206 Atlantis. 



but, upon the tombs of the dead, especially of the great, they bestowed 

 great care and expense, as fitting for their permanent abodes. Ac- 

 cording to the Egyptian belief, after the soul finally departed from 

 the body, it began its transmigration through inferior animals, lasting 

 3,000 years, when it again entered a human body. Among the Mexi- 

 cans, a similar belief led to similar results. Religious works and 

 tombs alone remain to attest the zeal of the builders. They held the 

 immortality of the soul, and three places of abode therefor — the sun, 

 wherein dwelt the spirits of nobles, soldiers killed in battle, and women 

 dying in labor. (A similar belief was held by nearly all the Indian 

 tribes in the vicinity of the Mexican Gulf.) The happy dwellers of 

 the sun could after a time revisit the earth and animate clouds, birds, 

 and animals, and revisit tiie sun at will. Those killed by lightning, 

 disease, or drowning, went in spirit to a cool, shady place called 

 Tlalocan, where feasts and pleasure awaited them. All others were 

 at death consigned to Mictlantocli, kingdom of Mictlan, god of hell, a 

 dark and gloomy place in the center' of the earth. 



In comparing the ancient astronomical culture of oriental and 

 American nations, we enter upon a field of which but a passing glance 

 must here suffice. This knowledge both Humboldt and Prescott as- 

 sign the first rank as a distinguishing feature of the American abori- 

 ginal civilization, and both likewise frankly admit the difiiculty of 

 "considering, as the result of observations made by a nation of moun- 

 taineers in the uncultivated regions of the new continent." "They 

 measured the length of the tropical year with a precision unknown 

 to the philosophers of antiquity," — says Prescott, The day with the 

 American as with the Egyptian and many Asiatic nations, began at 

 sunrise. The civil year was a solar year of 365 days divided into 18 

 months of twenty days each, and five complementary days. Besides 

 the oivil calendar, the priests made use of a lunar calendar by whose 

 mysteries the festivals were regulated with great exactitude. 



Thirteen of the Mexican years formed a cycle, four a "ligature," 

 and two of the latter an "old age"' — all of which (excepting the 

 latter) were expressed by appropriate symbols. The half century of 

 52 years, was represented by a wheel surrounded by a serpent, with 

 its tail in its mouth, and four knots signifying the four indictions or 

 cycles. A similar symbol among the Egyptians indicated a century. 



The names and hieroglyphics of the Mexican months, all relate to 

 the festivals, public works, and climate of Mexico and nothing in 

 their etymology indicates birth in a more northerly climate, Hum- 

 boldt admitted the indigenous character of this branch of Mexican cul- 

 ture, so far as influenced by those purely Asiatic ideas by him attributed 

 to the Aztec migrations. 



