Peruvian potentate. The change of the color of his
garments according to the astronomical cycle, is, however, more
thoroughly in accordance with the spirit of the institutions of the
Children of the Sun than any thing which we have met in the whole of
this strange and obsolete record. 'The ritual of the Incas,' says
Prescott, 'involved a routine of observances as complex and elaborate as
ever distinguished that of any nation, whether pagan or Christian. Each
month had its appropriate festival, or rather festivals. The four
principal _had reference to the Sun_, and commemorated the great periods
of his annual progress, the solstices and equinoxes. Garments of a
peculiar wool, and feathers of a peculiar color, were reserved to the
Incas. I can not identify the blue, red, yellow, and black, but it is
worthy of remark that the rainbow was his special attribute or
scutcheon, and that the mere fact that his whole life was passed in
accordance with the requisitions of astronomical festivals, and that
different colors were reserved to him and identified with him,
establishes a strange analogy with the narrative of Hoei-schin.

'Of this subject of the cycles and change of colors corresponding to
astronomical mutations, it is worth noting that Montesinos[J] expressly
asserts that the Peruvians threw their years into cycles of ten; a
curious fact which has escaped the notice of Neumann, who conjectures
that 'it may have been a subdivision of the Aztec period, or have even
been used as an independent period, as was indeed the case by the
Chinese, who term their notations 'stems.' It is worthy of remark,' he
adds, 'that among the Mongols and Mantchous these 'stems' are named
after colors which perhaps have some relation to the several colors of
the royal clothing in the cycles of 'Fusang.' These Tartaric tribes term
the first two years of the ten-year _cyclus_, 'green and greenish,' the
two next, 'red and reddish,' and soon, yellow and yellowish, white and
whitish, and finally, black and blackish.'

I am perfectly aware that Peru is not Mexico; but I beg the reader to
keep in mind my former observation, that Mexico _might_ have been at one
time peopled by a race who had Peruvian customs, which in after-years
were borne by them far to the South. The ancient mythology and
ethnography of Mexico presents, however, a mass of curious identities
with that of Asia. Both Mexico and Peru had the tradition of a deluge,
from which seven prison