Brinton.l 



510 



[Oct. 1, 



jll II MM (I )) [I /( I) ii 



Fig. 3.— Itzmiquilpan. 



wbich is to be read, " Andover, Massachusetts," so in the Aztec 

 scrolls, we have itzmiquilpan represented by an obsidian knife, 

 itztli, and an edible plant, qvilitl, which are placed above or over 

 (pan), the sign for cultivated land, milli, 

 thus giving all the elements of the name, the 

 last syllable by position only. 



In one respect I believe the ikonomatic 

 •writing of the Mexicans is peculiar ; that is, 

 in the phonetic value which it assigns to col- 

 ors. Like the Egyptian, it is polychromatic, 

 but, so far as I know, the Egyptian polychromes never had a 

 phonetic value ; they were, in a general way, used b}' that people 

 as determinatives, from some supposed similarity of hue ; thus 

 green indicates a vegetable substance or bronze, yellow, certain 

 woods and some animals, and so on. In heraldry the colors are 

 very important and have well-defined significations, but very 

 seldom, if ever, phonetic ones. Quite the contrary is the case 

 with the Mexican script. It presents abundant instances where 

 the color of the object as portrayed is an integral phonetic ele- 

 ment of the sound designed to be conveyed. 



To quote examples, the Nahuatl word for yellow is cuztic or 

 coztie, and when the hieroglyphics express phonetically such 

 proper names as Acozpa, Cozamaloapan, Cozhuipilcan, etc., the 

 monosyllable coz is expressed solely by the yellow color which 

 the scribe lays upon his picture. Again, the name Xiuhuacan, 

 " the place of grass," is represented b^ 

 a circle colored pale blue, hxiutic. The 

 ZqY name of this tint supplies the phonetic 



desired. The name of the village 

 Tlapan is conveyed hy a circle, whose 

 interior is painted red, tlapalli, contain- 

 ing the mark of a human foot-print. 

 Such examples are sufficient to prove 

 that in undertaking to decipher the 

 Mexican writing we must regard the 

 color as well as the figure, and be pre- 

 pared to allow to each a definite phonetic value. 



It must not be understood 1 that all the Aztec writing is 

 made up of phonetic symbols. This is far from being the case. 

 We discover among the hundreds of curious figures which it pre- 



Fig. 4.— Acozpa. 



