Combine with these colors and other distinctive marks, then vary them in proportion, and we should have an endless variety, just as we see in the Mexican Codices. We can only hope to solve the problem, therefore, by selecting, after careful study, those plates which appear to have the symbols arranged in their normal order.
Turning to plate 43 of the Borgian Codex, we find it impossible to make it agree, either with the plate of the Fejervary Codex or the Vatican Codex. Here we find the days 1, 5, 9, 13, 17 associated with the green figure in the lower left-hand square; 2, 6, 10, 14, 18 with the yellow figure in the lower right-hand square; 3, 7, 11, 15, and 19 with the black figure in the upper right-hand square, and 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 with the red figure in the upper left-hand square. What adds to the difficulty is the fact that the symbol of the Cane accompanies the black figure, thus apparently indicating that this denotes the year Acatl. That these groups are to be taken in the same order as those of Plate 44 of the Fejervary Codex, that is around to the left, opposite the sun’s course, is evident from the days and also from Plate 9 of this (Borgian) Codex, where the twenty days of the month are placed in a circle.
In this latter the order of the four years is indicated by the first days of the years, viz, Cipactli, Miquiztli, Ozomatli, and Cozcaquauhtli placed in blue circles at the corners in the following order:
| Ozomatli. | Miquiztli. |
| Cozcaquauhtli. | Cipactli. |
In the lower right-hand corner of Plate 4, same Codex, is a square with the four quadrants very distinctly colored and arranged thus:
| Yellow. | Green. |
| Blue. | Red. |
and a large red circle in the center, on the body of what is evidently intended as a symbol of Cipactli. As this appears to be a figure of general application, we presume that it commences with Cipactli, the day on which the cycles began. As the four names of the days with which the years began probably show, as arranged in the above square, their respective positions in the calendar wheel, I infer that, in their normal arrangement, Cipactli corresponded with the red, Miquiztli with the green, Ozomatli with the yellow, and Cozcaquauhtli with the blue. This brings the colors in precise accordance with those on the cross in the lower right-hand square of Plate 43; and if we suppose the black figure to correspond with the blue it brings the colors in the same order, but the day groups are shifted around one point to the left. It is probable therefore that this plate, like a number of others in the same Codex, is intended to denote the relation of colors and day groups to each other in some other than the first or normal year, or possibly to the seasons or the four Indications of the cycle.
But be this as it may, I do not think the difficulty in reconciling the arrangement of the colors and days in this Codex will warrant the rejection of our explanation of the plates of the other codices. That Plate 44 of the Fejervary Codex is one of general application must be admitted, as is also the “Table of the Bacabs” from the Cortesian Codex; and if the true assignment to the cardinal points is made anywhere it will certainly be in these. Turning now to the latter, as shown in our [Plate II], where the erased characters are restored, we note the following facts, and then with some general remarks conclude our paper, as we have no intention of entering upon a general discussion of the Mexican Calendar, which would be necessary if we undertook to explain fully even the plates of the codices we have referred to.
As before remarked, the Cortesian plate is arranged upon the same plan as that of the Fejervary Codex, evidently based upon the same theory and intended for the same purpose. In the latter the four year symbols are placed in the outer looped line at the four corners, and so distinguished as to justify us in believing they mark their respective quadrants. In the former we find the four Maya year-bearers, Cauac, Kan, Muluc, Ix, in corresponding positions, each distinguished by the numeral character for 1 (see 31, 1, 11, and 21 in our scheme, [Fig. 2]), the first, or the right, corresponding with the green loop and the year Tochtli; the second, at the top, corresponding with the red loop and the year Acatl; the third, at the left, corresponding with the yellow loop and the year Tecpatl, and the fourth, at the bottom, corresponding with the blue loop and the year Calli. This brings Cauac to the south, Kan to the east, Muluc to the north, and Ix to the west, and the correspondence is complete, except as to the colors, which, as we have seen, cannot possibly be brought into harmony. This view is further sustained by the fact that the god of death is found on the right of each plate, not for the purpose of indicating the supposed abode of the dead, but to mark the point at which the cycles close, which is more fully expressed in the Cortesian plate by piercing or dividing the body of a victim with a flint knife[49] marked with the symbol of Ezanab (the last day of the Ix years) and the symbol of Ymix, with which, in some way not yet understood, the counting of the cycles began.
In the quotation already made from Sahagun we find the following statement: “Tecpatl, which is the figure of a flint, was dedicated to Mictlampa, nearly towards hell, because they believed that the dead went towards the north. For which reason, in the superstition which represented the dead as covered with mantas (cloths) and their bodies bound, they made them sit with their faces turned toward the north or Mictlampa.”