165 
Mexican maniiscrips preserved at Veletri^ al 
Rome, at Bologna, at Vienna, and at Mexico ; 
they seem at first sight to be copies of each 
other ; they are all extremely incorrect in the 
outlines, but we find a scrupulous attention to 
the details, and great strength in the colouring, 
which is placed so as to produce the most strik- 
ing contrasts. The figures are in general 
dwarfish with respect to the body, like those of 
the Etruscan reliefs : but in correctness of draw- 
ing they are far beneath the most imperfect 
paintings of the Hindoos, the Chinese, the Ja- 
panese, or the people of Thibet. We see in 
the Mexican paintings heads of an enormous 
size, a body extremely short, and feet which, 
from the length of the toes, look like the claws 
of a bird. The heads are always drawn in pro- 
file, though the eye is placed as if the figure pre- 
sented a full view. All this denotes the infancy 
of the art ; but we must not forget, that people 
who express their ideas by paintings, and who 
are compelled by their state of society to make 
frequent use of mixed hierogiyphical writing, 
attach as little importance to correct painting, 
as the literati of Europe to a fine hand writing 
in their manuscripts. 
It cannot be denied, that the Mexican people 
belong to a race of men, who, like several 
Tartar and Mongul hordes, are extremely fond of 
imitating the form of objects. Every where in 
