. Mexican and Central American antiquities, calendar systems, and history;. ifferent parts of the human body,but in an entirely different order. Each of the twenty animals of the Zapotec calendar had thirteendifferent names, and although all these thirteen names stood for thesame thing, they were distinguished one from the other by addingletters or taking them away and by changing their numerals . Withthese words Father Juan de Cordova describes that which is doubt-less the most remarkable characteristic of the Zapotec calendar,namely, that the twenty signs of the calendar were not merely, asa
. Mexican and Central American antiquities, calendar systems, and history;. ifferent parts of the human body,but in an entirely different order. Each of the twenty animals of the Zapotec calendar had thirteendifferent names, and although all these thirteen names stood for thesame thing, they were distinguished one from the other by addingletters or taking them away and by changing their numerals . Withthese words Father Juan de Cordova describes that which is doubt-less the most remarkable characteristic of the Zapotec calendar,namely, that the twenty signs of the calendar were not merely, asamong the other nations of Central America, combined with thenumerals 1 to 13 in the way peculiar to this calendar, but that thecombination of the signs with the numerals became incrusted, as itwere, upon the form of the words serving as the day names, so thatin every case there can be separated from the name of the word aprefix, which is about the same for all signs joined with the samenumeral. Variations and exceptions certainly occur, and it is not PlJ^.. .^tv 4*?*$ %:. SELER] UNITY OF CIVILIZATION 273 easy to tell whether they are not oversights or mistaken impressionsof the worthy monk who preserved this calendar for us or perhapsare simply to be attributed to the careless reprint which is the onlyextant edition of the Grammar of Father Juan de Cordova. Com-bining the words with the numerals, the following result is obtained: Chaga. or tobi (1), gives the prefix quia, quie. Cato. or topa (2), gives the prefix pe, pi, pela. Cayo, or chona (3), gives the prefix peo, peola. Taa. or tapa(4), gives the prefix cala. Caayo. or gaayo (5), gives the prefix pe, pela. Xopa (6) gives the prefix qua, quala. Caache (7) gives the prefix pilla. Xona (8) gives the prefix ne, ni, nela. Caa. or gaa (9), gives the prefix pe, pi, pela. Chij (10) gives the prefix pilla. Chijbi tobi (11 ) gives the prefix ne, ni, nela (these at least are the mostfrequent prefixes; but exceptions are more numerous
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectcalendar, bookyear190
