THE AZTEC PICTURE-WRITING.
HIEROGLYPHIC RECORDS--THE NATIVE
BOOKS--AUTHORITIES--DESTRUCTION OF THE NATIVE ARCHIVES BY
ZUMÁRRAGA AND HIS CONFRÈRES--PICTURE-WRITINGS USED AFTER THE
CONQUEST FOR CONFESSION AND LAW-SUITS--VALUE OF THE
RECORDS--DOCUMENTS SENT TO SPAIN IN THE SIXTEENTH
CENTURY--EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS--LORD KINGSBOROUGH'S
WORK--PICTURE-WRITINGS RETAINED IN MEXICO--COLLECTIONS OF
IXTLILXOCHITL, SIGUËNZA, GEMELLI CARERI, BOTURINI, VEYTIA,
LEON Y GAMA, PICHARDO, AUBIN, AND THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF
MEXICO--PROCESS OF HIEROGLYPHIC DEVELOPMENT--REPRESENTATIVE,
SYMBOLIC, AND PHONETIC PICTURE-WRITING--ORIGIN OF MODERN
ALPHABETS--THE AZTEC SYSTEM--SPECIMEN FROM THE CODEX
MENDOZA--SPECIMEN FROM GEMELLI CARERI--SPECIMEN FROM THE
BOTURINI COLLECTION--PROBABLE FUTURE SUCCESS OF
INTERPRETERS--THE NEPOHUALTZITZIN.
The Nahua nations possessed an original hieroglyphic system by which
they were able to record all that they deemed worthy of preservation.
The art of picture-writing was one of those most highly prized and
most zealously cultivated and protected, being entrusted to a class of
men educated for the purpose and much honored. The written records
included national, historic, and traditional annals, names and
genealogical tables of kings and nobles, lists and tribute-rolls of
provinces and cities, land-titles, law codes, court records, the
calendar and succession of feasts, religious ceremonies of the temple
service, names and attributes of the gods, the mysteries of augury and
soothsaying, with some description of social customs, mechanical
employments, and educational processes. The preparation and
guardianship of records of the higher class, such as historical annals
and ecclesiastical mysteries, were under the control of the highest
ranks of the priesthood, and such records, comparatively few in
number, were carefully guarded in the temple archives of a few of the
larger cities. These writings were a sealed book to the masses, and
even to the educated classes, who looked with superstitious reverence
on the priestly writers and their magic scrolls. It is probable that
the art as applied to names of persons and places or to ordinary
records was understood by all educated persons, although by no means a
popular art, and looked upon as a great mystery by the common people.
The hieroglyphics were painted in bright colors on long strips of
cotton cloth, prepared skins, or maguey-paper--generally the
latter--rolled up or, preferably, folded fan-like into convenient
books called _amatl_, and furnished often with thin wooden covers. The
same characters were also carved on the stones of public buildings,
and probably also in some cases on natural cliffs. The early
authorities are unanimous in crediting these people with the
possession of a hieroglyphic system sufficiently perfect to meet all
their requirements.[642]
[Sidenote: DESTRUCTION OF ABORIGINAL RECORDS.]
Unfortunately the picture-writings, particularly those in the hands of
priests--those most highly prized by the native scholar, those which
would, if preserved, have been of priceless value to the students of
later times--while in common with the products of other arts they
excited the admiration of the foreign invaders, at the same time they
aroused the pious fears of the European priesthood. The nature of the
writings was little understood. Their contents were deemed to be for
the most part religious mysteries, painted devices of the devil, the
strongest band that held the people to their aboriginal faith, and the
most formidable obstacle in the way of their conversion to the true
faith. The destruction of the pagan scrolls was deemed essential to
the progress of the Church, and was consequently ordered and most
successfully carried out under the direction of the bishops and their
subordinates, the most famous of these fanatical destroyers of a new
world's literature being Juan de Zumárraga, who made a public bonfire
of the native archives. The fact already noticed, that the national
annals were preserved together in a few of the larger cities, made the
task of Zumárraga and his confrères comparatively an easy one, and all
the more important records, with very few probable exceptions, were
blotted from existence. The priests, however, sent some specimens,
either originals or copies, home to Europe, where they attracted
momentary curiosity and were then lost and forgotten. Many of the
tribute-rolls and other paintings of the more ordinary class, with
perhaps a few of the historical writings, were hidden by the natives
and thus saved from destruction. Of these I shall speak
hereafter.[643]
After the zeal of the priests had somewhat abated, or rather when the
harmless nature of the paintings was better understood, the natives
were permitted to use their hieroglyphics again. Among other things
they wrote down in this way their sins when the priests were too busy
to hear their verbal confessions. The native writing was also
extensively employed in the many lawsuits between Aztecs and Spaniards
during the sixteenth century, as it had been employed in the courts
before the conquest. Thus the early part of the century produced many
hieroglyphic documents, not a few of which have been preserved, and
several of which I have in my library. During the same period some
fragments that had survived the general destruction were copied and
supplied with explanations written with European letters in Aztec, or
dictated to the priests who wrote in Spanish. The documents, copies,
and explanations of this time are of course strongly tinctured with
Catholic ideas wherever any question of religion is involved, but
otherwise there is no reason to doubt their authenticity.[644]
[Sidenote: VALUE OF THE NATIVE RECORDS.]
