64 



less to astonish us, when we recollect the hypo- 

 theses, which in our days have been advanced by 

 Bailly, Sir William Jones, and Bentley f[ on the 

 duration of the five Yougas of the Hindoos. Of 

 the different nations that inhabit Mexico, paint- 

 ing's representing the deluge of Coxcox are 

 found among theAztecks, the Miztecks, the 

 Zapotecks, the Tlascaltecks, and the Mechoaca- 

 nese. The Noah, Xisuthrus, or Menou of these 

 nations, is called Coxcox, Teo-Cipactli, or Tez- 

 pi. He saved himself conjointly with his wife, 

 Xochiquetzal, in a bark, or, according to other 

 traditions, on a raft of ahuahuete (cupressus dis- 

 ticha). The painting represents Coxcox in the 

 midsf of the water, lying in a bark. The moun- 

 tain, the summit of which, crowned by a tree, 

 rises above the waters, is the Peak of Colhuacan, 

 the Ararat of the Mexicans. The horn, which is 

 represented on the left, is the phonetic hiero- 

 glyphic of Colhuacan. At the foot of the moun- 

 tain appear the heads of Coxcox and his wife. 

 The latter of these is known by the two tresses 

 in the form of horns, which, as we have often ob- 

 served, denote the female sex. The men born 

 after the deluge were dumb : a dove, from the 

 top of a tree, distributes among them tongues, 

 represented under the form of small commas ~f-. 



* Asiat. Researches, Vol. 8, page 195. 

 t See (he lawsuit in Plate 12. 



