113 



gneta, which is derived from gue, house. They 

 afterward reckon twenty and one, guetas asaqui 

 ata ; twenty-two, guetas asaqui bosa ; twenty- 

 three, guetas asaqui mica, as far as thirty, or 

 twenty plus (asaqui) ten, guetas asaqui ubchihica; 

 forty, or two twenties, gue-bosa ; sixty, or three 

 twenties, gue-mica ; eighty, gue~muykica ; a hun- 

 dred, or five twenties, gue-hisca. We shall here 

 observe, that the Aztecks, after the units, which 

 resemble the nails of the Etruscans, had a cipher, 

 or simple hieroglyphic, only for twenty, for the 

 square of twenty, or four hundred, and for the 

 cube of twenty, or eight thousand. I like to 

 dwell on this uniformity of the nations of both 

 Americas, in the first display of their simplest 

 ideas, and in the methods fitted for the graphical 

 expression of numerical quantities above ten : 

 which uniformity is so much more worthy of at- 

 tention, as it denotes a system of numeration 

 very different from that which we find in the an- 

 cient continent ; from the Greeks, whose notation 

 was already less imperfect than that of the Ro- 

 mans, to the Thibetans, the Indians, and the 

 Chinese, who dispute with each other the honor 

 of that admirable invention of ciphers the value 

 of which changes with their position. 



Amidst the great number of erroneous ideas 

 respecting the languages of nations who have 

 made but little progress in civilization, there is 

 none more extravagant than the assertion of 



VOL. XIV. I 



