151 
and the twenty-second^ offer no indication of 
dates; if there were, we should easily know 
them by the rounds, which express the different 
terms of the periodical series of thirteen ci- 
phers. 
We find in Plate 46 a very singular symbolical 
figure representing a man, whose foot is wedged 
in the trunk of a tree, or in a rock ; Plate 47, 
a woman spinning cotton ; a man’s head with a 
beard; shells ; a large bird, perhaps analcatras, 
drinking water ; a priest kindling the sacred fire 
by friction * ; a man with a bushy beard, carry- 
ing in his hand a kind of vexillum, &c. These 
same persons surrounded by ten other hierogly- 
phics are repeated on the 48th plate. 
On casting our eyes over this shapeless writing 
of the Mexicans, it is self-evident, that the sci- 
ences would gain but little, if we should ever be 
enabled to decipher what a people, that had 
made so little progress in civilization, has re- 
corded in these books. Notwithstanding the 
respect we owe the Egyptians, who have had so 
powerful an influence on the advancement of 
knowledge, we have little reason to presume, 
that the numerous inscriptions, traced on their 
obelisks, and the cornices of their temples, con- 
tain truths of much importance. These conside- 
rations however, though just, ought not, in my 
* See vol. xiii, page 225, and Plate 15, No, 8, 