To discuss the historical value of such Aztec writings as have been
preserved, or even of those that were destroyed by the Spaniards, or
the accuracy of the various interpretations that have been given to
the former, forms no part of my purpose in this chapter. Here I shall
give a brief account of the preserved documents, with plates
representing a few of them as specimens, and as clear an idea as
possible of the system according to which they were painted.
Respecting the theory, supported by a few writers, that the Aztecs had
no system of writing except the habit common to all savage tribes of
drawing rude pictures on the rocks and trees, that the statements of
the conquerors on the subject are unfounded fabrications, the
specimens handed down to us mere inventions of the priests, and their
interpretations consequently purely imaginary, it is well to remark
that all this is a manifest absurdity. On the use of hieroglyphics the
authorities, as we have seen, all agree; on their destruction by the
bishops they are no less unanimous; even the destroyers themselves
mention the act in their correspondence, glorying in it as a most
meritorious deed. The burning was moreover perfectly consistent with
the policy of the Church at that time, and its success does not seem
extraordinary when we consider the success of the priests in
destroying monuments of solid stone. The use of the aboriginal records
in the Spanish courts for a long period is undeniable. The priests had
neither the motive nor the ability to invent and teach such a system.
Respecting the historical value of the destroyed documents, it is safe
to believe that they contained all that the Aztecs knew of their past.
Having once conceived the idea of recording their annals, and having a
system of writing adequate to the purpose, it is inconceivable that
they failed to record all they knew. The Aztecs derived their system
traditionally from the Toltecs, whose written annals they also
inherited; but none of the latter were ever seen by any European, and,
according to tradition, they were destroyed by a warlike Aztec king,
who wished the glory of his own kingdom to overshadow that of all
others, past, present, or future. If the hieroglyphics of the Nahua
nations beyond the limits of Anáhuac differed in any respect from
those of the Aztecs, such differences have not been recorded.[645]
[Sidenote: EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS.]
I have said that many hieroglyphic manuscripts, saved from the fires
kindled by Zumárraga's bigotry, or copied by ecclesiastical permission
before serving as food for their purifying flames, were sent to Spain
by the conquerors. After lying forgotten for a few centuries,
attention was again directed to these relics of an extinct
civilization, and their importance began to be appreciated; search was
made throughout Europe, and such scattered remnants as survived their
long neglect were gathered and deposited in public and private
libraries. Eight or ten such collections were formed and their
contents were for the most part published by Lord Kingsborough.
The _Codex Mendoza_ was sent by the viceroy Mendoza to Charles V., and
is now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It is a copy on European
paper, coarsely done with a pen, and rolled instead of folded. Another
manuscript in the Escurial Library is thought by Prescott to be the
original of this codex, but Humboldt calls it also a copy. An
explanation of the codex in Aztec and Spanish accompanies it, added by
natives at the order of Mendoza. It has been several times published,
and is divided in three parts, the first being historical, the second
composed of tribute-rolls, and the third illustrative of domestic life
and manners.[646]
The _Codex Vaticanus_ (No. 3738) is preserved at Rome in the Vatican
Library, and nothing is known of its origin further than that it was
copied by Pedro de los Rios, who was in Mexico in 1566. It is divided
into two parts, mythological and historical, and has a partial
explanation in Italian. Another manuscript, (No. 3776) preserved in
the same library, is written on skin, has been interpreted to some
extent by Humboldt, and is supposed to pertain to religious rites. The
_Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, formerly in the possession of M. Le
Tellier, and now in the Royal Library at Paris, is nearly identical
with the Codex Vaticanus (No. 3738), having only one figure not found
in that codex, but itself lacking many. It has, however, an
explanation in Aztec and Spanish.[647]
The _Codex Borgian_ was deposited in the College of the Propaganda at
Rome by Cardinal Borgia, who found it used as a plaything by the
children in the Gustiniani family. It is written on skin, and appears
to be a ritual and astrologic almanac very similar to the Vatican
manuscript (No. 3776). It is accompanied by an interpretation or
commentary by Fabrega. The _Codex Bologna_, preserved in the library
of the Scientific Institute, was presented in 1665 to the Marquis de
Caspi, by Count Valerio Zani. It is written on badly prepared skin,
and appears to treat of astrology. A copy exists in the Museum of
Cardinal Borgia at Veletri. Of the _Codex Vienna_ nothing is known
except that it was given in 1677 to the Emperor Leopold by the Duke of
Saxe-Eisenach, and that its resemblance to the manuscripts at Rome and
Veletri would indicate a common origin. Four additional manuscripts
from the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and one belonging to M. de
Fejérvary in Hungary, are published by Kingsborough. Nothing is known
of the origin of these, nor has any interpretation been attempted,
although the last-named seems to be historical or chronological in its
nature.[648]
[Sidenote: PICTURE-WRITINGS PRESERVED IN MEXICO.]
