regarding Quetzalcóatl, and speaks of the first pyramid of Cholula. The destruction of the giants (quinamétzin) marked the end of the era in 4093.
Be it noticed that the number is equal to three exact periods of 1,664 years, in its turn made up of 4 cycles of 416: and let us not forget the pronounced tendency of the Indians to distribute the evolution of their history in fixed periods of equal duration. Thus is explained the allegory engraved in the center of the relief which represents the four ages of the world, the duration of each one of which appears determined by 4 dots, the chronological value of which has not been discovered until now. It is easy for us to suppose that the Toltecs, always obedient to the tetranary conception which permeated such diverse phases of their social organization, their philosophy, and their religio-cosmogonic beliefs, would assign to each period, even if it had scarcely begun, 1,664 years, number formed by four great cycles of 416 years, made up, they also, of four huehuetiliztli. According to this, the dots on the tablets are valued each one at 416 years, like the flames from the bodies of the serpents and other diverse elements of this admirably co-ordinated product of talent.
The above might seem to be speculative; but it is a fact that the Texcocan chronicler fixes the date 4992 and that this is read twice in the relief. Ah well, when 4,992 years had run their course, three ages only had been completed; 104 years later, Ixtlilxóchitl affirms that the Toltecs initiated a new chronology, "they added the bissextile, in order to adjust the solar year to the equinox," and in fine, they perfected their calendar, determining the rules relative "to the months, the weeks, and the signs and planets": the event occured in Ce técpatl (1-knife) 5097, counting from the creation of the world in the Indian cosmology.
The important Anales de Cuauhtitlan (codex which surpasses all those known in the antiquity and precision of its chronology, which embraces eight great cycles), considered as in apparent disaccord with the Texcocan historian, in reality confirm the capital data of Ixtlilxóchitl. They locate the arrival of the mysterious nation of the Ulmecas, in the beginnings of the third age, very nearly a thousand years before, Christ, and categorically fix the beginning of the second Toltec monarchy—because in remote times they had constituted another—in the year 674 of our era. Twenty-six years later, the year 700 was Ce técpatl; and all the traditions affirm that the Toltecs initiated a new epoch in Ce técpatl.
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