Chapter XX: on Special Comparisons. The following copies of petroglyphs

are presented here as specimens and are markedly different from those in the northwestern states of Mexico, which represent the Aztec culture.

The description of Fig. 98 is extracted from Viages de Guillelmo Dupaix (_a_):

Going from the town of Tlalmanalco to that of Mecamecan, at a
distance of a league to the east of the latter and in the confines
of the estate of Señor Don José Tepatolco, is an isolated rock of
granitic stone artificially cut into a conical form with a series
of six steps cut in the solid rock itself on the eastern side, the
summit forming a platform or horizontal section suitable for the
purpose of observing the stars at all points of the compass. It is,
therefore, most evident that this ancient monument or observatory
was employed solely for astronomical observations, and it is further
proved by various hieroglyphs cut in the south side of the cone;
but the most interesting feature of this side is the figure of
a man standing upright and in profile directing his gaze to the
east with the arms raised, holding in the hands a tube or species
of optical instrument. Beneath his feet is seen a carved frieze
with six compartments or squares and other symbols of a celestial
nature are engraved on their surfaces, evidently the product of
observation and calculation. Some of them have connection with those
found symmetrically arranged in circles on the ancient Mexican
calendar, exposed in this capital to general admiration. In front of
the observer is a rabbit seated and confronted by two parallel rows
of numerical figures; lastly two other symbols relating to the same
science are seen at the back.

Prof. Daniel G. Brinton (_a_), gives an account of the illustration here produced on Pl. XIV A, which may be thus condensed:

THE STONE OF THE GIANTS, MEXICO.]

The “Stone of the Giants” at Escamela near the city of Orizaba,
Mexico, has been the subject of much discussion. Father Damaso
Sotomayor sees in the inscribed figures a mystical allusion to the
coming of Christ to the Gentiles and to the occurrences supposed
in Hebrew myth to have taken place in the Garden of Eden. This
stone was examined by Capt. Dupaix in the year 1808 and is figured
in the illustrations to his voluminous narrative. The figure he
gives [now presented as B on Pl. _XIV_] is, however, so erroneous
that it yields but a faint idea of the real character and meaning
of the drawing. It omits the ornament on the breast and also the
lines along the right of the giant’s face, which as I shall show are
distinctive traits. It gives him a girdle where none is delineated,
and the relative size and proportions of all the three figures are
quite distorted.

The rock on which the inscription is found is roughly triangular
in shape, presenting a nearly straight border of 30 feet on each
side. It is hard and uniform in texture and of a dark color. The
length or height of the principal figure is 27 feet, and the incised
lines which designate the various objects are deeply and clearly cut.

I now approach the decipherment of the inscriptions. Any one
versed in the signs of the Mexican calendar will at once perceive
that it contains the date of a certain year and day. On the left of
the giant is seen a rabbit surrounded with ten circular depressions.
These depressions are the well-known Aztec marks for numerals, and
the rabbit represents one of the four astronomic signs by which
they adjusted their chronologic cycles of fifty-two years. The
stone bears a carefully dated record, with year and day clearly set
forth. The year is represented to the left of the figure and is that
numbered “ten” under the sign of the rabbit; the day of the year is
number “one” under the sign of the fish.

These precise dates recurred once, and only once, every
fifty-two years, and had recurred only once between the year of
our era, 1450, and the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1519-’20.
Within the period named the year “ten rabbit” of the Aztec calendar
corresponded with the year 1502 of the Gregorian calendar. It is
more difficult to fix the day, but it is, I think, safe to say that,
according to the most probable computations, the day, “one fish,”
occurred in the first month of the year 1502, which month coincided
in whole or in part with our February.

Such is the date on the inscription. Now, what is intimated to
have occurred on that date? The clew to this is furnished by the
figure of the giant. It represents an ogre of horrid mien with a
death’s-head grin and formidable teeth, his hair wild and long, the
locks falling down upon the neck. Suspended on the breast as an
ornament is the bone of a human lower jaw, with its incisor teeth.
The left leg is thrown forward as in the act of walking, and the
arms are uplifted, the hands open, and the fingers extended as at
the moment of seizing the prey or the victim. The lines about the
umbilicus represent the knot of the girdle which supported the
_maxtli_ or breechcloth.

There is no doubt as to which personage of the Aztec
pantheon this fear-inspiring figure represents. It is _Tzontemoc
Mictlantecutli_, “the Lord of the Realm of the Dead, He of the
Falling Hair,” the dread god of death and the dead. His distinctive
marks are there, the death’s-head, the falling hair, the jaw bone,
the terrible aspect, the giant size.

We possess several chronicles of the empire before Cortes
destroyed it, written in the hieroglyphs which the inventive genius
of the natives had devised. Taking two of these chronicles, one
known as the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, the other as the Codex
Vaticanus, I turn to the year numbered “ten” under the sign of the
rabbit and I find that both present the same record which I copy in
the following figure.

