146 



long, and 0085 met. (three inches, two lines, 

 French measure) wide. This form, analogous 

 to that of the ancient Dipticks, distinguishes the 

 manuscript at Dresden from those at Vienna, 

 Veletri, and in the Vatican ; but what renders it 

 very remarkable is the disposition of the simple 

 hieroglyphics, many of which are arranged in 

 lines, as in a real symbolic writing. On com- 

 paring the 45th plate with the 13th and the 

 27th, we see, that the Codex Mexicanus of 

 Dresden resembles none of those rituals in which 

 the image of the astrological sign, that governs 

 the half lunation, or small period of thirteen 

 days, is surrounded by asterisms of lunar days. 

 Here a great number of simple hieroglyphics 

 follow each other without connexion, as in the 

 Egyptian hieroglyphics, and the keys of the 

 Chinese. 



In general, nothing appears to me more cha- 

 racteristic of the works of the Chinese, than the 

 uncouth paintings of sacred animals recumbent 

 and pierced with darts, which we see at the 

 bottom of the first three pages. This analogy 

 extends to the linear signs, which remind us of 

 the kouas, substituted by the Emperor Tai-hao- 

 fo-hi, 2941 years before our era*, for the quippus, 

 which we find on the inscription of Rosetta, in 

 the interior of Africa, in Tartary, Canada, 



* Julius Klaprolb, Asiatisclies Magazin, 1802, B. 1, p. 91, 

 o-2l, and 54."> 



