PICTURE-WRITING AND WORD-WRITING. 97 



is taken, clearly belongs^ as appears by the drawing of the 

 bouse with its arched door. 



A genealogical table of a native family in the possession of 

 Mr. Chi'isty is as good a record of this time of transition as 

 could well be cited. The names in it are written, but are ac- 

 companied by male and female heads drawn in a style that is 

 certainly Aztec. The names themselves tell the story of the 

 change that was going on in the country. One branch of the 

 family, among whom are to be=read the names of Citlalmecatl, 

 or " Star-Necklace," and Cohuacihuatl, or " Snake-Woman," 

 ends in a lady with the Spanish name of Justa ; while another 

 branch, beginning with such names as Tlapalxilotzin and Xiuh- 

 cozcatzin, finishes with Juana and her children Andres and 

 Francisco. The most thoroughly native thing in the whole is 

 a figure referring to an ancestor of Justa' s, and connected with 

 his name by a line of footprints to show how the line is to be 

 followed, in true Aztec fashion. The figure itself is a head 

 drawn in native style, with the eye in full front, though the 

 face is in profile, in much the same way as an Egyptian would 

 have drawn it, and it is set in a house as a symbol of dignity, 

 having written over against it the high title of Ompamozcalti- 

 totzaqualtzinco, which, if I may trust the imperfect dictionary 

 of Molina, and my ovra. weak knowledge of Aztec, means " His 

 excellency our twice skilful gaoler." 



The importance of this Mexican phonetic system in the His- 

 tory of the Art of Writing may be perhaps made clearer by a 

 comparison of the Aztec pictures with the Egyptian hierogly- 

 phics. 



Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions consist of figures of ob- 

 jects, animate and inanimate, men and animals, and parts of 

 them, plants, the heavenly bodies, and an immense number of 

 different weapons, tools, and articles of the most miscellaneous 

 character. These figures are arranged in upright columns or 

 horizontal bands, and are to be read in succession, but they 

 are not all intended to act upon the mind in the same way. 

 When an ordinary inscription is taken to pieces, it is found 

 that the figures composing it fall into two great classes. Part of 

 them are to be read and understood as pictures, a drawing of 



H 



