181 
ced the history of human life from the cradle to 
the tomb *. 
Mexican laws form the third part of the 
manuscript we have under examination, which 
embraces the whole life of the citizens, placing 
before their eyes a picture of all the actions the 
law prescribes, and of which they see before 
hand the model. In the same manner as in the 
hieroglyphics on amulets the optative mode is to 
be understood, we have only to read the whole of 
this chapter in the imperative : let the motheiv 
instruct the infant in the cradle by words, repre- 
sented by a tongue ; let the infant be put into the 
cradle from the first day of its birth, marked by 
a first flower, which is fastened to the cradle, 
and which is followed by three others ; after 
having devoted the infant to the gods^f", let the 
midwife wash it on the fifth day in the court,, 
amidst weapons or implements suitable to the oc- 
cupations of its sex. This ceremony is performed 
before three children (denoting children in gene- 
ral), who name the new-born babe, and celebrate 
its birth by eating maize;}:. In the inscription of 
Rosetta, the same thing is ordered by a decree^ 
* Themistius, in Stobeus, Serm. 119j p. 104. 
f With five prayers, to the two masters of Heaven and 
water, to all the gods, to the Moon, and to the Sun. 
X PI. 59, fig. 1. 
