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of thirty-seven sunas, was divided into four small 

 cycles ; the first of which closed with hi sea, the 

 second with ubchihica, the third with quihicha 

 hisca, and the fourth with gueta. These small 

 cycles represented the four seasons of the great 

 year. Each of them contained one hundred and 

 eighty-five moons, which corresponded with 

 fifteen Chinese and Thibetan years, and conse- 

 quently with the real indictions observed in the 

 time of Constantine. In this division by sixty 

 and by fifteen the calendar of the Muyscas ap- 

 proaches much nearer that of the people of east- 

 ern Asia, than the calendar of the Mexicans, 

 who had cycles of four times thirteen or fifty-two 

 years. As each rural year of twelve and thir- 

 teen sunas was denoted by one of the ten hiero- 

 glyphics represented in the fourth figure, and 

 the series of ten and fifteen terms has a common 

 divisor, the indictions were constantly ter- 

 minated by the two signs of conjunction and op- 

 position. We shall not stop here to show how 

 the hieroglyphic of the year, and the indication 

 of the cycle of sixty years to which that year be- 

 longed, might serve to regulate the chronology, 

 as we have already explained it in treating of 

 the relations of the calendars of Mexico, Thibet, 

 and Japan. 



The beginning of each indiction was marked 

 by a sacrifice, the barbarous ceremonies of which, 

 from the little we know, appear all of them to 



