SOB 



with the method of giving to the signs of the 

 numbers the values of position * ; that admirable 

 method invented either by the Hindoos, or by 

 the Thibetans f , but unknown alike to the 

 Greeks the Romans, and the civilized nations 

 of Western Asia. The Mexicans joined their 

 hieroglyphics of the numbers nearly in the same 

 manner as the Romans repeated the letters of 

 their alphabet, which served them as ciphers. 

 We should not be surprised to see, that the 

 Mexican arithmetic does not present a simple 

 hieroglyphic for hundreds above four hundred, 

 when we recollect ||, that the Arabians, till the 

 fifth age of the hegira, knew as little of signs for 

 the enumeration of the hundreds above four 

 hundred ; and that, to write nine hundred, this 

 people, justly celebrated in the annals of the 

 sciences, were obliged to place twice the sign of 

 four hundred by the side of the sign of one 

 hundred. 



From what we have observed respecting the 

 manner of distinguishing the ligatures from each 

 other, and the years contained in a ligature, it 

 follows, that a period was determined, by nam- 

 ing at once the number of the ligatures, or cycles, 

 * 



* La Place, Expos., torn. 2, p. 276. 

 f Georgii Alpli. Tibet., c. 23, p. 637. 

 t Delambre, sur les fonds et les analogues ties Grecs. 

 (Oeuvres d'Archimede, par Peyrard, p. 575.) 

 K Sylvestre de Sacy, Gramm. Arab., 1810, P. 1, p. 74. 



