27 



to Macrobius and Nonnus, indicated the position 

 even of the planets at the epoch of the creation of 

 the world, and that of the general deluge. On 

 calculating, according tothesystem of the periodi- 

 cal serie§, the signs which presided over the years 

 several ages before the sacrifice of Tlalixco, (the 

 year ome acatl, or 2 canes, corresponding to the 

 year 1091 of the christian cera, I find, that the 

 dates and the signs do not entirely correspond 

 with the duration of each Mexican age. Neither 

 are they marked in the paintings in the Vatican ; 

 but I have taken them from a fragment of Mexi- 

 can history preserved by Alva Ixtlilxochitl, who 

 fixes the duration of the four ages not to 18028, 

 but only to 1417 years. We must not be sur- 

 prised at this in astrological calculations ; for the 

 first number includes almost as many indictions 

 as the last contains years. Thus in the mystic 

 chronology of the Hindoos, the substitution of 

 days for divine years * reduces the four ages of 

 4,320,000 years to 12000. 



* Bailly, Astr. Ind., p. ci. 



