he Continent
(America), and penetrated to Hutchuetlapallan, the first city of New
Spain, in which their wise men convened 130 and some years before the
birth of Christ; and seeing that the civil did not agree with the
astronomical year, and that the equinoctial days were altered, they
determined to add in every four years one day, in order to recover the
hours which were (annually) lost. And it is supposed that they effected
it by counting one of the symbols of the last month of the year twice
(as the Romans did with their bissextile days), without disturbing
their order, because adding or taking away (a symbol) would destroy
their perpetual system; and thus they made the commencement of the
civil year to agree with the vernal equinox, which was the principal
and governing part of the year.

He adds, that although the intercalated day had not a place in the
order of the symbols of the days of the year, but was thrust in, as it
were, like an interloper, still it gave a name (or character) to the
bissextile year, having most solemn feasts reserved to it, which, even
in the third age, were sanctioned by the emperor or king of those
provinces; and they were held in honour of the god _Xinteuctli_, "lord
of the year," with great preparation of viands and sumptuous dances, in
which the lords alone danced and sang; and for this reason they were
called "the songs and dances of the lords." In the same bissextile year
was held the solemn ceremony of piercing the ears of the girls and
young men, it being reserved for the high-priest to execute that
function, assisted by godfathers and godmothers.

In the 27th paragraph of the observations he says, that there was in
the third age another mode of intercalating, applied only to the ritual
calendar, and that, in order not to disturb either the perpetual order
of the fixed feasts, or of the sixteen movable feasts, which circulated
among the symbols of the days of the year, by (or for the sake of)
counting twice the symbol of the last month of the bissextile year,
which caused them much anxiety on account of the displeasure of their
gods, it was held better to reserve the 13 bissextile days for the end
of the cycle of 52 years; which (days) are distinguished in their
wheels or tables by thirteen ciphers, (painted) blue or of some other
colour; and they belonged neither to any month nor any year, nor had
they particular or individual symbols, like the other days. It was with
them as if