17 
the fourth sun, the world v/as plunged in dark- 
ness during the space of twenty-five years. Amid 
this profound obscurity, ten years before the 
appearance of the fifth sun, mankind was re- 
generated. The gods, at that period, for the 
fifth time, created a man and a woman. The 
day, on which the last sun appeared, bore the 
sign tochtli (rabbit) ; and the Mexicans reckon 
eight hundred and fifty years from this epoch a to 
155'2. Their annals go back as far as the fifth 
sun.- They made use of historical paintings 
( escritura 'pintada) even in the four preceding 
ages ; but these paintings, as they assert, were 
destroyed,* because in each age every thing ought 
to be renewed. According to Torquemada% this 
fable of the revolutions of time, and the regene- 
ration of nature, is of Tolteck origin : it is a 
national tradition common to that group of 
people, whom we know under the name of Tol- 
tecks, Chichimecks, Acolhuans, Nahuatlacks, 
Tlascaltecks, and Aztecks ; and who, speaking 
the same language, have been flowing from north 
to south since the middle of the sixth century of 
our era. 
On examining, at Rome, the Codex Vaticanus, 
No. 3738, copied in 1566 by a Dominican monk, 
* Torquemada, vol. 1. p. 40 ; vol. 2, p, 83 . 
VOL. XTV. C 
