and Aztecas, and who, speaking the same language, have
been flowing from north to south since the middle of the
sixth century of our era.”
M. de Humboldt has observed that Gomara, Clavigero,
and the greater number of the Spanish authors have mistaken
the order in which these successive events are recorded in the
Mexican paintings, forgetting that the Mexicans placed their
hieroglyphics from right to left, beginning at the bottom of
the page. M. de Humboldt adds that the diversity exists
pnly-in the order of events, for the circumstances are related
in the same manner by Gomara, Pedro de lps Bios, Ixtliixo-
chitl, and others.
The first cycle, in duration 13 x 400 -f 6 = §2Q6 years,
corresponding with the Age of Justice, the Satya Yhg of the
Hindoos, was in the Aztec tradition Tlaltonatiuh, or the Age
of the Earth, also the Age of Giants, Qzocuilliexeque/ The
traditions of many nations begin with giants or Titans#The
Olmecas and the Xicalancas, two nations whp preeeded3li@
Toltees, and who boasted of high antiquity, pretended to have
found them on arriving at the plain of Tlascala.* The fiction
of Titans and giants alludes, according to the theory of Heyne,
to the conflict between the principle of order in the elements
of nature, with the chaotic state of the universe; but the
notion of giants on the plain of Tlaseala is illustrated by the
discovery of the remains of elephants apd mastodonts, which
the Olmecas, as other nations have done, mistook, for the
bones of giants. The human race of the first age was de--
stroyed by famine.
The second cycle was the Age of Fire, or Tletonatiuh; the
god of fire descended on earth. Birds alone escaped the
conflagration, except one man and. one woman, who saved
themselves in the recesses of a cavern.
The third cycle was Ehecatonatiuh, or the Age of Wind or
Air, the cycle of tempests, which two men alone survived.
The fourth cycle was the Age of Water, Atonatiuh, the duration
of which is 4008 years. A great inundation destroyed
* Torquemada, Monarquia de las Indias, vol. i. Humboldt on the epochas
of nature according to the Aztec mythology.
mankind, and this is the last of the catastrophes Which thé
tvorld has undergone. Men were transformed into fishes
except one man and woman, who saved themselves on the
trunk of an ahahuèi% of c u p r o u s MsMtsha. Thé drawing in
the manuscript’, represents, the góddèsS of water dë&Ceriding
towards.the.earth. CoXCOX, thi Neah of the Mexicans, and
his wife Xóchiquëtzatlf' are seated on the trunk of & tree
Covered With* leaves and floating .-amidst the Waters»
In another part Of the same wbtk- (‘ Vües'defcCJördillères %
in a survey of the hieroglyphioal history -of the Aztecas pré-1
VioüStö the foundation of the iity-of Mexico* M. dpHümboldt
returns to the tradition of Goxcox.and his floods He says :
p Of the different nations that inhabit^Mixico ihe followihg
had paintings representing-the'dfeléigeT of Cdxë@X, Viz» the
Aztecas, the Mixtecaèj thé Zapoteeas, the TlaStsaltiGSj and
~$hè MeehcjëöanianSr Thé Moalfi XiMüthnis, Or Mêtlü öf
these natidns, is 4erméd GöxcöXj TèotCipftötli,?j#r Tözpi. Hé
Sated himself with-his wife Xoehiqueizatl in a bark,- or;
aiC0Ording4 to Other traditfonsj ©ö a rafts The painting-^epife*
serits CdXeox in the midst of thë water waiting for a bark»
The mountain,- the summit of which Stéei ahove the watergy
is the peak of Colhüacan, thé“ Ararat of the Mêx-icUtis» At
the footöf the mountain are the heads8 Of Goxöóx and his
Wifov The latter is known by two' ttèsèes in * tÖS-forfü. of
horns, denoting the female- sex. The tóen born after thé
deluge are dumb.- Thé dove from the top of a tree distributes
among them tongues represented Under the form of small
Commas.- The people of Méchoacan preserved a tradition
that Coxcox* whom they called Tezpi, embarked in a spacious
< aealli ’ with his wife, his Children,- several animals, and
grain. When the great spirit Tezeatlipocè Ordered the WöterS
to withdraw, Tëzpi seM éfieft from his bark a vult«#e> thè Zopi^
lote, or vultur aura. This bird did not retum oh aee'öfföt of
the carcases with which the earth was strewed. Te2pi sént
out other birds, one of which, the hummiög-bird, alone returned,
holding in its beak a branch - covered with leaves»
Tezpi,. seeing that fresh verdure covered the soil, quitted hjS
bark near the mountain of Colhuacan.”
The four ages mentioned in the Mexican tradition, according