181 



ced the history of human life from the cradle to 

 the tomb *. 



" Mexican laws form the third part of the 

 manuscript we have under examination, which 

 embraces the whole life of the citizens, placing 

 before their eyes a picture of all the actions the 

 law prescribes, and of which they see before 

 hand the model. In the same manner as in the 

 hieroglyphics on amulets the optative mode is to 

 be understood, we have only to read the whole of 

 this chapter in the imperative : let the mother 

 instruct the infant in the cradle by words, repre- 

 sented by a tongue ; let the infant be put into the 

 cradle from the first day of its birth, marked by 

 a first flower, which is fastened to the cradle, 

 and which is followed by three others ; after 

 having devoted the infant to the gods-}-, let the 

 midwife wash it on the fifth day in the court, 

 amidst weapons or implements suitable to the oc- 

 cupations of its sex. This ceremony is performed 

 before three children (denoting children in gene- 

 ral), who name the new-born babe, and celebrate 

 its birth by eating maizej. In the inscription of 

 Rosetta, the same thing is ordered by a decree, 



* Themistius, in Stobeus, Serm. 119, p. 104. 

 t With five prayers, to the two masters of Heaven and 

 water, to all the gods, to the Moon, and to the Sun. 



X PI. 59, fig. 1, 



