long, and 0‘085 met. (three inches, two lines^ 
French measure) wide. This form, analogous 
to that of the ancient Dlptlcks, distinguishes the 
manuscript at Dresden from those at Vienna, 
Veletri, and in the Vatican ; but what renders it 
very remarkable is the disposition of the simple 
hieroglyphics, many of which are arranged in 
lines, as in a real symbolic writing. On com- 
paring the 45th plate with the 13th and the 
27th, we see, that the Codex Mexicanus of 
Dresden resembles none of those rituals in which 
the image of the astrological sign, that governs 
the half lunation, or small period of thirteen 
days, is surrounded by asterisms of lunar days. 
Here a great number of simple hieroglyphics 
follow each other without connexion, as in the 
Egyptian hieroglyphics, and the keys of the 
Chinese. 
In general, nothing appears to me more cha- 
racteristic of the works of the Chinese, than the 
uncouth paintings of sacred animals recumbent 
and pierced with darts, which we see at the 
bottom of the first three pages. This analogy 
extends to the linear signs, which remind us of 
the Jwuas, substituted by the Emperor Tai-hao- 
fo-hi, 2941 years before our era*, for the quippus, 
which w^e find on the inscription of Rosetta, in 
the interior of Africa, in Tartary, Canada, 
^ Julius Klaproth, Asiatisclies Magaziii, 1802, B. 1, p. 91, 
52 ], and 545. 
