which some have claimed to read in the relief; and in 699, and that it was made by the Toltecs, as there are very strong reasons for believing. What we may indeed affirm is that we have not here the date which the last sun or the historic sun began, as Joyce says, and Spinden repeats, because the statements are in agreement, not only in the Aztec traditions but in the Toltec, in assigning the sign Ce técpatl (1-knife) to this event: the codices prove it without any manner of doubt. What, then, will be the date designated? We believe the stone itself will yield the means of solving the problem.
Let us enumerate the dates of the relief. In the upper rectangular tablet we have seen the one upon which attention has been most turned, the date in which we believe the monument was completed: 13-cane.
Near the face of the sun, in the next following great circle, it will be remembered that we meet with a flint knife with one dot, that is Ce técpatl. Together with the técpatl is seen the mamalhuaztli; sign of the new fire.
In the designs like flames or half-feathers, which project from the inner border of the serpents, four stout bars are seen upon each.
The peculiar position of these flames, almost separated from the body of the serpents, symbol as we know of time, seems to us to express previous epochs or cycles, which must be considered as past with reference to the actual era of the world, directly represented in the serpents. They are links separated from the allegorical circle of time. In consonance with the general significance of the glyphs, it does not seem to us illogical to attribute to the said figures a cycle of 416 years, or, what is the same, to give to each bar the value of an Indian century, a huehuetiliztli; we shall see the hypothesis confirmed.
Each flame is the emblem of a spark of light, of an irradiation of solar fire through the universe, irradiation which in the life of the orb is like a flash, but which for the limited existence of man attains the term of a cycle of 416 years. Being twelve flames of the entire round, there result 4,992 years, date for which we shall later seek associations. Adding to it the 104 years represented by the meeting of the heads, we arrive at 5,096, a most important date which will give us extraordinary revelations. The importance of the date seems to have led to its repetition, and we meet it figured in the projection of the cylinder. Let us state now, to be proved later, that this year 5096 was a 13-ácatl; and do not lose sight of the fact that the reading
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