358 



with great difficulty, their languages, their my- 

 thology, their divisions of time, every thing as- 

 sumes a character of individuality, that almost 

 effaces the primitive type of their national phy- 

 siognomy. 



In fact, instead of the cycles of sixty years, of 

 years divided into twelve months, and small 

 periods of seven days, used among the nations of 

 Asia, we find among the Mexicans cycles of 

 fifty-two years, years of eighteen months of 

 twenty days each, half decades, and half luna- 

 tions of thirteen days. The system of periodical 

 series, the correspondent terms of which serve 

 to denote the dates of the days and the years, is 

 the same in both continents ; a great many of 

 the signs that compose the series in the Mexican 

 calendar are borrowed from the zodiac of the 

 nations of Thibet and Tartary ; but neither 

 their number, nor the order in which they follow 

 each other, are those observed in Asia. 



The Tartarian zodiac does not begin, like that 

 of the Hindoos, with the Dog, which answers to 

 our sign of the Ram, but with the Rat, which re- 

 presents Aquarius*. This same zodiac has besides 

 the striking particularity, that the celestial animals 

 are reckoned contrary to the order of the signs : 

 instead of placing them in that which is marked 



* Souciet, vol. 2, p. 136. Bailly, Ast. ind., p. 2L2. Lan- 

 gles 1 , notes du Voyage de Thunberg, p. 319. 



