123 



taihty respecting the lunar calendar of the Muys- 

 cas, and the origin of their numerical hiero- 

 glyphics, has no need of being supported by 

 arguments taken from the grammar of a lan- 

 guage, which we may almost consider as dead. 



We have already seen, that the Muyscas had 

 neither the decades of the Chinese and the Greeks, 

 the half-decades of the Mexicans and the people 

 of Benin *, the small periods of nine days of the 

 Peruvians, the ogdoades of the Romans, nor the 

 weeks of seven days (schebuas) of the Hebrews, 

 which we find in Egypt, and in India, but which 

 were known neither among the inhabitants of 

 Latium and Etruria, nor among the Persians and 

 Japanese. The Muysca week was distinguished 

 from all known in the history of chronology ; it 

 had only three days. Ten of these groups formed 

 a lunation, called suna, high road, paved road, 

 dyke, on account of the sacrifice which was cele- 

 brated every month, at the period of the full 

 Moon, in a public place, to which in every vil- 

 lage the high road (suna) led from the house 

 (tithua) of the chief of the tribe. 



The suna did not begin at the New Moon, as 

 among the greater part of the nations of the old 

 world ; but on the day after the full Moon, of 

 which the hieroglyphic was a frog, represented 

 on the intercalary stone (PL 44, fig. 1 a). The 



* Palin, de 1' Etude desllieroglyphes, torn. 1, p. 52. 



