132 



same name. The priests of Thibet and of In 

 dost an know in the same manner how to take 

 advantage of this multiplicity of the signs that 

 govern the years, months, lunar days, and 

 hours ; they announce them to the people, in 

 order to levy a tax on their credulity *. 



The object of the intercalation of the Muyscas 

 was to bring back to the same season the com- 

 mencement of the rural year, and the festivals 

 which were celebrated in the sixth month, the 

 name of which was consecutively suna ta y suna 

 suhuza, suna ubchihica. Mr. Duquesne thinks, 

 that the beginning of the zocam was, as among 

 the Peruvians, the Hindoos, and the Chinese, 

 the full moon that follows the winter solstice; 

 but this tradition is uncertain. The first cipher, 

 ata, represents water, symbolically denoted by 

 a frog. Among the Chinese, the first asterism, 

 in the cycle of tse, is also that of water, and it 

 corresponds to our sign of Aquarius *f\ 



In the same manner as among the nations of 

 Tartarian race;j; the cycle of sixty years, go- 

 verned by twelve animals, was divided into five 

 parts, the cycle of the Muyscas, of twenty years 



* Le Gentil, Voyage dans FInde, torn. 1, p. 207. 

 + See vol. xiii, p. 338. 



J See vol. xiii, p. 321 and 371 ; Dupuis, Origine des 

 Cultes, torn. 3, pi. I, p. 44 : Bailly, Astronornie Indienne et 

 Orientate, 1787, p. 29. 



