384 



towards Capricorn, and the days gradually di- 

 minish, they were accustomed to sorrow from 

 the apprehension, that the Snn was to abandon 

 them entirely. This epocha coincided with the 

 festival of Isis : but when the orb began to re- 

 appear, and the duration of the days grew longer, 

 they robed themselves in white garments, and 

 crowned themselves with flowers (KevxptfLowfffmneq 

 s GTz(bMY$6ov i (jtt,v) ." On reading this passage of 

 Achilles Tatius, we think we peruse what 

 Gomara and Torquemada relate respecting the 

 festival of the Mexican jubilee. In the same 

 manner * 3 in the work of Sextus Empiricus f 

 against the astrologers, we find as it were the 

 description of the symbolical figure J, which we 

 have engraved in plate 15th, from the manu- 

 script preserved at Veletri. In every nation on 

 Earth superstitious ideas assume the same form 

 at the rise and fall of civilization ; and it is on 

 account of this analogy, that it is difficult to dis- 

 tinguish what has been communicated from 

 country to country, and what man has drawn 

 from an interior source. 



* Dupuis, Mem. explicatif du Zodiaque, 1806, page 145. 



+ Sext. Empir. contra Matheni., lib. 5, (ed. Stephan., 

 torn. 3, p. 187). Firniicus, lib. 2, c. 27, (ed. Aid. Manut. 

 1503, fol. 105). Origen. contra Celsum, lib. 8, c. 55, (ed. 

 Delarne, 1733 torn.) 1, page 783. 



See above, page 206, PI. 15. 



