24 
Persian ages described in the Zend-Avesta*. I 
no where find how many years had elapsed from 
the deluge of Coxcox to the sacrifice of Tlalixco, 
or till the reform of the Azteck calendar ; but, 
however near we may suppose these two periods, 
we still find that the Mexicans attributed to 
the world a duration of more than twenty thou- 
sand years. This duration certainly forms a 
contrast with the great period of the Hindoos, 
which consists of four millions three hundred and 
twenty thousand years ; and still more with the 
cosmogofiical fiction of the Thibetans, according 
to which mankind already compute eighteen re- 
volutions, each of which has several padu, ex- 
pressed by numbers of sixty-two ciphers-f*. It 
is nevertheless remarkable, that we find an 
American people, who, according to the same 
system of the calendar in use among them on 
the arrival of Cortez, indicate the days and the 
years in which the world underwent great catas- 
trophes farther back than twenty ages. 
Le Gentil, Bailly, and Dupuis:}:, have ingeni- 
ously explained the duration of the great cycles 
* Aoquetil, Zend-Avesta, vol. 2, p. 352. 
f Thibet, Alpliab. p. 472. 
J Le Gentil, Voy. dans les Indes, vol. 1, p. 235; Bailly, 
Astron. Ind., p. Ixxxxviii and 212 : Bailly, Hist, de I’Astron. 
Am., p. 76 : Dupuis, Orig. des Cultes, vol. 3, p. 164. 
I 
