346 
or their fears. The sky of the nomade tribes 
will be peopled with dogs, stags, bulls, and 
wolves, without its being ajt all necessary for us 
to conclude, that these tribes have formerly 
made part of the same people. We must not 
confound objects that resemble each other from 
mere accident, or from a similarity of situation, 
with those that attest a common origin, or 
ancient communications. 
But the Tartar and Mexican zodiacs contain 
not only the animals peculiar to the climates 
which these people inhabit at present ; we find 
also apes and tigers, two animals that are 
unknown on the elevated plains of central and 
eastern Asia, to which a great elevation gives 
a colder temperature than that which reigns 
toward the west under the same latitude. The 
people of Thibet, the Monguls, the Mantchous, 
and the Calmucks, have therefore received from 
a more southern country the zodiac, which is too 
exclusively called the Tartar cycle. The Tol- 
tecks, the Aztecks, the Tlascaltecks flowed from 
the north toward the south : we are acquainted 
with Azteck monuments as far as the banks of 
the Gila, between S3® and 34° of northern lati- 
tude. History shows us the Toltecks coming 
from regions still more northerly. These colo- 
nists, issuing from Aztlan, did not arrive as bar- 
barous hordes ; every thing that appertained to 
theni betokened the remains of ancient civiliza- 
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