INVESTIGATIONS IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA. 39 



Although there is an expression for riijlU, there is none to designate left. Tlie 

 conception of what we call morality was a different one with the people si)eaking 

 the Nawhuatl from ours, lor that language does not possess a terra for truth, nor 

 for lie ; and none for sieaUng. This would indicate that those people either did 

 not practise the vices of lying and stealing, or that they did not look upon such 

 actions as vices. It cannot be, however, denied that they possess generalized 

 ideas. This is proved by the term Tunal, which seemed to indicate the imk-ersal 

 vital power ; for they designate by it sun, light, day, and the spirit or soul. Simi- 

 larly the NaiohuaM language indicates the simplicity of manners of its originators. 

 At, water, forms the radical of the expression for drinking ; which shows that 

 drinking and water were identical and inseparable. 



A most interesting circumstance consists in the want of separate expressions 

 for blue and green. The term schuschuik (Germ, spell.) is used for both these 

 colors. L. Geiger^ attempts to prove that the same is true with two of the great 

 divisions of the human family, the Semitic and Indo-Germanic. In the books of 

 Moses, and in the whole Bible, the word hlue is never expressed, nor the blue of 

 the atmosphere ever mentioned, although the sky is very frequently described. 

 The same is the case with the Indo-Germanic branch. No reference is ever made 

 to the blue of the atmosphere in the Rigveda and Avesta ; and that phenomenon 

 seems to have been likewise unknown to the early Greeks, as it is never mentioned 

 by Homer. Nay, more, even the Koran never mentions it, nor do its interpreters 

 down to the eighth century of our era. The case of the Chinese is similar, with 

 whom the same hieroglyphic (Nr. 17-1) tlising stands for blue and green.' 



The highest number reached in counting in the Nawhuatl language is twenty, 

 phual, which signifies a count, contado, and is represented by twenty kernels of 

 maize. The only higher numbers are the multiples of twenty; and four huiulred, 

 that is, eighty hands, is expressed by se sunti, which seems to have signified a 

 certain company of men. 



EXPLORATIONS ON THE WEST COAST OF SOUTH AMERICA. 



Leaving Central America, I went to the Pacific coast of South America, visiting 

 Ecuador, a part of Cauca, a state of the Columbian confederation, and Peru, and 

 found them rich in archteological remains of various kinds. 



The inhabitants of these countries differ in many respects from those of Central 

 America. The principal cause of these diversities is probably the difference of 

 physical characteristics exhibited by those two parts of America. The surfiice of 

 Central America is more uniformly elevated above the sea, and consequently its 

 climate is more equable. Those regions which are sufficiently elevated to influence 

 the climate to any extent are of small area. South America, on the other hand, 



' Ursprung und Entwickclung der menschlichen Spraclie und Ycrniinft. Stuttgart, 1812, vol. ii; 

 pag. 304 and foil. 



' Ibid, pag, 336 and 376. 



