star-groups seemingly stretched between Polaris and the
northern horizon. A glance at plate I shows that, at the present time, it
is about the period of the autumnal equinox that Ursa Minor would be
invisible at midnight, in such localities, while Ursa Major would
gradually disappear from view towards midnight, during a certain number of
nights, according to latitude and locality, between the autumnal equinox
and the winter solstice whilst Cassiopeia would seem to hover above the
horizon. The total or partial alternate periodical disappearance of the
two most familiar star-groups in the extreme North and their re-appearance
after sometimes regular intervals of time could but have made a profound
impression upon primitive astronomers and thinkers. Whilst the mere
periodical reversal of the positions of Cassiopeia and Ursa Major
suggested alternate victory and defeat, the actual though brief and
partial disappearance of either star-group must have appeared to be a
descent into an under-ground space, associated with darkness and death,
followed by a resurrection. In his Cronica, Tezozomoc records, besides
Mictlan (the land of the dead), another name for the underworld,
Opochcal-ocan, literally, the place of the house to the left. This
appellation can only be understood when it is realized that, in a
sufficiently southern latitude, an observer, watching the setting of a
circumpolar constellation below the horizon, would always see it disappear
to his left and subsequently rise to his right. It is evident that in time
this fact would give rise to the association of the left with the
underworld, the lower region, and the right with the region above. The
native idea of a dwelling in the underworld is further demonstrated by the
bestowal of the symbol _calli_=house, upon the western horizon below which
all heavenly bodies were seen to disappear. A definite connection between
the West and one half of the North being thus established, it would
naturally result that a corresponding union of the South and East would be
thought of in time, and that these quarters would become associated with
the rising of celestial bodies, _i. e._, with light, the Above, while the
opposite quarters became identified with their setting, _i. e._, with
darkness, the Below.

Pausing to review the foregoing conclusions, which I have shown to be the
natural and inevitable result of simple but prolonged astronomical
studies, observation and plain reasoning