ares, with one exception, where one numeral was obviously
dislodged from its proper position by an encroaching emblematic ornament.
The positions of these numerals and of their square enclosures are what
recalled to my mind the opposite positions assumed by Ursa Major in its
annual rotation around the axis of the heaven. Just as the central face
primarily represented Polaris, so these squares figured the four
contrapositions of the great constellation. The peculiar, almost
cross-shaped figure resulting from the union and association of the
symbols of the Centre, and of the Above, Below, Right, Left=Four Quarters,
is a well-known conventional sign, generally known as a "nahui-ollin." The
accepted translation of this name is "four movements," from olinia,
verb=to move, and no name could be more appropriate for a symbol which, to
my idea, like the swastika, actually represents the movement of the most
conspicuous of septentrional constellations to four opposite places.

At the same time, as the nahui-ollin on the stone encloses symbols of the
four elements, the union of which was believed by the native philosophers
to be essential for the production and maintenance of life, I was led to
observe also the fact that the words for life and heart, and the verbs to
be alive, to live, to resuscitate, etc., are all derivatives from the root
yuli, or yoli, which undoubtedly has a common origin with the verb
olinia=to move. It therefore not only appears that, to the native mind,
motion and life were indissolubly linked together, but that the name
nahui-ollin must have signified four-fold life as well as movement. It
likewise typified the four sides of the great pyramid which formed the
nucleus of the capital and was crowned by two temples, respectively
occupied by symbolical images of the "Divine Twins." It is impossible not
to realize that, in ancient Mexico, the pyramid constituted an image of
the entire system.

Each of its sides obviously pertained to one of the four regions and was
probably painted with its symbolical color.(71) It seems safe to assume
that the pyramid was originally erected by the cooeperation of people from
the four quarters of the capital and state and was possibly added to at
fixed intervals so that it represented not only the constitution of the
commonwealth, but testified to its age and growth. The widely-prevalent
primitive custom that each individual should add one or more stones to a
heap of stones, as