151 



and the twenty-second, offer no indication of 

 dates ; if there were, we should easily know 

 them by the rounds, which express the different 

 terms of the periodical series of thirteen ci- 

 phers. 



We find in Plate 46 a very singular symbolical 

 figure representing a man, whose foot is wedged 

 in the trunk of a tree, or in a rock ; Plate 47, 

 a woman spinning cotton ; a man's head with a 

 beard ; shells ; a large bird, perhaps an alcatras, 

 drinking water ; a priest kindling the sacred fire 

 by friction * ; a man with a bushy beard, carry- 

 ing in his hand a kind of vexillum, &c. These 

 same persons surrounded by ten other hierogly- 

 phics are repeated on the 48th plate. 



On casting our eyes over this shapeless writing 

 of the Mexicans, it is self-evident, that the sci- 

 ences would gain but little, if we should ever be 

 enabled to decipher what a people, that had 

 made so little progress in civilization, has re- 

 corded in these books. Notwithstanding the 

 respect we owe the Egyptians, who have had so 

 powerful an influence on the advancement of 

 knowledge, we have little reason to presume, 

 that the numerous inscriptions, traced on their 

 obelisks, and the cornices of their temples, con- 

 tain truths of much importance. These conside- 

 rations however, though just, ought not, in my 



* See vol. xiii, page 225, and Plate 15, No. 8. 



