308 



With the method of giving to the signs of the 



numbers the values of position * ; that admirable 



method invented either by the Hindoos, or by 



the Thibetans f , but unknown alike to the 



Greeks %, the Romans, and the civilized nations 



of Western Asia. The Mexicans joined their 



hieroglyphics of the numbers nearly in the same 



manner as the Romans repeated the letters of 



their alphabet, which served them as ciphers. 



We should not be surprised to see, that the 



Mexican arithmetic does not present a simple 



hieroglyphic for hundreds above four hundred, 



when we recollect ||, that the Arabians, till the 



fifth age of the hegira, knew as little of signs for 



the enumeration of the hundreds above four 



hundred ; and that, to write nine hundred, this 



people, justly celebrated in the annals of the 



sciences, were obliged to place twice the sign of 



four hundred by the side of the sign of one 



hundred. 



From what we have observed respecting the 

 manner of distinguishing the ligatures from each 

 other, and the years contained in a ligature, it 

 follows, that a period was determined, by nam- 

 ing at once the number of the ligatures, or cycles, 



* La Place, Expos., torn. 2, p. 276. 

 f Georgii Alph. Tibet., c. 23, p. 637. 

 X Delambre, sur les fonds et les analogues des Grecs. 

 (Oeuvres d'Archimede, par Peyrard, p. 575.) 

 || Sylvestre de Sacy, Graram. Arab., 1810, P. 1, p. 74. 



