Clavigero[29] agrees with Gemelli in reference to the correspondence of the year symbols with the first days of the years, and inserts the following remark in a note:
“Cav. Boturini says that the year of the rabbet began uniformly with the day of the rabbet, the year of the cane with the day of the cane, &c., and never with the days which we have mentioned; but we ought to give more faith to Siguenza, who was certainly better informed in Mexican antiquity. The system of this gentleman is fantastical and full of contradictions.”
From this statement we infer that Siguenza held the same opinion on this point as Clavigero and Gemelli.
Boturini[30] gives the following arrangement of the “symbols of the four parts or angles of the world,” comparing it with that of Gemelli.
| “Gemelli. | “Boturini. | ||||
| 1. Tochtli | = | South. | 1. Tecpatl | = | South. |
| 2. Acatl | = | East. | 2. Calli | = | East. |
| 3. Tecpatl | = | North. | 3. Tochtli | = | North. |
| 4. Calli | = | West.” | 4. Acatl | = | West.” |
SYMBOLS OF THE FOUR ELEMENTS.
| “Gemelli. | “Boturini. | ||||
| 1. Tochtli | = | Earth. | 1. Tecpatl | = | Fire. |
| 2. Acatl | = | Water. | 2. Calli | = | Earth. |
| 3. Tecpatl | = | Air. | 3. Tochtli | = | Air. |
| 4. Calli | = | Fire.” | 4. Acatl | = | Water.” |
Herrera speaks only of the year symbols and colors, and, although he does not directly connect them, indicates his understanding in regard thereto by the order in which he mentions them:[31]
“They divided the year into four signs, being four figures, the one of a house, another of a rabbit, the third of a cane, the fourth of a flint, and by them they reckoned the year as it passed on, saying, such a thing happened at so many houses or at so many flints of such a wheel or rotation, because their life being as it were an age, contained four weeks of years consisting of thirteen, so that the whole made up fifty-two years. They painted a sun in the middle from which issued four lines or branches in a cross to the circumference of the wheel, and they turned so that they divided it into four parts, and the circumference and each of them moved with its branch of the same color; which were four, Green, Blue, Red, and Yellow; and each of those parts had thirteen subdivisions with the sign of a house, a rabbit, a cane, or a flint.”
From this statement I presume his arrangement would be as follows: