have destroyed the human race^. A tradition of 
Jive ages, analogous with that of the Mexicans^ is 
found on the elevated plain of Thibet^. If it 
be true^ that this astrological fiction, which is 
become the basis of a particular system of cos- 
mogony, originated in Indostan, it is probable 
also, that it passed thence by the way of Iran 
and Chaldea to the western nations. It cannot 
but be admitted, that a certain resemblance ex- 
ists between the Indian tradition of the Yougas 
and the Kalyas, the cycles of the ancient inha- 
bitants of Etruria, and that series of generations 
destroyed, which Hesiod characterizes under 
the emblem of four metals. 
The nations of Culhua, or Mexico, says Go- 
raara:}:, who wrote about the middle of the six- 
teenth century, believe according to their hiero- 
glyphical paintings, that, previous to the sun 
which now enlightens them, four had already 
been successively extinguished. These four suns 
are as many ages, in which our species has been 
annihilated by inundations, by earthquakes, by 
a general conflagration, and by the effect of 
destroying tempests. After the destruction of 
* Hamilton and Langles Catalogife of Sanskrit Manu- 
scripts in the Imperial library, p. 13 : Asiatic Researches, 
vol. 2, p. 171 : Moor’s Hindu Pantheon, p. 27 and 101. 
+ Georgi Alphab. Tibetanum, p. 220. 
i Gomara, Conquista, fol. exix. 
