XXVI Congreso Internacional de Americanistas

103
The different writers, explaining those so-caIled "nemont.emi" days
said: "The 'rbemontemi' days \vere unlucky, useless, unservice ab l ~ for
all serious business. The Mexican callecl them 'aco,mpouhqui', meaning
that they were without value; and acco rding to the true meaníng of the
words, 'we¡1e not cOtlnted' ..
That ís exactly what Sahagún ·and other writers since his time have
said rega rding those 5 days; and yet they all used those 5 so-called "nemontemi
days" in their chronological computations; and there-by hav{'
proved absolutely that those 5 days were NOT "nemontemi" days ; because
THOSE 5 DAYS IWERE ACTUALLY COUNTED. It was
sho\Vn in the preceding chapter how those two natives, P edro González
ancl Pedro de S. Buenaventura, in their letter to Sahagún, and which
letter is folio 53 of the Códice Matritense, also erroneously called those
5 da)' :; " Nemontemi" days ancl explaineel that this '\Vorel mea nt "uncounted
da,)'s". However, in that same letter those two natives show clearly
th at those 5 days wereCottnt,rd: "And when those 5 days that were left
over each year, amounted to 20 days, they formed the additional, or
19th feast, "Quauitl eua", which was celebrated with great ceremonies
at the end of each 4 years."
TI-IE TRUE 1\'EMONTEMI Dc\YS.
Those 12 Ol" 13 days, celebrated at the end of each Nlexican cycJe of 52
years, which the astronomer León y Gama describes very clearIy on pages
52 and 53 of the First Part of hi s: work, "Las Dos Piedras" , corresp,ond
to the total nl1mber of additional days in the leap-years of the European
calendar, for the same periodo Clavigero, on pages 284 and 285 of the
First Part of his History, affirms what Sigi.ienza y Góngora and Gemelli,
had previously shown to be true: tha t a t the end of each 52 years,
the Mexicans added 13 days so as to adjl1st, or perhaps better, to readjust
their calendar to the solar year; and that this adjustment,they
believed, \Vas made at the spring equinox. On pages 158 and 159 of
volume II of "Lettres américaines", Carli says: "Their great cycle COI1­
sisted of 52 years, which wele divided into four indictions of 13 years
each, and a.t fh e end oi the cyc1e they added 13 days". ("Su gran sig10 o
ciclo era de 52 años, divididos en cuatro indiccion,es de 13 años cada una,
al fin del ciclo añadían trece días.") These 13 da,}IS are the true "'Umantemi",
01' idle, use!ess, and U1t cott:nted da,ys, wlúch wer.e not cow¡.wd
or inc/uded in tite Mexican calendar ,01' Tona!amail; due to their VIGE~
SIMAL system. The ver)' fact that these days were never incluc\ed in
the Tonalamatl, \Vas the reason wlly the Mexicans considered these day~
unluck}l. On the other halld, all other days of the 52-year cyele, ineluding
those erroneously called "nemontemi days", ~vere included in bota
the Tonalamatl andthe regular Mexican calendar, and could not b~