near the correct; he gives the total number precisely and only exceeds by a single bundle (52 years) in the two first partial figures, indicating 1,716 instead of 1,664.

And indeed, here again a hypothesis which seems probable to us; the Toltecs persuaded that the fourth age was to be the last and that it would have to endure another 4X416 years, judged in accordance with the tetranary philosophy, did not hesitate to carve its symbol on the monolith, assigning to it the duration which they believed foreordained by the lords of the firmament.

In this mode the figures of the relief are reconciled with the supposition that the Toltecs were its constructors.

Nevertheless, there are those who, in the numerals of the rectangles read the names of the days in which the catastrophes occurred. That the ages had their end in those days (4-océlotl, 4-ehécatl, 4-quiáhuitl, and 4-atl) in fact is stated in the Leyenda de los soles, which is added to the manuscript of the museum, which contains the Anales de Cuauhtitlan, and in this codex itself, both declaring that the fifth sun would have to end in the day 4-ollin. Chavero, and, following his example, many competent contemporary authors (Seler, Joyce, Spinden, etc.) have adopted an analogous point of view.

Were not the said reading supported in so important documents, we should not take the supposition, really almost puerile, into serious consideration. Further, it contradicts the Codex Vaticanus, pictograph which assigns to the catastrophes and be it noted to three only, which is also done by the Tellerian Codex-very different dates, 10-atl, for atemoztli, 1-océlotl for pachtli, and 9-ollin for xilomaniztli. But the assertion fits so well with the data of the relief, that the hypothesis that this was the work of the Toltecs. receives a rude blow. The reading of the four rectangles appears simple: they are the dates when the four first ages ended: as to the naolin at the center, with its great numerals, it may be interpreted as the fifth, or Mexican age, which has to end with the day 4-ollin. In such event, it was inscribed by that people, who then appear the constructors of the monoliths.

The argument is strong, although, as has been seen, Ríos, Boturini, Veytia, and Ixtlilxóchitl do not agree with the Anales in the matter. Nevertheless, our museum possesses a most important specimen, which supports our first and logical reading, reinforcing the narrations of the Texcocan writer. It is a stone of cubical form, approximately 0.50 m. on a side, with a border of solar and Venus gylphs

identical with those of the relief. Upon the lateral faces of the cube, the four ages are represented with their respective dots, being identical with the symbols of the chronographic stone or relief of the museum.

The fifth age is met nowhere. We must believe that if the aborigines had conceived a fifth sun, the Ollintonatiuh, they would have engraved its figure upon the upper face of the cube: there is no ́such thing on it. The reality is expressed in the monolith which is called the monolith of Tenanco: four are the ages figured, and the last (here, as in the Codex Fuenleal, is that of water) is not inclosed, as are the others, by means of a band, which demonstrates that they did not consider it as concluded. Also there are seen, joined to each epoch, three great dots and other two smaller that is to say, four larger numerals together: they represent the duration of the four epochs equal in all.

In her most important work (The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations), Mrs. Nuttall, showing in this an analogous mode of thought, maintains that the Mexicans (not the Toltecs) believed that they lived in the fourth age of the world; Dr. Henning, author of profound studies in these particulars, supposing the beginning to be the sun of air, the Ehecatonatiuh, says that at the time of the discovery of America the natives were living precisely in the fourth era-this in his Study of the Date 4-Ahau; Charencey suggests a similar idea in the study Des âges ou soleils aprés la mythologie; the same savant has told us that this belief prevailed among the Cakchiquels, and Dr. Brinton makes us know a similar thing with respect to the chronicles of Chilam Balam, that is to say, with respect to the Mayas.

It is possible, therefore, to read in the relief the expression of the cosmogonic ages, admitting that its constructors believed themselves. to belong to the fourth. The great ollin, with the head of Tonatiuh in the middle, alludes not to a fifth era but only to the movement of the orb between the solstices and the equinoxes, as Gama supposed; and the numerals signify the four huehuetiliztli which we have read in them.

MARKS OF THE AZTEC CIVILIZATION

The presence of the four ages represented in the asps of the naolin having been explained in a manner sufficiently rational and supported upon respectable historians, the hypothesis that the Toltecs were the authors of the relief remains in the field. And in truth, whoever they may have been, the monument expresses nothing but the history, the

Cycle of 65 Venus or 104 solar years. The double volute (new fire) bears the symbol of the tying of the (52) years, with four numeral marks. The other plumed serpent has the same glyph, harmonizing between both the cycle of 416 years.

traditions, and the chronology of that so long mysterious race. The so-called Aztec Calendar, which would better be called the Toltec Calendar, is the expression par excellence of the culture of the subjects of Huemántzin, worthy hieroglyph of the people who left to posterity renown of artistic and wise. Here could not be met a higher condensation of beauty and of genius! There is no necessity of a better argument to prove that that race, inventor of the astronomical religion and of the worship of the beautiful twin (Quetzalcoatl), who was in reality but the morning and the evening star, had a real existence and was not a myth as has been suggested. Here is, at last, basis for the first chapter of the uncertain and so many times discussed history of the aboriginal civilizations.

But we have to subject to a rigorous study the possibility certainly not weak, that the Aztecs have been the constructors. Before all, we ought to ask ourselves: Would it be possible that the subjects of Ilhuicamina or of Axayácatl would have worked with exquisite elegance and art a stone which contains the expression of the science and traditions of another people? Although remarkable, the case is not absurd, considering that it treated of the science, traditions, and calendar, fully admitted by the nation, which they considered as the fountain of all their culture. We yet preserve the Greek Zodiac in such wise that an Athenian of the time of Hipparchus, if he were to live again, would be astonished to see in plates and maps the conception of the heavens which his contemporaries had.

But it cannot be believed that the Aztecs would fail to leave some trace, some mark, some date peculiar to themselves in a work of such an extraordinary kind. If investigators do not succeed in discovering something characteristic, some datum definitely Aztec, it will have to be decidedly admitted that, encountered where the monolith was, the Mexi limited themselves to transporting it to Tenochtitlan, erecting it in a site adequate to its merit (and the Aubin Codex, in its first pages, narrates something which might lend support to the conjecture).

We have minutely examined the monument, and we shall honestly say what appears, without claiming certainty, in so difficult a point. That it expresses Toltec ideas and dates is for us indisputable; but it is possible to admit that the Tenochca should have engraved the same fundamental ideas upon a relief, adding some date of their own, and this is what we desire that the reader shall infer from our study, limiting ourselves to presenting the elements of the analysis. The