64 



less to astonish us., when we recollect the hypo- 

 theses, which in our days have been advanced by 

 Bailly, Sir William Jones, and Bentley on the 

 duration of the five Yougas of the Hindoos. Of 

 the different nations that inhabit Mexico, paint- 

 ings representing* the deluge of Coxcox are 

 found among theAztecks, the Miztecks, the 

 Zapotecks, the Tlascaltecks, and the Mechoaca- 

 nese. The Noah, Xisuthrus, or Menou of these 

 nations, is called Coxcox, Teo-Cipactli, or Tez- 

 pi. He saved himself conjointly with his wife, 

 Xochiquetzal, in a bark, or, according to other 

 traditions, on a raft of ahuahuete (cupressus dis- 

 ticha). The painting represents Coxcox in the 

 midst of the water, lying in a bark. The moun- 

 tain, the summit of which, crowned by a tree, 

 rises above the waters, is the Peak of Colhuacan, 

 the Ararat of the Mexicans. The horn, which is 

 represented on the left, is the phonetic hiero- 

 glyphic of Colhuacan. At the foot of the moun- 

 tain appear the heads of Coxcox and his wife. 

 The latter of these is known by the two tresses 

 in the form of horns, which, as we have often ob- 

 served, denote the female sex. The men born 

 after the deluge were dumb : a dove, from the 

 top of a tree, distributes among them tongues, 

 represented under the form of small commas -f\ 



* Asiat Researches, Vol. 8, page 195. 

 t See the lawsuit in Plate 12. 



