16 



have destroyed the human race*. A tradition of 

 Jive ages, analogous with that of the Mexicans, is 

 found on the elevated plain of Thibet^. If it 

 be true, that this astrological fiction, which is 

 become the basis of a particular system of cos- 

 mogony, originated in Indostan, it is probable 

 also, that it passed thence by the way of Iran 

 and Chaldea to the western nations. It cannot 

 but be admitted, that a certain resemblance ex- 

 ists between the Indian tradition of the Yougas 

 and the Kalpas, the cycles of the ancient inha- 

 bitants of Etruria, and that series of generations 

 destroyed, which Hesiod characterizes under 

 the emblem of four metals. 



The nations of Culhua, or Mexico, says Go- 

 maraf , who wrote about the middle of the six- 

 teenth century, believe according to their hiero- 

 -glyphical paintings, that, previous to the sun 

 which now enlightens them, four had already 

 been successively extinguished. These four suns 

 are as many ages, in which our species has been 

 annihilated by inundations, by earthquakes, by 

 a general conflagration, and by the effect of 

 destroying tempests. After the destruction of 



* Hamilton and JLangles Catalogue of Sanskrit Manu- 

 scripts in the Imperial library, p. 13 : Asiatic Researches, 

 vol. 2, p. 171 : Moor's Hindu Pantheon, p. 27 and 101. 



+ Georgi Alphab. Tibetanum, p. 220. 



+ Gomara, Conquista, fol. cxix. 



