ABORIGINAL WRITING IN MEXICO, ETC. '51 



ecclesiastics have seen such books, and some have fallen under my own notice, 

 though many had been burned at the instigation of the monks, who feared that 

 the portions touching the religion might jn-ove noxious to the natives. It hap- 

 pened occasionally that some among them, having forgotten certain phrases or 

 particulars of the Christian doctrine in which they were instructed, and being 

 unable to read our letters, undertook to write those parts in full with their own 

 figures and characters, which they did in a very ingenious manner by substitut- 

 ing the tigure which coi*responded in their language to the sound of our vocable: 

 thus, for saying amen^ they painted something like water (a, root of atl^ Mexican), 

 then a maguey (m^, root of wi*;^^), which in their language nearly sounds like 

 «mew, because they say ametl, and so they proceeded in other cases."* 



This method was in accordance with the ancient Mexican system of writing, 

 which has been so well illustrated by M. Aubin. According to this distinguished 

 savant, Mexican writing shows at least two degrees or stages of development. 

 " Their rougher compositions," he says, " with which authors thus far have 

 almost exclusively been occujiied, resemble much the rebus serving for the 

 amusement of children. Like the rebus they are generally phonetic, but often 

 also confusedly ideographic and symbolic. Such are the names of cities and 

 kings quoted by Clavigero after Purchas and Lorenzana, and by a host of authors 

 after Clavigero. JNI. de Humboldt defines them in a satisfactory manner as signs 

 susceptlhle of being read, and, further, by stating that the Meocicans knew how to 

 write names by uniting some signs which recalled sounds." f 



As an example of this class M. Aubin gives the name of the fourth king of 

 Mexico, Itzcoatl or "Obsidian Serpent." The figure expressing that name rep- 

 resents a serpent, coatl, with darts of obsidian, itz-tli, projecting from its back 

 (Fig. 11). The same name, however, was indicated by another method, which 



Fia. 11. Fio. 12. 



M. Aubin appropriately calls the more advanced stage in the Mexican art of 

 writing. In this case the design (Fig. 12) shows a weapon armed with blades of 

 obsidian, itz-tli, and and an earthen pot, co-mitl, above which is seen the sign for 



* Las Casas : Historia Apologetica de las Yndias Occidentales ; vol. iv, cap. 235, p. 321 eto.; manuscript copy 

 in the Library of Congress, "Washington, D. C. 



t Brasseur de Bourbourg: Histoire des Nations Civilisees etc.; torn, i, p. XLiv.— I quote from Brasseur, nut 

 having M. Aubin's writings at my disposition. 



