for that of the Rat (Arvicola) in the Tartar zodiac. The Rat takes the
place of Aquarius. Gaubil, Obs. Mathem. volume 3 page 33.) These two
Mexican signs are Water (Atl) and Cipactli, the sea-monster furnished
with a horn. This animal is at once the Antelope-fish of the Hindoos,
the Capricorn of our zodiac, the Deucalion of the Greeks, and the Noah
(Coxcox) of the Azteks.* (* Coxcox bears also the denomination of
Teo-Cipactli, in which the root god or divine is added to the name of
the sign Cipactli. It is the man of the Fourth Age; who, at the fourth
destruction of the world (the last renovation of nature), saved
himself with his wife, and reached the mountain of Colhuacan.
According to the commentator Germanicus, Deucalion was placed in
Aquarius; but the three signs of the Fishes, Aquarius and Capricorn
(the Antelope-fish) were heretofore intimately linked together. The
animal, which, after having long inhabited the waters, takes the form
of an antelope, and climbs the mountains, reminds people, whose
restless imagination seizes the most remote similitudes, of the
ancient traditions of Menou, of Noah, and of those Deucalions
celebrated among the Scythians and the Thessalians. As the Tartarian
and Mexican zodiacs contain the signs of the Monkey and the Tiger,
they, no doubt, originated in the torrid zone. With the Muyscas,
inhabitants of New Grenada, the first sign, as in eastern Asia, was
that of water, figured by a Frog. It is also remarkable that the
astrological worship of the Muyscas came to the table-land of Bogota
from the eastern side, from the plains of San Juan, which extend
toward the Guaviare and the Orinoco.) Thus we find the general results
of comparative hydrography in the astrological monuments, the
divisions of time and the religious traditions of nations the most
remote from each other in their situation and in their degree of
intellectual advancement.