an individual contribution, may have been carried out
in the building of pyramids, the origin of which will be discussed further
on.

Although it is almost superfluous to do so, as by this time the set of
associated ideas must be familiar to the reader, I shall briefly summarize
some of the chief four-fold division or organization of which the
nahui-ollin was the graphic symbol. It represented:

1. The four elements or substances and kinds of life.

2. The four regions of the heaven, each composed, in turn, of four
sub-regions.

3. The four provinces of the state, each containing four districts.

4. The four quarters of the capital, each of which had four wards.

Like the nahui-ollin the pyramid was an image or embodiment of the
fundamental all-pervading principle. Both therefore equally expressed
further meanings which I shall proceed to enumerate.

5. Four stars and also four star-groups or planets which seem to have been
associated with the cardinal points and are indicated by four discs
exhibiting two concentric circles and four glyphs placed around them.
Although at a disadvantage, not being able to substantiate my statement
here, I shall mention that, amongst the above, the Pleiades and the
planets Venus and Jupiter doubtlessly figure, the latter as two evening
and two morning stars.

6. The human lords of the four regions who respectively governed the four
divisions of the population, who were classified as the Fire, Air, Water
and Earth people, the identical classification being applied in turn to
each class and so on _ad infinitum_.

7. Rotation or a movement encircling the four quarters imagined as
"quadruple motion." This was not confined to the Septentriones, for the
ancient Mexican astronomers had recognized what they termed the "four
movements of the Sun"--namely, its apparent rising in the east and progress
to the north; and setting in the west and progress to the south. According
to Leon y Gama, the first to describe the stone in 1832, the central
"nahui ollin" portrayed the "four movements of the sun" and recorded the
solstices and equinoxes. His opinion has since been shared by other
writers, amongst whom I cite Senor Troncoso. According to Sir Norman
Lockyer, moreover, the symbol does correctly and appropriately figure the
annual course of the sun. It must be admitted that the invention of a
figurative symbol which not only records the annual rotation of the
circumpolar star-groups but also