hey arrive at midday, and that the defunct
women, whom they regard as goddesses, and call Cioapipiltin, come out
from the west to receive him at midday and carry him with rejoicing to
the west."[26]

Veytia's statement in regard to the same subject is as follows:

"The symbols, then, which were used in the aforesaid monarchies for the
numeration of their years were these four: Tecpatl, that signifies
flint; Calli, the house; Tochtli, the rabbit; and Acatl, the reed. * * *
The material signification of the names are those just given, but the
allegories that they wished to set forth by them are the four elements,
which they understood to be the origin of all composite matter, and into
which all things could be resolved.

"They gave to fire the first place, as the most noble of all, and
symbolized it by the flint. * * * By the hieroglyphic of 'the house'
they represent the element earth, and gave it the second place in their
initial characters.

"By the rabbit they symbolized the air, * * * and represented it in
various ways, among which was the sign of the holy cross. * * *

"Finally the fourth initial character, which is the reed, which is the
proper meaning of the word Acatl, is the hieroglyphic of the element
water."[27]

At page 48: "It is to be noted that most of the old calendars--those of
the cycles as well as those of years and months, which they used to form
in circles and squares, ran from the right to the left, in the way the
orientals write and not as we are accustomed to form such figures.

* * * But they did not maintain this order in the figures that they
painted and used as hieroglyphics in them, but placed them some looking
to one side and some to the other."

Gemelli Carreri[28] writes as follows in regard to the Mexican calendar
system:

"A snake turned itself round into a circle and in the body of the
serpent there were four divisions. The first denoted the south, in that
language call'd _Uutzlampa_, whose hieroglyphick was a rabbit in a blew
field, which they called _Tochtli_. Lower was the part that signify'd
the east, called _Tlacopa_ or _Tlahuilcopa_, denoted by a cane in a red
field, call'd _Acatl_. The hieroglyphick of the north, or Micolampa,
was a sword pointed with flint, call'd _Tecpatl_, in a yellow field.
That of the west or _Sihuatlampa_, was a house in a green field, and
called _Cagli_. * * *

"These four divisions were the beginning of the four terms that made up
the age. Be