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 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, 
