315 



the numbers 5, 13, 18, 20, and 52; we may 

 even be tempted to look for some analogy be- 

 tween the nine lords of the night of the Mexicans, 

 and the nine astrological signs of several nations 

 of Asia, who join to the seven visible planets 

 two invisible dragons, to which they attribute 

 eclipses : but without doubt it is only the facility, 

 with which the nine lords of the night divide 

 themselves forty times into three hundred and 

 sixty days, that has given the preference to the 

 number nine. 



The five complementary days, called by the 

 Persians furtive, or pendjehidouzdideh, bear, 

 among the Mexicans, the name of nemontemi, or 

 void, because they do not add to them those 

 terms of the third series, which the Indian au- 

 thors consider as the companions of the signs of 

 the days. We should observe, and this circum- 

 stance may become embarrassing in the Azteck 

 chronology, that five of these companions bear 

 the same name as the hieroglyphics of the day : 

 but, according to the reveries of the American 

 astrologers, the spirits that belong to the series of 

 the nine signs govern the night, while the other 

 twenty signs govern the day. The Hindoos 

 were acquainted also with genii (caranas) pre- 

 siding over half a lunar day ( tithi). 



As there are twenty signs of the day, and nine 

 companions or lords of the night, the same com- 

 panion must correspond, every nine multiplied by 



