27 
to Macrobius and Nonnus, indicated the position 
even of the planets at the epoch of the creation of 
the world, and that of the general deluge. On 
calculating, according to the system of the periodi- 
cal series, the signs which presided over the years 
several ages before the sacrifice of Tlalixco, (the 
year ome acatl^ or 2 canes, corresponding to the 
year 1091 of the Christian sera, I find, that the 
dates and the signs do not entirely correspond 
with the duration of each Mexican age. Neither 
are they marked in the paintings in the Vatican ; 
but I have taken them from a fragment of Mexi- 
can history preserved by Alva Ixtlilxochitl, who 
fixes the duration of the four ages not to 18028, 
but only to 1417 years. We must not be sur- 
prised at this in astrological calculations ; for the 
first number includes almost as many indictions 
as the last contains years. Thus in the mystic 
chronology of the Hindoos, the substitution of 
days for divine years * reduces the four ages of 
4,320,000 years to 12000. 
* Bailly, Astr. Ind,, p. ci. 
