172 



with those of the Mexicans* ; they indicated the 

 names of the persons they meant to represent, 

 by employing the same means, which we have 

 already mentioned in the description of a genea- 

 logical painting. The natives of Virginia had 

 paintings called sagkokok, which represented in 

 symbolical characters the events, that had taken 

 place during the space of sixty years : these were 

 great wheels divided by sixty spokes, or into as 

 many equal parts. Lederer -f~ relates having 

 seen, in the Indian village of Pommacomek, 

 one of these hieroglyphical oycles, in which the 

 epocha of the arrival of the Whites on the coasts 

 of Virginia was marked by the figure of a swan 

 vomiting fire ; to indicate at the same time the 

 colour of the Europeans, their passage by water, 

 and the' destruction which their fire-arms had 

 poured on the Red men. 



At Mexico the use of painting and of paper of 

 maguey was extended far beyond the limits of 

 the empire of Montezuma, to the borders of the 

 lake of Nicaragua, whither the Toltecks in their 

 migrations had carried their language and their 

 arts. In the kingdom of Guatimala, the inhabi- 

 tants of Teochiapan had preserved traditions, 



* Lafitau, vol. 2, p. 43, 225, 416. La Hontan, Voyage 

 dans PAmerique septentrionale, vol. 2, p. 193. 

 t Journal des Savans, 1681, p. 75. 



