339 
Gomara and Torqueiiiada ^ call it espadarte, a 
name by which the Spaniards denote the nar- 
wal, the great tooth of which is known by the 
name of the unicorn’s horn. Boturini took this 
horn for a harpoon, and erroneously translated 
cipactU by serpent armed with harpoons. As 
this sign does not represent a real animal, it is 
natural enough, that its form should vary more 
than that of any other sign. Sometimes the 
horn appears a lengthening of the muzzle, as in 
the famous fish oxyrinchus^ represented in the 
place of the southern fish under the belly of 
Capricorn, in some Indian planispheres f : at 
other times the horn is entirely wanting. On 
casting our eyes on the figures in plate 23d and 
27th, taken from very ancient drawings and re- 
liefs, we see how much Valades, Boturini, and 
Clavigero were mistaken, in representing the 
first hieroglyphic of the Mexican days as a 
shark, or a lizard. In the manuscript in the 
Borgian museum, the head of cipactli resembles 
that of a crocodile ; and this same name of cro- 
codile is given by Sonnerat to the tenth sign of 
the Indian zodiac, which is our Capricorn. 
Besides, the idea of the sea animal, cipactli, is 
connected in the Mexican mythology with the 
history of a man, who, at the epocha of the de- 
^ Conqiiista, fol. 119. Mon. ind., tom. 3, p. 223. 
t Philos. Transact., 1772, p. 353. 
Z 2 
