The Indians believe that the world was created under the sign of Aries; and therefore they begin, every year, on the commencement of April, when the sun enters into that sign, a new period, according to which they determine the course of the sun and the other planets. On this occasion they always hold their great and celebrated festival of offering known under the name of _Yaga_. A great many Brahmans assemble in a tent in the open fields, and, amidst a variety of ceremonies and religious practices, strangle a ram which is consecrated to the sun and the planets. The object of this sacrifice is, that the genii of these stars may confer good fortune and happiness on their worshippers during the course of the new year. In my _Systema Brahmanicum_ I have given a particular description of this festival. According to the assertion of Le Gentil, Bailly, De la Lande, and Sonnerat, the Brahmans use a cycle of sixty years, reckoned according to the method of the Chaldæans. A period of 24,000 years, they say, is necessary before the whole host of the heavens, together will all the fixed stars belonging to them, can perform their revolution from east to west. Now, as the motion of the celestial sphere, in the course of sixty years, advances fifty-four minutes in longitude, it thus produces the above-mentioned cycle of sixty years, which forms a part of the 24,000 years which must elapse before the whole rotation of the heaven is completed. Mr. S. Davis, however, is of opinion, that this cycle of the Brahmans relates merely to the revolution of _Rasha_ (Jupiter.) This much at any rate is certain, that this cycle actually occurs in the astronomy of the Brahmans. Walther, Sonnerat, and Father Beschi have mentioned the different appellations of the sixty years, of which this cycle consists, in the order as they follow each other; and it appears, that such years are expressly quoted in the horoscopes and descriptions of the nativities of the Indian princes. It is equally certain, that this cycle existed in the _Pancianga_ of the _Brahmans_ at _Carnate_, _Malayala_, _Madura_, and _Tanjaur_. This _Pancianga_ is the calendar used by all the Brahmans who live towards the East. It consists of five divisions, as appears by its name, which is compounded of _pancia_ five, and _angia_ a part. The first contains the days of the moon’s increase and decrease; the second, the usual days of the week; the third, the constellations, with an account of the moon’s daily position; the fourth, those days which announce good or bad fortune; and the fifth, auguries and horoscopes, together with the current year of the above-mentioned cycle of sixty years.