stral revolution described
by the circumpolar constellations around Polaris. The Septentriones served
as an indicator, composed of stars, the motive power of which emanated
from the central luminary. This marked not only the march of time each
night, but also the progress of the season by the four contrapositions
apparent in the course of a year, if observed at a fixed hour of the
night.

The twenty familiar day and year signs of the native calendar are carved
on a band which encircles the central figure on the stone. I am now in a
position to prove satisfactorily that these signs were not merely
calendaric and that they equally designated four principal and 4x4=16
minor groups of stars; four chiefs and 4x4=16 minor tribal groups or
divisions of men.

[Illustration.]

Figure 56.

Merely a few indications will suffice to prove how completely and
unmistakably the symmetrical design on the monolith (fig. 56) expounds the
great plan which had impressed itself so deeply and indelibly upon the
minds of the native philosophers and influenced all their thoughts and
speculations.

The head and face in the middle of the monument conveys the idea of
duality, being masked, _i. e._ doubled-faced and bearing the number 2
carved on its forehead. It conveyed the conception of a divine power who
ruled heaven and earth from a changeless and fixed centre in the heaven;
expressed the dual government of the earth by twin-rulers who dwelt in a
central capital. It typified light and the heaven itself with its two
eyes; the sun and moon and darkness and the earth by the mouth; whilst the
symbols for breath issuing from both nostrils and the tongue protruding
from the mouth denoted the power of speech, which was so indissolubly
connected with the idea of chieftainship by the Mexicans that a title for
the chief was "the Speaker." The central head likewise denoted a "complete
count"=one man, and was expressive of a great era of time, embodying
twenty epochs.

As a synopsis of the whole, the following titles recorded in the
chronicles would be applicable to the central ruler, celestial or
terrestrial: the two lord, the divine twin; the two-lord and two lady; the
quadruple lord, "He who looks in four directions;" the lord of the
thirteen powers; the one lord, _i. e._ embodying a complete count=20; the
lord of five (_i. e._ of the Middle and Four Quarters); of seven, _i. e._
of t