The figure so copied is entitled “Extract from the Vatican Codex,” which is a slight error. It is a copy from the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, Kingsborough, I, Pt. 4, p. 23, year 1502, which is here reproduced as Fig. 99. The record in the Vatican Codex, Kingsborough, II, p. 130, differs in some unimportant details. It may also be noted that in the text relating to the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, Kingsborough, VI, p. 141, the word Ahuitzotl is given as “the name of an aquatic animal famous in Mexican mythology.” The present opportunity is embraced to recognize the acumen displayed by Prof. Brinton in his interpretation of the petroglyph. He proceeds as follows:

The sign of the year (the rabbit) is shown merely by his head
for brevity. The ten dots, which give its number, are beside it.
Immediately beneath is a curious quadruped, with what are intended
as water-drops dripping from him. The animal is the hedgehog, and
the figure is to be constructed _iconomatically_; that is, it must
be read as a rebus through the medium of the Nahuatl language. In
that language water is _atl_, in composition _a_, and hedgehog is
_uitzotl_. Combine these and you get _ahuitzotl_, or, with the
reverential termination, _ahuitzotzin_. This was the name of the
ruler or emperor, if you allow the word, of ancient Mexico before
the accession to the throne of that Montezuma whom the Spanish
_conquistador_, Cortes, put to death.

Returning to the page from the chronicle, we observe that the
hieroglyph of Ahuitzotzin is placed immediately over a corpse
swathed in its mummy cloths, as was the custom of interment with
the highest classes in Mexico. This signifies that the death of
Ahuitzotzin took place in that year. Adjacent to it is the figure
of his successor, his name iconomatically represented by the
headdress of the nobles, the _tecuhtli_, giving the middle syllables
of “_Mo-tecuh-zoma_.” No doubt is left that _La Piedra de los
Gigantes_ of Escamela is a necrologic tablet commemorating the death
of the Emperor Ahuitzotzin, some time in February, 1502.

Mr. Eugène Boban (_a_) mentions manuscript copies, dating from the beginning of the century, of various sculptured stones in Mexico. These sculpturings represent native ideographic characters, among them the _teocalli_, the _tepetl_, the sign _ollin_, etc.

On several of the plates which compose this collection are notes indicating the place where the monument, fragment, or ruin is found, from which the characters are copied; for example, one of them bears the note: “de la calle R^l de la villa de Cuernabaca.” Several others bear annotations which show that they have been copied in the cemetery, in the streets of that town, or in its environs.

Aside from these notes the plates are not accompanied by any information which could give a trace of the person who drew them, or the purpose for which they were intended.

The same author (_b_) describes a large sculptured stone of Mexico, the designs on which have been reproduced in paintings on deerskin. After giving a detailed description of the copied MS. he speaks of the stone as follows:

We deem it of interest to give some notes concerning the famous
cylindrical stone, both sculptured and painted, known by the name
_Teocuauhxicalli_ (the sacred drinking vase of the eagles) on which
are found the themes of all the designs which have been above
described. This stone, buried at the time of the Spanish Conquest,
was discovered in the first half of this century at the close of a
series of excavations made in the soil of the Place d’Armes, Mexico.
The director of the national museum, who was then M. Rafael Gondra,
contented himself with taking the dimensions and making a hurried
sketch of it. It was then reinterred, as the necessary funds were
lacking to exhume it entirely and transport it to the museum.

The name Teocuauhxicalli is composed of: _Teotl_, god;
_cuauhili_, eagle, and _xicalli_, hemispherical vase formed from the
half of a gourd. It may be translated by, “The vase of god and the
eagles,” or, rather, “The sacred drinking cup of the eagles.”

“The Mexican monarch Axayacatl, jealous of his predecessor
Motecuhzoma I, took down the Teocuauhxicalli which was in the upper
part of the Great Temple of Mexico, and replaced it by another,
sculptured by his order;” so says the eminent Mexican archæologist
and historian, Don Manuel Orozco y Berra, in his excellent work,
Historia Antigua y de la Conquesta de Mexico (t. III, p. 348). This
monument was also dedicated to the god of war, Huitzilopochtli.

According to Duran and Tezozomoc, those stones on which gods
were represented were designated by the name Teocuauhxicalli; i. e.,
divine cuauhxicalli. They belonged to the class of painted stones,
for they were covered with several colors.

Orozco y Berra adds the following: “It is evident that the
figures sculptured and painted do not represent armed warriors
preparing for combat. On the contrary, we see that they represent
gods. Among them is found Huitzilopochtli (god of war) with his arms
and attributes, having before him another deity or high priest who
holds in his hands the emblems of the holocaust.

“The figures of the upper part are not fighting and could not
have known how to fight, if we judge by their positions; the chest
is turned back, the face raised toward the sky, in which appears an
object which resembles the astronomical sign _cipactli_.

“Everywhere on the surface of this stone are noticed symbols,
birds, quadrupeds, fantastic reptiles, signs of the sun, days,
months, and a quantity of objects whose character is imitated in
manuscripts and rituals. There can be no doubt that we are in the
presence of a monument devoted to the gods and bearing legends
relative to their worship. M. the minister of Fomento, D. Vicente
Rivera Palacio, in 1877 made several attempts at excavation in the
Plaza Mayor of Mexico, to recover this important monument, but all
search remained unfruitful.”

This stone is supposed to be buried beneath the Place d’Armes at
Mexico.

Mexican petroglyphs are also discussed and figured by Chavero (_a_).

It would seem from these and other descriptions of and allusions to petroglyphs in Mexico, that at the time of the Spanish conquest they were extant in large numbers, though now seldom found. Perhaps the Spaniards destroyed them in the same spirit which led them to burn up many of the Mexican pictographs on paper and other substances.

A number of illustrations of the Mexican pictographic writings are given below under various headings.