passage of the sun by the zenith of Mexico, must have been
made at Mexico itself or in its vicinity. They appear,
th ere%|e^ <j to b e . of American|(ori gift«? They' Could .bót bavé
been made" by any nation living^north of the tropic. Neither
the Aztecs nor the Toltecs, if they came from northern parts
of Asia, pould have brought with them even a notice of this
celestial phenomenon.
2. If we advert to the supposition that emigrants from
Asia in later times than the population of America introduced
the knowledge £ of astronomy among the Mexicans,
it may be asked, why did not those Asiatics bring also an
alphabet, the art of working iron, mills, wheelbarrows, and
a multitude of other common arts which remained unknown
to the Mexicans, and at least the >,seeds of rice^ : millet,
wheat, or of some other grain cultivated in the country
whence they came. If they camé' from one where, agriculture
was unknown, it is improbable that they wére advanced
in science.
It must on the whole, be allowed to be by far the most
probable conclusion, nay, almost certain,, that; the SGÎenqe?%>f
thé Mexicans was their own acquirement, and that theyrowed
it not to foreigners.
Section VI.—-Mexican' Traditions respecting a Deluge and
- repeated Destructions o f the World.
We have seen that the most careful investigations of the
Mexican science and Mexican civilisation lead to the inference
that the higher mental culture existing previously to
their conquest among the nations of Central America was
of indigenous origin, and was not communicated to those
nations from the Old Continent. We have now to advert to
a series of fictions cotmecting the Mexican astronomy with
legendary history, which has been thought to indicate something
in common in the ancient traditions of the American
and Asiatic nations.
The most striking point of correspondence which has yet
been traced between the fictions of the Mexicans and the
legends of "the Asiatic nations, is the fable of repeated destructions^
and rénovations of the'wbrld, connected in the
mythologies of both continents with the . final and initial
periods of astronomical oyblesv? “ This fiction;*’ says M. de
Humboldt, “ w hi disconnects the return of the great éycles
with the idea-of the renewaKof matter; ^deemed indestructible;
and which attributès-'tb ’s'paCë’ what seems only to
belong to - t i m e , b a c k to the highest antiquity. The
Sacred -books of the Hindoos, especially the Bhagayata P u-
rana, ^speak of thedbur ages ’andcof pralkyas'or cataclysms,
Which at'^differènt -epochs have destroyed4 the'^human race*
A tradition of five âgés analogous to that of*the Mexicans is
found On-the elevated plain of'Thibet.*’ 'Nothing is more
evident than the analogy bejween the Indian tradition of Yugas
and Kalpas ~ the _eycliü of the ancient Etruscans;' and that
Series o f agë's' “ which Hesiod characterises under thé’.emblem
of four metals/^ *
“ The nations of Colhua or Mexico”/* ’says* Gomara, wlio
%>r#te about the year 1550, “ d ecluré/in tèrpifëting thei ri hi esro-
glyphic paintings, that previously to the sun which now enlightens
thêta? four had successively been'extinguished. These
four suns belong to as, many algfl^'at the terminations of
which out species has beeni su%ce&fively annihilated byrinun-
daCiofi^l by earthquakes, by a general conflagration,' "and by
the effect of destroying tempests. After the 'destruction of
thé fourth sun the world was plunged in darkness^-during
twenty-five years. Amid this profound obscurity, ten years
before the appearance of the fifth sun, the ^ d s for the fifth
time cieated a man and a woman. The day on which the
last sun appeared bore the- sign tochtli, a rabbit, and the-
Mexicans reckon 850 years from that’ era te 1652. Their
annals go back to this period. They had historical?'paintings
referring even to the fourtjpreOeding: a||ds^ but a’ssert that
these paintings were destroyed because at every period all
things must be renewed. According to Torquemada this
fable of the revolutions - of time and the régénération of
nations is of Toltec origin : it is a national tradition common
to that groupe of nations whom we know under the names of
Toltecas, Chichimecas, Acolhuas, Nabuatlacas, Tlascaltecas,