132 
same name. The priests of Thibet and of 
dostan know in the same manner how to take 
advantage of this multiplicity of the signs that 
govern the years^ months, lunar days, and 
hours ; they announce them to the people, in 
order to levy a tax on their credulity 
The object of the intercalation of the Muyscas 
was to bring back to the same season the com- 
mencement of the rural year, and the festivals 
which were celebrated in the sixth month, the 
name of which was consecutively suna ta, suna 
suhuza, suna ubchihica, Mr. Duquesne thinks, 
that the beginning of the zocam was, as among 
the Peruvians, the Hindoos, and the Chinese, 
the full moon that follows the winter solstice; 
but this tradition is uncertain. The first cipher, 
ata, represents water, symbolically denoted by 
a frog. Among the Chinese, the first asterism, 
in the cycle of tse, is also that of water, and it 
corresponds to our sign of Aquarius ■f*. 
In the same manner as among the nations of 
Tartarian race:}: the cycle of sixty years, go- 
verned by twelve animals, was divided into five 
parts, the cycle of the Muyscas, of twenty years 
* Le Geotil, Voyage dans i’Inde, tom. 1, p. 207. 
+ See vol. xiiij p. 338. 
t See vol. xiii, p. 321 and 371 ; Dupuis, Origine des 
Cultes, tom. 3, pi. 1, p. 44 : Bailly, Astronomic Indienne ei 
Orientale, 1787, p. 29. 
