of Macuilxochitl, Qoauhtinchan, and Tehuilo^ 
j ocean, signify, jive Jlowers^ house of the eagle^ 
and place of mirrors : to indicate these three 
cities, they painted a flower placed on five points, 
a house from which issued the head of an eagle, 
and a mirror of obsidian. In this manner the 
union of several simple hieroglyphics indicated 
compound names, and by signs which spoke at 
the same time to the eye and the ear : the cha- 
racters which designated towns and provinces 
were often drawn also from the productions of 
the soil, or the occupations of the inhabitants. 
From the whole of these researches it follows, 
that the Mexican paintings which have been 
preserved to our times, offer a great resemblance 
not with the hieroglyphical writings of the 
Egyptians, but with the rolls of papyrus found 
in the swathings of the mummies ; which we 
may also consider as paintings of a mixed kind, 
because they unite symbolical and isolated cha- 
racters with the representation of an action. 
We recognize, in these rolls of papyrus, initia- 
tions, sacrifices, allusions to the state of the soul 
after death, tributes paid to conquerors, the be- 
neficent effects of the inundations of the Nile, 
and the labours of agriculture. Among a great 
number of figures represented in action, or in 
connexion with each other, we observe real 
hieroglyphics, those isolated characters which 
belonged to writing ; and it is not only on the 
