120 
10. Ubchihicay resplendent Moon. Hierogly- 
phic: an ear. 
20. Giieta^ a house. Hieroglyphic : a frog 
extended. 
The numerical hieroglyphics are engraved on 
the 44th plate^ fig. 4 ; and the explanations we 
have just given are those preserved by tradition 
among a small number of Indians, whom Mr. 
Duquesne had found instructed in the calendar 
of their ancestors. Those who have studied the 
keys of the Chinese language, and the little we 
know of their origin, will not consider the ex- 
planations of the American ciphers as altogether 
chimerical. The characteristic features are gra- 
dually effaced by a long use of signs. Who, 
at the present day, would recognise in the form 
of the Hebrew and Samaritan letters that of 
the simple hieroglyphics of animals, houses, and 
weapons, which appears to have given them 
birth ? Our Thibetan or Hindoo ciphers, falsely 
called Arabian, contain no doubt some mysteri- 
ous meaning. Among the Indians of Bogota, 
some traits of an image are doubtless preserved 
in hosa^ mica^ Jiisca^ uhchihica^ and gueta. The 
last hieroglyphic cipher is almost identical with 
the Indian sign of four*. 
It is curious to find ciphers among a semi- 
* Hager, Memoria sulk Cifre de la Cina. (Mines de 
rOrient, t. 2, p. 73.) 
I 
