208 Atlantis. 



private dwellings. When the sun reappeared, the acclamations were 

 renewed and the people, assured of a new lease of the earth for another 

 cycle repaired to their homes to spend the intercalary days in renewing 

 and purifying their households and in rejoicing and congratulation. 



Concerning these singular customs Mr. Halibui'ton says : " We turn 

 now to Mexico and there find that the great festival of the Mexican 

 Cycle was held on the 17th of November, and was regulated by the 

 Pleiades. It began at sunset, and at midnight as that constellation 

 approached the zenith, a human victim Avas offered up to avert the 

 dread calamity which they believed impended over the human race. 

 This belief was so remarkable that I can not omit a reference to it here. 

 They had a tradition that at that time the world had been previously 

 destroyed, and they dreaded lest a similar catastrophe would at the end 

 of a cycle annihilate the human race. Now it is most remarkable to 

 find that the Egyptians with their Isia or new year's festival of agricul- 

 ture, and of the dead, that took place on the 17th day of November, 

 associated traditions as to the deluge." The subsequent confusion in 

 computations of time, among the Egyptians he attributes to the later 

 custom of observing the heliacal risings and settings of Sirius Sothis 

 or the great Dog Star. 



In summing up, Mr. Haliburton concludes that the Pleiades year, 

 and probably the human race, too, originated in the isles of the South- 

 ern Ocean and spread thence by ship to more northerly regions. He 

 traces the same festival and the Pleiades year among the ancient in- 

 habitants of Persia, India, Egypt, Peru, Australia, Society Islands, 

 Ceylon, Polynesia, and refers our observance of "Hallow-eve" to the 

 same source. 



Humboldt, on the other hand, attributes these analogies of religious 

 belief and observances to the natural tendency of superstitious ideas 

 among all nations to assume the same form at the rise and fall of civ- 

 ilization. 



In thus stating some of the points wherein coincidences exist in the 

 ancient American and oriental civilizations, which, in connection with 

 the Atlantic tradition are claimed to establish a ground for inferring 

 a communication at some very early period in the world's history, 

 though much is omitted for the sake of brevity, enough is apparent to 

 show that the subject is, in the present state of our knowledge, incap- 

 able of very definite discussion. 



Investigators are by no means agreed as to the value of the evi- 

 dences subject to examination. It must be admitted, however, that it 

 is not easy to find a satisfactory reason for these analogies in the condi- 

 tions of development of the two races ; for in this view we might 



