25 



of Asia. I have never been able to discover any 

 peculiar prop^fety in the number of 18028 years. 

 It is not a multiple of 13, 19, 52, 60, 72, 360, 

 or 1440, which are the numbers found in the 

 cycles of the Asiatic nations. If the duration of 

 the Mexican four suns were longer by three 

 years ; and if for the numbers 5206, 4804, 4010, 

 and 4008 years, the numbers 5206, 4807, 4009, 

 and 4009, were substituted, we might suppose, 

 that these cycles originated from a knowledge of 

 the lunar period of nineteen years. But what- 

 ever be their real origin, it does not appear less 

 certain, that they are fictions of the astronomi- 

 cal mythology, modified either by an obscure 

 remembrance of some great revolution, which 

 our planet has undergone ; or according to the 

 physical and geological hypotheses, to which the 

 aspect of marine petrifactions and of fossil bones 

 has given rise, even among nations the most re- 

 mote from civilization. 



On examining the paintings represented in 

 the 26th plate, we find, in the four destructions, 

 the emblems of four elements, earth, fire, air, and 

 water. These same elements were also indicated 

 by the four hieroglyphics * of the years, rabbit, 

 house, flint, and cane. Colli, or house, consi- 

 dered as the symbol of fire, reminds us of the 



* .See vol. 13, p. 180 ; and Siguenza, in Gemelli, Giro del 

 Mondo, torn. 6, p. 60. 



