104 



CALENDAR 



MUVSCA INDIANS, 



THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF THE PLAIN OF BOGOTA. 



PLATE XLIV. 



A stone, covered with hieroglyphic signs of 

 the lunar calendar, and representing the order in 

 which the intercalations, that bring back the 

 origin of the year to the same season, is made, is 

 a monument so much the more remarkable, as it 

 is the work of a people, whose name is almost 

 entirely unknown in Europe, and who have been 

 hitherto confounded with the wandering tribes 

 of the savages of South America. For the dis- 

 covery of this monument we are indebted to Don 

 Jose Domingo Duquesne of Madrid, canon of 

 the metropolitan church of Santa Ft? de Bogota. 

 This ecclesiastic, a native of the kingdom of New 

 Grenada, and descended from a French family 

 settled in Spain, was long the vicar of an Indian 



