282 
The beginning of the civil day among the 
Aztecks was reckoned like that of the Persians, 
the Egyptians^, the Babylonians, and the 
greater part of the nations of Asia, except the 
Chinese, from sun rising. It was divided into 
eight intervals, a division found among the 
Hindoos f and the Romans ; four of which were 
determined by the rising of the Sun, its setting, 
and its two passages across the meridian. The 
rising was yquiza tonatiuh; noon, nepantla 
tonatiuh; the setting, onaqui tonatiuh; and mid- 
night, yohualnepantla. The hieroglyphic of the 
day was a circle divided into four parts. Al- 
though, under the parallel of the city of Mexico, 
the length of the day does not vary more than 
two hours twenty-one minutes, it is very certain, 
that the Mexican hours were originally unequal, 
like the planetary hoivrs of the Jews, and all 
those which the Greek astronomers noted under 
the name of in opposition to the 
equinoxial hours. 
The epochas of the day and the night which 
correspond nearly to our hours 3, 9, 15, and 21, 
astronomical time, had no particular names. 
The Mexicans, to denote them, pointed, as our 
labourers do, to the place of the sky where the 
* Ideler, Hist. Unters^ ueber die ^.str, Beob. der Alton, 
p. 26. 
t Biiilly, Hist.. TAstr, anc. p. 295. 
