letter on the Aztec calendar, in the Vue des Cordillères, p. 309.

Page 71 (1).—At the actual moment of their culmination, according to both Sahagun (Hist. de Nueva España, lib. 4, Apend.) and Torquemada (Monarch. Ind., lib. 10, cap. 33, 36). But this could not be, as that took place at midnight, in November; so late as the last secular festival, which was early in Montezuma's reign, in 1507.—(Gama, Descripcion, Parte i, p. 50, nota.—Humboldt, Vues des Cordillères, pp. 181, 182.) The longer we postpone the beginning of the new cycle, the greater still must be the discrepancy.

Page 71 (2).— On his bare breast the cedar boughs are laid; On his bare breast, dry sedge and odorous gums Laid ready to receive the sacred spark. And blaze to herald the ascending Sun, Upon his living altar." Madoc, part 2, can. 26.

Page 72 (1).—I borrow the words of the summons by which the people were called to the ludi seculares, the secular games of ancient Rome, "quos nec spectasset qusiquam, nec spectasset esset. "—(Suetonius, Vita Tib. Claudii, lib. 5.) The old Mexican chroniclers warm into something like eloquence in their descriptions of the Aztec festival.—(Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 10, cap. 33.—Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 1, cap. 5.—Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva España,