loh[1]—where it is shown that both the Chinese and the Hindoo records chronicle a certain terrible geological convulsion as occurring in the years 2357 and 2456 before Christ, both of which dates fall within the life of Peleg. Moreover, the signification of the name of the patriarch Salah, who was his cotemporary, again favours the same hypothesis, and it must be conceded that many favourite and received theories rest on far worse grounds.
According to this, the series of convulsions which broke up the surface of the globe will have occurred eight or nine hundred years after the dispersion of mankind, and consequently after that every part of the surface may have become occupied by both men and animals.
This is not the place for repeating what others have established with regard to the analogies of the Mexican mythology with that of the Old World. The subject is a tempting one, but I have already stepped over my proper bounds, and in referring you to Humboldt, Faber, Bryant, and other well-known writers, I crave your pardon for my digression, and resume my narrative.
On repairing to the House of the Moon, I found my two companions busily employed in verifying the truth of the information we had received in Mexico, of an entrance having been discovered. The opening in question lies in the southern face of the pyramid, at two thirds of the elevation, and possibly about the level of the third terrace from the bottom. It is difficult to determine exactly, for the whole form of this the lesser pyramid is much more indistinct than that of its rival. A number of Indian women and children beset the entrance, which was little larger than that into a fox earth, and after undergoing a partial stripping, I proceeded to share in the glory or danger of the enterprise, whichever it might be. As it happened, there was neither to be gained. I laid myself flat upon my face, and ducking into the aperture, squeezed myself blindly forward with my candle, through
- ↑ Researches Philosophical and Antiquarian, concerning the Aboriginal History of America, by J. H. M'Culloh, M.D. Baltimore, 1829.
