220 BUEEAU or AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



Gama in his appondix relatino; to Mexican arithmetic." A page of 

 this manuscript is reproduced on phite 30 of the (Toupil-Bohan 

 atlas. Here we see, for instance, forty-three, tifty-three, and thirty- 

 eiglit loads of cornstalks (zacate) expressed by //, /, and /•. I have 

 chosen these examples because they illustrate the peculiarities of nota- 

 tion, which occur in this manuscript. On this page the number 10 is 

 expressed by halving the little flag, which denotes 20, and coloring 

 only one of the halves, the number 1.5, by cutting away a fourth part 

 of the little flag and coloring tlie other three-fourths. It is signifi- 

 cant for our fragment that in all the three figures h to k we have not 

 only the bundle of zacate, l)ut also a scale pan hanging from it, which 

 is the symbol of a load. That the scale pan does indeed typify the 

 weight, a load, on this page is made still further evident by the fact 

 that on the same page the same symbol of the scale pan is used to 

 denote the coin 1 peso, as we saw it in c, figure 44 (see I to /;, figure 

 48, where the reals and medios are attached to the pesos in the same 

 way as we saw them in <■ to /, figure 44, which I have already dis- 

 cussed more particularly). The two figures at the left end of the 

 lower roAv in the upper (red) division, therefore, must signify a load. 

 This again may i-efer to what went before (the red-pepper pods) or 

 to what follows (the cacao beans) ; for these were also reckoned by 

 loads (see e to //, figure 48, the former from the Mendoza codex, the 

 latter from the Pintura del Gobernador, Alcaldes y Regidores de 

 Mexico). 



This being settled, the top rows of the two divisions also become 

 clear. In the top row of the lower division we have on the right 

 first, three loads of zacate. Here no scale pan is drawn hanging 

 from the bundle, as in A to A-, but the whole bundle, instead of the 

 scale pan, hangs by the three cords. Then follows a mat, and, lastly, 

 two square objects which may represent boards or perhaps some 

 woven fabric. 



In the top row of the upper division we have first, on the right, two 

 bundles of zacate; then, two loads of wood. Here the load is drawn 

 in the same way as in the lower division; that is, the bundle of wood 

 in i^lace of the scale pan hangs from the three cords. 



Plate 30 of the Goupil-Boban atlas, which gave us the key to 

 the meaning of the figures selected to denote loads on fragment XIY 

 (plate xix) of our collection, belongs to a manuscript which is fur- 

 nished with text and is a bill of complaint issued against Captain 

 Jorge Ceron y Carabajal, alcalde mayor of the town of Chalco, 

 brought before the Real Audiencia of Mexico in the year 15G4. It is 

 not improbable that our fragment came from the same locality, and 

 perhaps it belongs to the same period. 



" Gama, Dos Piedras, edid. Biistamente. Mexico, 1832, p. 137. 



