308 
with the method of giving to the signs of the 
numbers the values of position * ; that admirable 
method invented either by the Hindoos^ or by 
the Thibetans but unknown alike to the 
Greeks [j:, the Romans^ and the civilized nations 
of Western Asia. The Mexicans joined their 
hieroglyphics of the numbers nearly in the same 
manner as the Romans repeated the letters of 
their alphabet^ which served them as ciphers. 
We should not be surprised to see^ that the 
Mexican arithmetic does not present a simple 
hieroglyphic for hundreds above four hundred, 
when we recollect ||, that the Arabians, till the 
fifth age of the hegira, knew as little of signs for 
the enumeration of the hundreds above four 
hundred ; and that, to write nine hundred, this 
people, justly celebrated in the annals of the 
sciences, were obliged to place twice the sign of 
four hundred by the side of the sign of one 
hundred. 
From what we have observed respecting the 
manner of distinguishing the ligatures from each 
other, and the years contained in a ligature, it 
follows, that a period was determined, by nam- 
ing at once the number of the ligatures, or cycles, 
* La Place, Expos., tom. 2, p. 27G. 
f Georgii Alpli. Tibet., c. 23, p. 637. 
I Delambre, sur les fonds et les analogues des Grecs, 
(Oeuvres d’Archim^de, par Peyrard, p. 575.) 
ij Sylvestrc de Sacy, Gramm. Arab., 1810, P. 1, p. 74. 
