162 



but ages would have elapsed, before these na- 

 tions of mountaineers, who adhered to their 

 manners and customs with the same invincible 

 obstinacy as the Chinese, the Japanese, and the 

 Hindoos, could have raised themselves to the 

 decomposition of words, the analysis of sounds, 

 the invention of an alphabet ! 



Notwithstanding the extreme imperfection of 

 the hieroglyphical writing of the Mexicans, their 

 paintings were good substitutes for books, manu- 

 scripts, and alphabetic characters. In the time 

 of Montezuma, thousands of persons were em- 

 ployed in painting ; either forming new com- 

 positions, or copying pictures which already 

 existed. The facility with which they made 

 paper of the. leaves of maguey, or pite (the 

 agave), no doubt greatly contributed to render 

 the use of painting so frequent. The paper reed 

 (cyperus papyrus) of the Old Continent grows 

 only in moist and temperate places ; the pite, on 

 the contrary, flourishes equally in the valleys, 

 and on the loftiest mountains ; it vegetates in the 

 warmest regions of the Globe, and on elevated 

 plains, where the thermometer descends to the 

 freezing point. The Mexican manuscripts 

 (codices Meocicani), that have been preserved, are 

 some of them painted on deer skins, others on 

 cotton, or paper of maguey. It is very probable, 

 that among the Americans, as formerly among* 

 the Greeks, and other people of the Old World, 



