25 
of Asia. I have never been able to discover any 
peculiar propriety in the number of 18028 years. 
It is not a multiple of 13, 19, 52, 60, 72, 360, 
or 1440, which are the numbers found in the 
cycles of the Asiatic nations. If the duration of 
the Mexican four suns were longer by three 
years ; and if for the numbers 5206, 4804, 4010, 
and 4008 years, the numbers 5206, 4807, 4009, 
and 4009, were substituted, we might suppose, 
that these cycles originated from a knowledge of 
the lunar period of nineteen years. But what- 
ever be their real origin, it does not appear less 
certain, that they are fictions of the astronomi- 
cal mythology, modified either by an obscure 
remembrance of some great revolution, which 
our planet has undergone ; or according to the 
physical and geological hypotheses, to which the 
aspect of marine petrifactions and of fossil bones 
has given rise, even among nations the most re- 
mote from civilization. 
On examining the paintings represented in 
the 26th plate, we find, in the four destructions, 
the emblems of four elements, earth, fire, air, and 
water. These same elements were also indicated 
by the four hieroglyphics ^ of the years, rabbit, 
house, flint, and cane. Calliy or house, consi- 
dered as the symbol of fire, reminds us of the 
* See voL 13, p. 180 ; and Siguenza, in Gemelli, Giro del 
Hondo, tom. 6, p. 65. 
