182 BEAUTIFUL BIRDS 
don’t quite know which it was), that it was quite like 
proper writing. Of course there are some words that 
are not so easy to make a picture of—as you can try 
for yourself—but, wherever it could be done, these 
old Aztecs would do it. And if only we had some 
more of this writing (for we have very little of it), we 
should be able to know a great deal more about this 
old people, who were in America before Columbus 
came there, and what they did and what they thought 
about, and the remarks they made to each other, and 
just think how interesting that would be. It 1s 
always interesting to know something about people 
quite different to ourselves who lived a long time ago. 
Unfortunately, when the Spaniards had conquered 
these people, instead of keeping the things which they 
had made, they burnt them. They burnt their houses, 
their temples, their cities, their picture-writings, their 
feather-pictures, their wonderful flowers—until the 
gold and silver they were made of were quite melted 
—their clothes, everything—even the people them- 
selves—and, to save time, they often burnt the two 
last together. It is a great pity they did this, but, 
you see, everybody has a plan of doing things, and 
the plan of the Spaniards was to burn the people they 
conquered, and everything belonging to them. But 
was it not horribly cruel? Oh! most horribly; but 
so it is to shoot sea-gulls, and then to cut off their 
