120 



10. Ubchihica, resplendent Moon. Hierogly- 

 phic: an ear. 



20. Gueta, a bouse. Hieroglyphic : a frog 

 extended. 



The numerical hieroglyphics are engraved on 

 the 44th plate, fig. 4 ; and the explanations we 

 have just given are those preserved by tradition 

 among a small number of Indians, whom Mr. 

 Duquesne had found instructed in the calendar 

 of their ancestors. Those who have studied the 

 keys of the Chinese language, and the little we 

 know of their origin, will not consider the ex- 

 planations of the American ciphers as altogether 

 chimerical. The characteristic features are gra- 

 dually effaced by a long use of signs. Who, 

 at the present day, would recognise in the form 

 of the Hebrew and Samaritan letters that of 

 the simple hieroglyphics of animals, houses, and 

 weapons, which appears to have given them 

 birth ? Our Thibetan or Hindoo ciphers, falsely 

 called Arabian, contain no doubt some mysteri- 

 ous meaning. Among the Indians of Bogota, 

 some traits of an image are doubtless preserved 

 in bosa, mica, hisca, ubchihica, and gueta. The 

 last hieroglyphic cipher is almost identical with 

 the Indian sign of four*. 



It is curious to find ciphers among a semi- 



* tlager, Memoria sulk Cifre de la Cina. (Mines de 

 l'Orietit, t. 2, p. 73.) 



