Among these analogies there is one which is worthy of
attention--it is the use of the vague year of three hundred and
sixty-five days, composed of equal months, and of five complementary
days, equally employed at Thebes and Mexico--a distance of three
thousand leagues. . . . In reality, the intercalation of the Mexicans
being thirteen days on each cycle of fifty-two years, comes to the same
thing as that of the Julian calendar, which is one day in four years;
and consequently supposes the duration of the year to be three hundred
and sixty-five days six hours. Now such was the length of the year among
the Egyptians--they intercalated an entire year of three hundred and
seventy-five days every one thousand four hundred and sixty years. ...
The fact of the intercalation (by the Mexicans) of thirteen days every
cycle that is, the use of a year of three hundred and sixty-five days
and a quarter--is a proof that it was borrowed from the Egyptians, or
that they had a common origin." ("Antiquities of America," pp. 52, 53.)
The Mexican century began on the 26th of February, and the 26th of
February was celebrated from the time of Nabonassor, 747 B.
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