ON LEGIBLE LANGUAGE, 



emblems engraven on the rocks,* which seein to have preceded the use 

 of the Tartar or Mantcheu alphabet. 



In America we meet with traces of picture-writing amidst the ino^t sa- 

 vage tribes ; every leader on returning from the field endeavouring to give 

 some account of the order of his march, the number of his adherents, the 

 enemy whom he attacked, and the scalps and captives he brought home, 

 by scratching with coarse red paint a certain display of uncouth figures 

 upon the bark of a tree, stripped off for this purpose. " To these simple 

 annals, he trusts for renown, and soothes himself with a hope, that by their 

 means he shall receive praise from the warriors of fiiture times.''t The 

 Mexicans are well known to have acquired such a degree of perfection 

 in this style of writing, that on the first arrival of the Spaniards on their 

 coasts expresses were sent off to Montezuma, the reigning monarch, con- 

 taining an exact statement of the fact, together with the number and 

 size of the different ships, by a series of pictures alone, painted on the 

 cloth of the country. It was thus this people k^pt their public records, 

 histories, and calendars. We are still in possession of several very 

 curious specimens of Mexican picture-writing, some of which exhibit 

 several of the vefy emblems I have just adverted to, as those which 

 would probably be had recourse to in our own day, were we miraculously 

 to be deprived of all knowledge of alphabetic writing ; as, a bale of goods 

 to represent the idea of commerce, and a rose-tree that of odour. The 

 most valuable specimens, however, of Mexican picture-writing, are those 

 obtained by Mr. Purchas, and published in sixty-six plates, divided into 

 three parts; the first containing a history of the Mexican empire under 

 its ten monarchs ; the second, a tribute -roll, representing what each con- 

 quered town paid into the royal treasury ; and the third, a code of Mexican 

 institutions, domestic, political, and military. Various other specimens 

 are to be met with in different parts of Spain, and especially in the Royal 

 Library at the Escurial ; and a fofio volume in the Imperial Library at 

 Vienna. Along with the full pictures we occasionally meet, in some of 

 these national archives, with emblems, or a prominent feature put for the 

 whole figure ; and in others with various symbols or arbitrary characters, 

 making an approach towards letters ; and thus confirming the progress 

 from pictures to arbitrary signs which I have endeavoured to establish. 



The written language of the Chmese, however, is carried to a still higher 

 pitch of perfection ; and is, perhaps, rendered as perfect as the system 

 upon which it is founded will allow. It is still altogether a language of 

 things, and was formerly very largely, if not altogether, a language of pic- 

 tures. The pure picture-style is admitted by themselves to have been the 

 oldest, or that first invented, and they expressly denominate this order of 

 characters siang or Mng^ "form or image." ''The picture," however, 

 observes Dr. Morrison, " does not appear to have ever been intended as an 

 exact representation, such as the picture-writing of Mexico, or the hiero- 

 glyphics of Egypt, but only a slight outline."| This kind of style is noW 

 become obsolete, and is rarely to be met with ; but of the next series, or 

 that into which the original or siang style was first transformed, which they 

 call Yu-tsu, probably from the name of the great emperor Yu, or Chow, in 

 whose era the transformation is said to have occurred, it is no uncommon 

 thing to meet with specimens on rings, seals, and other public instruments. 



* De Vet. Lit. Hun. p. 16. Astle, p. 6. 



t Robertson's America, vol. iii. b. vii. p. ^03, Astle, p. 6. 



t Chinese Miscellany. 



