407 
iecks and the Aztecks^. Ttie knowledge of 
the system of the calendar followed by the most 
northerly nations of America and Asia would 
be highly interesting. Among the inhabitants 
of Nootka, we still find the Mexican months of 
twenty days ; but their year has only fourteen 
months^ to which they add^ by very complex 
methods^ a great number of intercalary days f . 
When a nation does not regulate the subdivi- 
sions of the year after the same lunations, the 
number of months becomes very arbitrary, and 
its choice seems to depend only on a particular 
predilection for certain numbers. The Mexican 
nations preferred the double decads, because 
they had simple signs only for the units, for 
twenty, and for the powers of twenty. . 
The use of periodical series, and the hierogly- 
phics of the day, have exhibited striking analo- 
gies between the nations of Asia and those of 
America. Some of these examples have not 
escaped the penetration of Mr. Dupuis though 
he has confounded the signs of the months with 
those of the days, and had but a very imperfect 
knowledge of the Mexican chronology. It 
would be contrary to the end we have proposed 
* Waddiloye, in Robertson’s Hist, of America, vol. 8, 
p. 404, note 35. 
f Don Joze Mozinno, Viage a Noutka, M. S. (See my 
Essai Politique, vol. i. p. 335). 
I Menioire explicalif sur le Zodiaque, p, 99, 
