340 
striiction of the fourth sun^ after having for a 
long time swam in the waters, saved himself 
alone, by reaching the top of the mountain 
Colhuacan. We have observed, that the Noah 
of the Aztecks, commonly called Coxcox, bears 
also the name of Teo-Cinactli, in which the 
word divinity, or divine, is added to that of 
cipactli. On looking into the zodiac of the na- 
tions of Asia, we find, that the Capricorn of the 
Hindoos is the fabulous fish maharan, or souro % 
4 
celebrated for his exploits, and represented, from 
the most remote antiquity, as a sea-monster with 
the head of an antelope •f'. As the inhabitants 
of India, like the Mexicans, often indicate the 
nacshatras (lunar mansions) and the laquenons 
(dodecatemoria) by the heads only of the ani- 
mals, which compose the lunar and solar zodiacs, 
we ought not to be surprised, that the western 
nations should have transformed the mahara 
into Capricorn ; and that Aratus, 
Ptolemy, and the Persian Kaswini, should have 
given it the tail of a fish. An animal, which, 
after having for a length of time inhabited 
the waters, takes the form of an antelope, and 
scales the mountains, reminds nations, whose 
disturbed imagination associates objects the 
* Sonnerat, Voyage aux Indes, tom. 1, p. 310, Bailly^ 
Astr. ind., p. 210. 
t Aslat. Researches, vol. 2, p, 335, No. 7. 
