Aztec star-gazing

[Richard Haly]

> And there is something that suggests me the association between
> Mercury and Piltzintecuhtli (perhaps more correctly Piltzinteuctli) is
> perhaps more than a mischievous invention of some malicious imp,
> with the intention of difficulting the pacific life of so erudite and acute
> scholars.

My guess (and it's only that) is that Piltzinteuctli was equated with
Mercury as Piltzin + teuctli can be translated as "Child-Lord" or improperly
as "Child of the Lord" and could therefore be applied to the little thing
(Mercury) that hangs around the Lord (the sun). This is, again, speculation
as I'm simply recalling other baseless argument styles that I've seen.

Sorry about the odd characters. It surprised me too. Not normal. Using (very
happily) a Mac G3 powerbook and Outlook Express 5.0. Nothing odd there.
Quien sabe.


By the way, per stargazing, latest estimates of number of galaxies in
(our?/the?) universe is 50 billion. To try to make sense of this for my son
I proposed (following Wm. Blake) One grain of sand = One galaxy and 100
grains = 1gram which eventually leads to 408 cubic yards of sand which is
more than 40 dumptrucks full or, can it be almost a cubic quarter mile?
Geez, and I thought Microsoft was big.

Best,

Richard