322 
sidered as male and female. The character of 
these methods is the same in the chronology of 
the Americans as in that of the Asiatics : if we 
cast our eyes over the table of the years, which 
we have sketched some pages back we shall 
see, that the mode adopted by the Mexicans is 
even less complicated. The Japanese, to denote 
the period of the accession of a Dairi, do not 
say, that it was in the year ouma (horse) of the 
second period of twelve years : they call the 
nineteenth year of the cycle, the year male water 
(horse), placed between the years water 
(sheep) jemale metal (serpent). To have a 
clear idea of these periodical series of the Japa- 
nese calendar, we should recollect, that this 
nation, like the people of Thibet, reckon five 
elements ; namely, wood (henoj, fire (Jino), 
earth (tsutsno), metal, or lead (hanno), and 
water (midsno). Each element is male or fe- 
male, according as the syllable je or to is added, 
a distinction which was also in use among the 
Egyptians t- In order to distinguish the sixty 
years of the cycle, the Japanese combine the 
ten elements, or terrestrial principles, with 
the twelve signs of the zodiac, called the celes- 
tial principles. We shall give here only the 
^ See p, 310. 
i Seneca, QujEst, Nat, lib, 3, c, 14. 
