Chinese, Egyptian, Persian and American sym- 
bols, the type of a language of signs, which is 
common, we may say, to the whole race, and 
which is the natural offspring of the intellectual 
faculties of man. 
' The collection preserved by Purchas and 
Thevenot represents, in three parts, the founda- 
tion of the city, and its increase by the conquests 
of its princes ; its support by the tributes paid by 
the conquered cities ; its institutions, and the de- 
tail of the life of its inhabitants. The whole of 
this is obvious at the first view. We first distin- 
guish the ten chiefs of the colony, that founded 
the empire, having the symbols of their names 
marked over their heads. They meet with the 
objects which form the arms of the city of Mexico. 
That stone surmounted by an Indian fig-tree, on 
which is an eagle *, recalls to mind the eagle 
perched on a tree, and the cup, which the god 
Astrochiton gave as signs to distinguish the spot 
where Tyre'f' was to be built. A house, a habi- 
tation, denotes the new city:}:; a buckler with 
arrows, its occupation by force §. The symbols 
near two other houses surrounded by combat- 
ants, teach us the names of the two cities first 
conquered. The remainder of the history is 
composed in the same spirit, and of similar 
^ PI. 58, fig. 1. t Nonnus, XL, y.4773. 
I Stone of Rosetta f and Denon, PI. cxxxill. 
§ Horapoll., ir, 5, 12. 
I 
