NOTES. 



235 



tii). It is possible, that the Araucans may have re- 

 ceived this division of time from eastern Asia, deriving 

 it from the same source from which the Asiatic cycle of 

 twenty times thirty-seven sunas, or sixty years, came to 

 the Muyscas of Cundenamarca ; but we find nothing 

 inconsistent with the admission of the calendar of the 

 Araucans having taken its birth in the new continent* 

 Several nations have at first had years only of 360 days ; 

 not because solar revolutions had formerly a shorter 

 duration, as we are gravely assured by an estimable 

 writer, Count Carli ; but because a stop was made at 

 a round number, the result of a first view of the length 

 of the years. Twelve full moons, observed during the 

 interval of about 360 days, led to months of thirty days ; 

 and the complementary days were added on perceiving 

 the confusion arising from the employment of years too 

 short. In the manners and customs of nations, as in 

 the analogy of languages with each other, there are 

 certain marks, by which we directly recognize the 

 identity of origin, or the communications that have ex- 

 isted between one people and another* We conceive, 

 for instance, that the signs of our solar zodiac may 

 have taken their denominations in Egypt, in India, or 

 in some other region watered by great rivers, and 

 placed under the same parallel but, these denomina- 

 tions once fixed, we can no longer doubt, that the na- 

 tions, who employ the same asterisms, have received 

 them one from the other. It is thus we distinguish in 

 languages that community of roots, which are as it 

 were the arbitrary signs of things ; or those grammati- 

 cal forms, which seem founded on mere caprice ; from 

 whatever is connected with imitative harmony, the 

 structure of our organs, or the nature of our intelli- 

 gence. 



