Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/346

 *ilies, when invited to eat with them, had a right to put their hand to the same dish, or to drink out of the same vessel.

Every morning, as the sun appeared, the great chief came to the door of his cabin, and turning himself towards the East, bowed to the earth, and howled three successive times. A pipe dedicated to this purpose was then brought to him, out of which he smoked tobacco, blowing the fume towards the sun, and the other three quarters of the world.[265]is that into four parts. "These four signs," he adds, "of the equinoxes and the solstices, chosen from a series of 20 signs" (the number of days in the Mexican month), "recal to mind the four royal stars, Aldebaran, Regulus, Antares, and Fomahault, celebrated in all Asia, and presiding over the seasons. In the new continent, the indictions of the cycle of 52 years, formed, as we would say, the four seasons of the grand year, and the Mexican astrologers were pleased to see presiding over each period of 13 years one of the four equinoctial or solstitial signs."—]