forth, and even of prophecies that had announced it.[1] But the state of mind of the populations concerned being given, at whatever moment the Spaniards had arrived they would have been able to appeal to auguries of a like kind, by dint of just giving them that degree of precision and clearness which usually distinguishes predictions that are recorded after their fulfilment!
A further proof that the Mexican religion helped to spread this sense of the instability of things is furnished by the grand jubilee festival which was celebrated every fifty-two years in the city of Mexico and throughout the empire. The Mexican cycle, marking the coincidence of four times thirteen lunar and four times thirteen solar years,[2] counted two-and-fifty years, and was called a "sheaf of years." Now whenever the dawn of the fifty-third year drew
- ↑ See Sahagun, Tom. II. pp. 281—283, Lib. viii. cap. vi.
- ↑ The sacerdotal year was lunar. The civil year, which was doubtless of later origin, and had been adopted as better suited to the purposes of agriculture, was solar. Every thirteenth year the two coincided. The number four, which plays an important part in Mexican symbolism (cf. the Mexican cross) gave a kind of cosmic significance to 13 × 4 = 52.
