168 
country of Anahuac ever since the end of the 
seventh century. The Kamtschatdales^ the Ton- 
gooses, and other tribes of Siberia, described by 
Strahlenberg, paint figures which represent his-* 
torical facts. Under every zone, as we have 
already observed, we find nations more or less 
addicted to this kind of painting ; but there is a 
wide distance between a plate covered with 
certain characters, and those Mexican manu- 
scripts, which are all composed according to a 
uniform system, and which may be considered 
as the annals of the empire. We are ignorant 
whether this system of hieroglyphic painting 
was invented in the New Continent, or whether 
it was owing to the emigration of some Tartar 
tribe acquainted with the exact duration of the 
year, and whose civilization was as ancient as 
that of the Oighours of the elevated plain of 
Tiirfan. If we do not find in the Old Continent 
any nation, that has made so extensive a use of 
painting as the Mexicans, it is because we dis- 
cover neither in Europe nor in Asia a civilization 
so much advanced, without the knowledge of an 
alphabet, or certain characters that serve as a 
substitute, such as the characters of the Chinese 
and the Coreans. Before the introduction of 
hieroglyphical painting, the nations of Anahuac 
made use of those knots, and threads of various 
colours, which the Peruvians call quippus^ and 
w hich are found not only among the Canadians, 
