113 
gueta, which is derived from gue^ house. They 
afterward reckon twenty and one^ guetas asaqui 
at a ; twenty- two^ guetas asaqui hosa ; twenty- 
three, guetas asaqui mica^ as far as thirty, or 
twenty plus ( asaqm)Xen^ guetas asaqui uhchihica ; 
forty, or two twenties, gue-hosa ; sixty, or three 
twenties, gue-mica ; eighty, gue-muyhica ^ a hun- 
dred, or five twenties, gue-Msca. We shall here 
observe, that the Aztecks, after the units, which 
resemble the nails of the Etruscans, had a cipher, 
or simple hieroglyphic, only for twenty, for the 
square of twenty, or four hundred, and for the 
cube of twenty, or eight thousand. I like to 
dwell on this uniformity of the nations of both 
Americas, in the first display of their simplest 
ideas, and in the, methods fitted for the graphical 
expression of numerical quantities above ten : 
which uniformity is so much more worthy of at- 
tention, as it denotes a system of numeration 
very different from that which we find in the an- 
cient continent ; from the Greeks, whose notation 
was already less imperfect than that of the Ro- 
mans, to the Thibetans, the Indians, and the 
Chinese, who dispute with each other the honor 
of that admirable invention of ciphers the. value 
of which changes with their position. 
Amidst the great number of erroneous ideas 
respecting the languages of nations who have 
made but little progress in civilization, there is 
none more extravagant than the assertion of 
VOL. XIV. . I 
