Las Casas observes in his Apologética Historia, chapter cxxi, that “the year of the Mexican people consisted of three hundred and sixty-five days divided into eighteen months and five days. Each month was twenty days, and the week was thirteen days of which they had constituted a calendar, and for each day of the week, of the month and of the year they had its idol with its own name, and these names were of men, or of women which they held or had held as gods; and thus all the days were filled up with these idols and names and figures in the same manner as our breviaries and calendars have for each day its saint.”
The illustration of the calendar stone is from a photograph taken from the original stone in the city of Mexico. This great astronomical record was discovered in the year 1790, buried several feet below the surface, in the spot where stood the chief pyramid and temple of the Aztecs. It is made from a large mass of basalt, and the circular part has a circumference of more than thirty-eight feet. It is probably one of the earliest and one of the most elaborate of the sculptured works of the Toltecs. It will be observed that the points have a singular resemblance to those of the mariner’s compass. The head placed in the centre has been supposed to represent the Mexican god of the sun. It is possible that it may have been intended to represent Quetzalcoatl, the traditional teacher and originator of the Mexican knowledge of astronomy.
The fact of men wearing beards would be considered extraordinary by the American Indians. Landa states that “Cucul-can raised several temples, established regulations for the maintenance of good order, and then left Yucatan and proceeded towards Mexico.”
Apologética Historia, chapter cxxiii.
With respect to the ancient Indian structures it is expedient to give a brief consideration to those that were raised at Copan and Quirigua. The earliest account of the sculptures existing at Copan was given by Palacio in 1576. In his Report to the King of Spain he mentions that within the ruins was a stone cross three palms high, and beyond it “There was a statue more than four yards high, sculptured like a bishop in his pontifical robes with his mitre well worked and with rings in his hands.”
After describing other large statues and the ruins overlooking the river, Palacio observes, “I enquired with all possible attention for any traditions from the ancient people as to what people lived here, and if anything was known of their ancestors, and whether there were any books concerning these antiquities ... They say that anciently there came there a great chief of the province of Yucatan who made these edifices, and after several years he went back to his country, and left them solitary and unpeopled.... It also appears that the style of the said edifices is like what was found in other places by the Spaniards who first discovered Yucatan and Tabasco, where figures of bishops were seen and armed men and crosses, and since such things have not been found in other regions it can be believed that those that made them were probably of one nation.” (Report of the Licentiate Dr. Don Diego Garcia de Palacio to the King of Spain, 1576.)
It is recorded by Juarros that in the year 1700, Fuentes, who wrote the Chronicles of Guatemala, stated with respect to Copan, that the figures, “both male and female were of very excellent sculpture, which then retained the colours they had been enamelled with; and what was not less remarkable, the whole of them were habited in the Castilian costume.” The same author relates that at “a short distance, there was a portal constructed of stone, on the columns of which were the figures of men likewise represented in Spanish habits, with hose, ruff round the neck, sword, cap, and short cloak”....