384 



towards Capricorn, and the days gradually di- 

 minish, they were accustomed to sorrow from 

 the apprehension, that the Sun was to abandon 

 them entirely. This epocha coincided with the 

 festival of Isis : but when the orb began to re- 

 appear, and the duration of the days grew longer, 

 they robed themselves in white garments, and 

 crowned themselves with flowers (te\i%$wm^mM$c> 

 eaTeQxwiQfyweiv) ." On reading this passage of 

 Achilles Tatius, we think we peruse what 

 Gomara and Torquemada relate respecting the 

 festival of the Mexican jubilee. In the same 

 manner # , in the work of Sextus Empiricus f 

 against the astrologers, we find as it were the 

 description of the symbolical figure J, which we 

 have engraved in plate 15th, from the manu- 

 script preserved at Veletri. In every nation on 

 Earth superstitious ideas assume the same form 

 at the rise and fall of civilization ; and it is on 

 account of this analogy, that it is difficult to dis- 

 tinguish what has been communicated from 

 country to country, and what man has drawn 

 from an interior source. 



* Dupuis, Mem. explicatif du Zodiaque, 1806, page 145. 



+ Scxt. Empir. contra Mathem., lib. 5, (ed. Stephan., 

 torn. 3, p. 187). Firmicus, lib. 2, c. 27, (ed. Aid. Manut. 

 1503, fol. 105). Origen. contra Celsum, lib. 8, c. 56, (ed.* 

 Delarne, 1733 torn.) 1, page 783. 



See abore, page 206, PI. 15. 



