$83 



carried the new fire from village to village, to 

 the distance of fifteen or twenty-leagues ; it was 

 deposited in every temple, whence it was distri- 

 buted to every private dwelling. When the 

 . Sun began to appear on the horizon, the accla- 

 mations redoubled. The procession went back 

 from the mountain of Iztapalapan, to the city ; 

 and the people thought that they beheld their 

 gods return to their sanctuaries. The women 

 were then released from prison ; every one put 

 on new dresses, and the thirteen intercalary days 

 were employed in cleansing the temples, in 

 whitening the walls, in renewing their house- 

 hold furniture, their plate, and whatever else was 

 necessary for domestic use. 



This secular festival, this apprehension of see- 

 ing the fifth sun extinguished at the epoch of the 

 winter solstice, seems to present a new instance 

 of analogy between the Mexicans and the in- 

 habitants of Egypt. Achilles Tatius *, in his 

 commentary on Aratus, has preserved the follow- 

 ing account, which Scaliger thinks is borrowed 

 from the Octaeterides of Eudoxus. " When the 

 Egyptians saw the Sun descend from the Crab 



* Acliil. Tat., Isag. in Phasnom., c, 23, (Petavius de 

 Doctr. Temp., 1703, torn. 3, p. 85). Scalig., Adnot. ad 

 Manil. Astron., lib. 1, v. 69, p. 85. See also the French 

 translation of the Letters of Count Carli, torn. 1, page 398, 

 note 1. 