I have said that many manuscripts, mostly copies, but probably some
originals, were preserved from destruction, and retained in Mexico.
Material is not accessible for a complete detailed history of these
documents, nor does it seem desirable to attempt here to disentangle
the numerous contradictory statements on the subject. The surviving
remnants of the Tezcucan archives, with additions from various
sources, were inherited by Ixtlilxochitl, the lineal descendant of
Tezcuco's last king, who used them extensively if not always
judiciously in his voluminous historical writings. The collection of
which these documents formed a nucleus may be traced more or less
clearly to the successive possession of Sigüenza, the College of San
Pedro y San Pablo, Boturini Benaduci, the Vice-regal Palace, Veytia,
Ortega, Leon y Gama, Pichardo, Sanchez, and at last to the National
Museum of the University of Mexico, its present and appropriate
resting-place. Frequent interventions of government and private
law-suits interrupted this line of succession, and the collection by
no means passed down the line intact. Under the care of several of the
owners large portions of the accumulation were scattered; but on the
other hand, several by personal research greatly enlarged their store
of aboriginal literature. While in Sigüenza's possession the documents
were examined by the Italian traveler Gemelli Careri, through whose
published work one of the most important of the pictured records was
made known to the world. This latter has been often republished and
will be given as a specimen in this chapter.[649] Clavigero studied
the manuscripts in the Jesuit College of San Pedro y San Pablo in
1759.[650] Boturini was a most indefatigable collector, his
accumulation in eight years amounting to over five hundred specimens,
some of them probably antedating the Spanish conquest. He published a
catalogue of his treasures, which were for the most part confiscated
by the government and deposited in the palace of the viceroy, where
many of the documents are said to have been destroyed or damaged by
dampness and want of care. Those retained by the collector were even
more unfortunate, since the vessel on which they were sent to Europe
was taken by an English pirate, and the papers have never since been
heard of. Only a few fragments from the Boturini collection have ever
been published, the most important of which, a history of the Aztec
migration, has been often reproduced, and will be given in this
chapter. The original was seen by Humboldt in the palace of the
viceroy, and is now in the Mexican Museum.[651]
The confiscated documents passed by order of the Spanish government
into the hands of Veytia, or at least he was permitted to use them in
the preparation of his history,[652] and after his death and the
completion of his work by Ortega, they passed, not without a lawsuit,
into the possession of Leon y Gama, the astronomer.[653] On the death
of Gama a part of his manuscripts were sold to Humboldt to form the
Berlin collection published by Kingsborough;[654] the rest came into
the hands of Pichardo, Gama's executor, who spent his private fortune
in improving his collection, described by Humboldt as the richest in
Mexico. Many of Pichardo's papers were scattered during the
revolution, and the remainder descended through his executor Sanchez
to the Museum.[655] It is not unlikely either that the French
intervention in later years was also the means of sending some
picture-writings to Europe. Of the documents removed from the Mexican
collections on different occasions and under different pretexts, M.
Aubin claims to have secured the larger part, which are now in his
collection in Paris, with copies of such manuscripts as he has been
unable to obtain in the original form.[656]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: HIEROGLYPHIC DEVELOPMENT.]
In order to form a clear idea of the Aztec system of picture-writing,
it will be well to consider first the general principles of
hieroglyphic development, which are remarkably uniform and simple, and
which may best be illustrated by our own language, supposing it, for
convenience, to be only a spoken tongue.
