0.34 
NOTES. 
lOf page 78 .) The dodecatemorion of the ecliptic; 
the lunar houses ; intercalations of a day in four years, 
or of a multiple of these numbers ; means tried to con- 
ciliate the lunar with the solar almanac, and to make 
the same terms of the periodical series coincide with 
the same seasons ; the use of gnomons ; the importance 
attached to the periods, when the shadows are longest 
or shortest ; the hoiTors felt at the end of a great year ; 
the idea of a regeneration at the beginning of a cycle ; 
all these find their source in the observation of the 
most simple phenomena, and in the individual nature 
of man. 
We must here again observe, that it is very difficult, 
to distinguish between what nations have taken as we 
may say from themselves and the objects which sur- 
round them, and what has been transmitted to them by 
other nations advanced in the arts. Hieroglyphics 
and symbolic writing arise from the need men feel of 
expressing their ideas by visible figures. A tumulus 
or pyramids are erected by the accumulation of earth 
and stones, to mark a place of burial. Meanders, laby- 
rinths, zigzags, are found every where ; either because 
men are generally satisfied with a rhythmiq^ repetition 
of the same forms, or because they have taken as mo- 
dels the regular figures traced on the skin of large 
aquafic serpents, or on the shell of the tortoise. A 
half civilized people, the Araucans of Chili, have a year 
(sipantu), which exhibits a still greater analogy with 
the Egyptian year than that of the Aztecks. Three 
hundred and sixty days are divided into twelve months 
(ayeu) of equal duration, to which are added at the 
end of the year, at the winter solstice (huamathipantu), 
five complementary days. The nijcthemera, like those 
of the Japanese, are divided into twelve hqurs {elagan- 
