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Show A p p E N D I X. given, ~n his A.ntiquit\cs, a monument of a ferpent which fur.rounding the figns of the Zodiac, cuts them, by rolling itfelf in various modes abont them. In addition to thefe inconteftible examples, the following rcflexion is moft convincing. There is not a doubt that the lymbol of the fcrpent is a thing totally arbit(ary to fignify the fun . with which it has no phyfical relation; wherefore then I afk, have fo many nations difpcrfed over the globe, and of which fome have had no reciprocal intercourfc, unlefs in the fir!~ ages after the deluge, agreed in ufing one fame fymbol fo arbitrary, and chofc to exprefs by it the fame objctt ? When we find the wOL·d focco in · the Hebrew, Greek, Teutonic, Latin languages, &c. it obliges us to believe that it ·belongs to the primitive language of men after the d~lnge, and whe~ we fee one fame arbitrary fymbol, flgnifying the fun and his courfe. ufed by the Mexicans, the Chinefe, tht: ancient Egyptians, and Perfians, does it not prompt us to believe the real origin of it was in the time of Noah, or the fidl: men after the deluge? this fair conclufion is ftrongly confirmed by the Chiapanefe Calendar (which is totally Mexican), in. which the Chiapanefe·, according, to Monfig. Nugnez de la Vega, bilbop of Chiapa, in his Preface to his Synodal Conftitutions, put for the .fidl: fymbol or name of the firft year of the century a Vo~ tan, nephew of him who built a wall up to heaven, and gave to men. the languages which they now fpeak. Here is a fact ,connected, w:ith the Mexican Calendar, relative to the building of the tower of Babel and the confufion of tongues. Many fimilar reftexions are fuggefted. by the obfervations and remarks which occur in your hifl:ory, &c. Cefcna, July 31, 1780. So far the letter of Sig. Ab. Herv:>.s. Whatever may have been the truth refpecting the ufe of the folar year among thefe firfl: men, in which difpute I do not mean to engage, I cannot be perfuaded that . the Mexicans, or the Toltecas, ha~e. been indebted to any nation of the old continent for their Calendar, and their meth'Od of computing time. From whom did the Toltecas learn their age of o~1e hundred and four years, their century of .fifty-two, their. year of e1ghteen months, their months of twenty days, their p~riods of thirteen _Years ~nd thirte~n d:ys, their cycle of two huQdred and fixty days, and m particular tbetr th1rteen intercalary days, at the end of the century, to adjufl: the year with the courfe of the fun? The Egyp.tians 8 were • .. A p p E N D I X. were the greateft afl:ronomers of thofe remote times, but they adopted no intercalary fpace to adjuft the year with · the annual retardation of the folar courfe. If the Toltecas of themfelves difcovered that retardation, it is not to be wondered at if they difcovered other things which did not require fuch minute aud prolix a!l:ronomical obfervations. Boturini, of whofe tefiimony Ab. Hervas avails himfdf, t\ys expreily .upon the faith of the annals of the Tohccas, which he faw, that the ancient afironomers of that nation having obfcrved in their native country Huehuetlapallan, (a northern country of America), the excefs of about fix hours of the folar, over the civil year which was obferved among them, co.rreCl:ed it by the ufe of intercalary days, more than one hundred years before the Chri!l:an era. \Vith refpeCt to the conformity between the Mexicans and Egyptians, we il1all treat of it in our Diifertations. Animadverjio11s of the Author on the Work entitled, LETTE!U~ AMER !CANE, or American Letters. Some of the obfervations made by Ab. Hervas have alfo been made by the learned author of the American Letters, a work full of erudition, recently publi{hed in the Literary Magnine of Florence, and come to us at the time the ]aft {beets of this volume were printing. The author, in oppofing the ab(urd opinions of M. de Paw, from a jufi though imperfeCt idea of the culture of the Mexicans, difcourfcs in general very intelligently of their < uf1:om s, ~heir :1rts, anq,, a~ove all, their afl:ronomical knowledge, explains the11· calendar and tnc1r cycle , and in thefe points compares them with the a~Jcicnt ~gyptians, as wa':i done in the lafi century bv the learned Mex1can, S1gnet~:lJ, to prove their conformity and the ~ntiquity of the popubtion o~ Ar:J ::ric:\. In_ the pcrufal of thefe letters, I have had the plea(ure ot fec1ng fmnc of my own fentiments fupported and explained; nllhongh tl:e au tho:. has committed many mifiakes, and fhewn more acrimony agat_n~ the "~)aniill nation than is confiftent with C<\ndour nnd imparttallty. 1 he ulteration of the Mexican names in his work, is a trefpafs upon all the rules of literary propriety and accuracy with refpcCl: to ety ... mology. Vor.. I. p p p In • 473 • |