24 



Persian ages described in the Zend-Avesta*. I 

 no where find how many years had elapsed from 

 the deluge of Coxcox to the sacrifice of Tlalixco, 

 or till the reform of the Azteck calendar ; but, 

 however near we may suppose these two periods,, 

 we still find that the Mexicans attributed to 

 the world a duration of more than twenty thou- 

 sand years. This duration certainly forms a 

 contrast with the great period of the Hindoos, 

 which consists of four millions three hundred and 

 twenty thousand years ; and still more with the 

 cosmogonical fiction of the Thibetans, according 

 to which mankind already compute eighteen re- 

 volutions, each of which has several padu, ex- 

 pressed by numbers of sixty-two ciphers-}-. It 

 is nevertheless remarkable, that we find an 

 American people, who, according to the same 

 system of the calendar in use among them on 

 the arrival of Cortez, indicate the days and the 

 years in which the world underwent great catas- 

 trophes farther back than twenty ages. 



Le Gentil, Bailly, and DupuisJ, have ingeni- 

 ously explained the duration of the great cycles 



* Anquetil, Zend-Avesta, vol. 2, p. 352. 



+ Thibet. Alphab. p. 472. 



X Le Gentil, Voy. dans les Indes, vol. 1, p. 235; Bailly,- 

 Astron. Ind., p. lxxxxviii and 212 : Bailly, Hist, de 1' Astron. 

 Am., p. 76 : Dupuis, Grig, des Cultes, vol. 3, p. 164. 



