47 
A slight resemblance between the calantica of 
the heads of Isis, and the Mexican headdress ; 
the pyramids with terrasses, like those of Fa- 
youm, and of Sakharah ; the frequent use of 
hieroglyphical painting; the five complementary 
days added to the end of the Mexican year, 
similar to the epagomena of the Memphian year ; 
exhibit very remarkable points of comparison 
between the people of the Old and the New 
Continent. We are nevertheless very far from 
indulging in hypotheses, which would be as 
vague and uncertain as those which make 
the Chinese a colony from Egypt, and the Bis- 
cayan language a dialect of the Hebrew. 
These analogies for the most part disappear, 
when the facts are examined separately. The 
Mexican year, for instance, notwithstanding the 
epagomena, differs entirely from that of the 
Egyptians. An illustrious geometrician *, who 
examined the fragments which I brought to Eu- 
rope, found by the Mexican intercalation, that 
the duration of the tropical year of the Aztecks 
is almost identical with the duration found by 
the astronomers of Almamon. 
If we go back to the early ages, history marks 
several central points of civilization, of the mu- 
tual relations of which we are ignorant ; such 
* La Place, Exposition du Systeme du Monde, 3® ed. p, 
554. 
