340 



struction of the fourth sun, after having for u. 

 long time swam in the waters, saved himself 

 alone, by reaching the top of the mountain 

 Colhuacan. We have observed, that the Noah 

 of the Aztecks, commonly called Coxcox, bears 

 also the name of Teo-Cipactli, in which the 

 word divinity, or divine, is added to that of 

 cipactli. On looking into the zodiac of the na- 

 tions of Asia, we find, that, the Capricorn of the 

 Hindoos is the fabulous fish maharan, or souro *, 

 celebrated for his exploits, and represented, from 

 the most remote antiquity, as a sea-monster with 

 the head of an antelope -f~. As the inhabitants 

 of India, like the Mexicans, often indicate the 

 nacshatras (lunar mansions) and the laquenons 

 (dodecatemoria) by the heads only of the ani- 

 mals, which compose the lunar and solar zodiacs, 

 we ought not to be surprised, that the western 

 nations should have transformed the mahara 

 into Capricorn (ooiyoyis^s) ; and that Aratus, 

 Ptolemy, and the Persian Kaswini, should have 

 given it the tail of a fish. An animal, which, 

 after having for a length of time inhabited 

 the waters, takes the form of an antelope, and 

 scales the mountains, reminds nations, whose 

 disturbed imagination associates objects the 



* Sonnerat, Voyage anx Indes, torn. 1, p. 310. Bailly, 

 Astr. ind.,p. 210. 



f Asiat. Researches, vol. 2, p. 335, No. 7- 



