327 



and fifty-two years, Let a, b, c, . . . . be the 

 signs of the zodiac; /3, y\ . . the neutral ele- 

 ments ; a\ $\ /, . . ., the male elements ; and 



»'\ y", 3 the female elements ; we shall 



have, 1st, for the first twelve years, a, b, c, d> 

 . . . . ; 2dly, for the years 13—72, m, ccb, ac, . . . ., 



£a, &b, /3c, , ya, yb, yc, ; 3dly, for 



the years 73 — 132, «a, x'b, x'c,... ., tfa, fr'b, &'c; 

 4thly, for the years 133—192, af'a, x"b, a"c, 

 . . . ., fi"a, fi"b, fi"c, . . . . ; 5thly, for the years 

 193- 252, *V'a, *'""c, . . . ..; /3'/*"a, ffl'b, 

 Wc, .... 



The Tzihi-chen, or public calculators of 

 Lhassa*, allege in favour of the chronology of 

 Thibet, that, as the years of the same name re- 

 turn only every two centuries, the date of an his- 

 torical event is fixed, even when the cycle is not 

 indicated. The uncertainty is greater among the 

 Japanese, and among the Mexicans, where the 

 same names occur every sixty or fifty-two years. 

 We may be surprised, that the Thibetans, who 

 from the highest antiquity made use of the same 

 ciphers and the same system of numeration as 

 the Hindoos, have not abandoned the compli- 

 cated method of periodical series. This method, 

 which takes its origin from astrological reveries, 

 ought to have been employed only by people, 

 who, like the Aztecks and the Toltecks, found 



* Georgi, Alph. Tibet, p. 516. 



