S83 



carried the new fire from village to village, to 

 the distance of fifteen or twenty-leagues ; it was 

 deposited in every temple, whence it was distri- 

 buted to every private dwelling. When the 

 Sun began to appear on the horizon, the accla- 

 mations redoubled. The procession went back 

 from the mountain of Iztapalapan, to the city ; 

 and the people thought that they beheld their 

 gods return to their sanctuaries. The women 

 were then released from prison ; every one put 

 on new dresses, and the thirteen intercalary days 

 were employed in cleansing the temples, in 

 whitening the walls, in renewing their house- 

 hold furniture, their plate, and whatever else was 

 necessary for domestic use. 



This secular festival, this apprehension of see- 

 ing the fifth sun extinguished at the epoch of the 

 winter solstice, seems to present a new instance 

 of analogy between the Mexicans and the in- 

 habitants of Egypt. Achilles Tatius *, in his 

 commentary on Aratus, has preserved the follow- 

 ing account, which Scaliger thinks is borrowed 

 from the Octaeterides of Eudoxus. " When the 

 Egyptians saw the Sun descend from the Crab 



* Achil. Tat., Isag. in Phsenom., c. 23, (Petavius cle 

 Doctr. Temp., 1703, torn* 3, p. 85). Sealig., Adnot. ad 

 Manil. Astron., lib. I, v. 69, p. 85. See also the French 

 translation of the Letters of Count Carli, torn. 1, page 398, 

 note 1. 



