27 



to Macrobius and NonnuS; indicated the position 

 even of the planets at the epoch of the creation of 

 the worlds and that of the general deluge. On 

 calculating^ according to the system of the periodi- 

 cal series^, the signs which presided over the years 

 several ages before the sacrifice of TlalixcO; (the 

 year ome acatl, or 2 canes, corresponding to the 

 year 1091 of the christian sera; I find; that the 

 dates and the signs do not entirely correspond 

 with the duration of each Mexican age. Neither 

 are they marked in the paintings in the Vatican ; 

 but I have taken them from a fragment of Mexi- 

 can history preserved by Alva Ixtlilxochitl, who 

 fixes the duration of the four ages not to 18028; 

 but only to 1417 years. We must not be sur- 

 prised at this in astrological calculations ; for the 

 first number includes almost as many indictions 

 as the last contains years. Thus in the mystic 

 chronology of the Hindoos, the substitution of 

 days for divine years * reduces the four ages of 

 4;320;000 years to 12000. 



* Bailly, Astr. Ind., p. ci. 



