234 



NOTES. 



12, page 78.) The dodecatemorion of the ecliptic; 

 the lunar houses ; intercalations of a day in four years, 

 or of a multiple of these numbers ; means tried to con- 

 ciliate the lunar with the solar almanac, and to make 

 the same terms of the periodical series coincide with 

 the same seasons ; the use of gnomons ; the importance 

 attached to the periods, when the shadows are longest 

 or shortest ; the horrors felt at the end of a great year ; 

 the idea of a regeneration at the beginning of a cycle ; 

 all these find their source in the observation of the 

 most simple phenomena, and in the individual nature 

 of man. 



We must here again observe, that it is very difficult, 

 to distinguish between what nations have taken as we 

 may say from themselves and the objects which sur- 

 round them, and what has been transmitted to them by 

 other nations advanced in the arts. Hieroglyphics 

 and symbolic writing arise from the need men feel of 

 expressing their ideas by visible figures. A tumulus 

 or pyramids are erected by the accumulation of earth 

 and stones, to mark a place of burial. Meanders, laby- 

 rinths, zigzags, are found every where ; either because 

 men are generally satisfied with a rhythmic repetition 

 of the same forms, or because they have taken as mo- 

 dels the regular figures traced on the skin of large 

 aquatic serpents, or on the shell of the tortoise. A 

 half civilized people, the Araucans of ChiJi, have a year 

 (sipantu), which exhibits a still greater analogy with 

 the Egyptian year than that of the Aztecks. Three 

 hundred and sixty days are divided into twelve months 

 {ay en) of equal duration, to which are added at the 

 end of the year, at the winter solstice (huamathipantu), 

 five complementary days. The nucthenterdi, like those 



of the Japanese, are divided into twelve hours (elagan- 

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