282 



The beginning of the civil day among the 

 Aztecks was reckoned like that of the Persians, 

 the Egyptians *, the Babylonians, and the 

 greater part of the nations of Asia, except the 

 Chinese, from sunrising. It was divided into 

 eight intervals, a division found among the 

 Hindoos f and the Romans ; four of which were 

 determined by the rising of the Sun, its setting, 

 and its two passages across the meridian. The 

 risi'ng was called yquiza tonatiuh; noon, nepantla 

 tonatiuh; the setting, onaqui tonatiuh; and mid- 

 nigbt, yohualnepantla. The hieroglyphic of the 

 day was a circle divided into four parts. Al- 

 though, under the parallel of the city of Mexico, 

 the length of the day does not vary more than 

 two hours twenty-one minutes, it is very certain, 

 that the Mexican hours were originally unequal, 

 like the planetary hours of the Jews, and all 

 those which the Greek astronomers noted under 

 the name of kxi^mxi in opposition to the ic^e^vM 

 equinoxial hours. 



The epochas of the day and the night which 

 correspond nearly to our hours 3, 9, 15, and 21, 

 astronomical time, had no particular names. 

 The Mexicans, to denote them, pointed, as our 

 labourers do, to the place of the sky where the 



* Ideler, Hist. Unters, ueber die astr. Bcob. der Alten, 

 p. 26. 



t Bailly, Hist, l'Astr. anc. p. 29t>. 



