322 



sidered as male and female. The character of 

 these methods is the same in the chronology of 

 the Americans as in that of the Asiatics: if we 

 cast our eyes over the table of the years, which 

 we have sketched some pages back *, we shall 

 see, that the mode adopted by the Mexicans is 

 even less complicated. The Japanese, to denote 

 the period of the accession of a Dairi, do not 

 say, that it was in the year ouma (horse) of the 

 second period of twelve years : they call the 

 nineteenth year of the cycle, the year male water 

 (horse), placed between the years female water 

 (sheep) and female metal (serpent). To have a 

 clear idea of these periodical series of the Japa- 

 nese calendar, we should recollect, that this 

 nation, like the people of Thibet, reckon five 

 elements ; namely, wood (ke?io), fire (fino), 

 earth (tsutsno), metal, or lead (kanno), and 

 water (midsno). Each element is male or fe- 

 male, according as the syllable je or to is added, 

 a distinction which was also in use among the 

 Egyptians f. In order to distinguish the sixty 

 years of the cycle, the Japanese combine the 

 ten elements, or terrestrial principles, with 

 the twelve signs of the zodiac^ called the celes- 

 tial principles. We shall give here only the 



* See p. 310. 



+ Seneca, Quaest. Nat. lib. 3, c. 14. 