It is evident that the first attempt at expressing ideas with the
brush, pencil, or knife, would be the representation of visible
objects by pictures as accurately drawn as possible; a house, man,
bird, or flower are drawn true to the life in all their details. But
very soon, if a frequent repetition of the pictures were needed, a
desire to save labor would prompt the artist to simplify his drawing,
making only the lines necessary to show that a house, man, etc., were
meant,--a retrograde movement artistically considered, but
intellectually the first step towards an alphabet. The representation
of actions and conditions, such as a house on fire, a dead man, a
flying bird, or a red flower would naturally follow.
The three grades of development mentioned belong to what may be termed
representative picture-writing. It is to be noted that this writing
has no relation to language; that is, the signs represent only visible
objects and actions without reference to the words by which the
objects are named or the actions expressed in our language. The
pictures would have the same meaning to a Frenchman or German as to
the painter.
The next higher phase of the art is known as symbolic picture-writing.
It springs from the need that would soon be experienced of some method
by which to express abstract qualities or invisible objects. The
symbolic system is closely analogous in its earlier stages to the
representative, as when the act of swimming is symbolized by a fish, a
journey by a succession of footprints, night by a black square, light
by an eye, power by a hand, the connection between the picture and the
idea to be expressed being more or less obvious. Such a connection,
real or imaginary, must always be supposed to have existed originally,
since it is not likely that purely arbitrary symbols would be adopted,
but nearly all the symbols would be practically arbitrary and
meaningless to a would-be interpreter ignorant of the circumstances
which originated their signification.
We have seen that the symbolic and representative stages of
development are in many respects very like one to the other, and there
are many hieroglyphic methods between the two, which it is very
difficult to assign altogether to either. For instance, when a large
painted heart expresses the name of a chief 'Big Heart;' or when a
peculiarly formed nose is painted to represent the man to whom it
belongs; or when the outlines of the house, man, bird, or flower
already mentioned are so very much simplified as to lose all their
apparent resemblance to the objects represented. It is also to be
noted that the symbolic writing, as well as the representative, is
entirely independent of language.
[Sidenote: REPRESENTATIVE AND SYMBOLIC WRITING.]
Picture-writing of the two classes described has been practiced more
or less, probably, by every savage tribe. By its aid records of
events, such as tribal migrations, and the warlike achievements of
noted chiefs, may be and doubtless have been made intelligible to
those for whose perusal they were intended. But the key to such
hieroglyphics is the actual acquaintance of the nation with each
character and symbol, and it cannot long survive the practice of the
art. In only two ways can the meaning of such records be
preserved,--the study of the art while actually in use by a people of
superior culture, or its development into a hieroglyphic system of a
higher grade. Neither of these conditions were fulfilled in the case
of our Wild Tribes, but both were so to some extent, as we shall see,
in the case of the Civilized Nations. Throughout the Pacific States
rock-carvings and painted devices will be noted in a subsequent volume
of this work; most of them doubtless had a meaning to their authors,
although many may be attributed to the characteristic common to
savages and children of whiling away time by tracing unmeaning
sketches from fancy. All are meaningless now and must ever remain so.
Full of meaning to the generation whose work they were, they served to
keep alive in the following generation the memory of some
distinguished warrior, or some element of aboriginal worship, but to
the third generation they became nothing but objects of superstitious
wonder. Even after coming into contact with Europeans the savage often
indicates by an arrow and other figures carved on a forest-tree the
number of an enemy and the direction they have taken, or leaves some
other equally simple representative record.
The next and most important step in hieroglyphic development is taken
when a phonetic element is introduced; when the pictures come into a
relation, not before attained, with sounds or spoken language; when a
picture of the human form signifies _man_, not _homme_ or _hombre_; a
painted house, _house_, not _casa_ or _maison_. Of this phonetic
picture-writing in its simplest form, the illustrated rebuses--children's
hieroglyphics--present a familiar example; as when charity is written
by drawing in succession a chair, an eye, and a chest of tea,
'chair-eye-tea.' In pronouncing the whole word thus written, the
sounds of the words represented by the pictures are used without the
slightest reference to their meaning. To the Frenchman the same
pictures 'chaise-oeil-thé' would have no meaning.
In the example given the whole name of each word pictured is
pronounced, but the number of words that could be produced by such
combinations is limited, and the first improvement of the system would
perhaps be to pronounce only the leading syllable or sound of the
pictured word, and then charity might be painted 'cha (pel)-ri
(ng)-tee (th).' By this system the same word might be written in a
great many ways, and the next natural improvement would be the
conventional adoption of certain easily pictured words to represent
certain sounds, as 'hat,' 'hand,' or 'ham,' for the sound _ha_, or
simply the aspirated _h_. The next development would be effected by
simplifying the outlines of the numerous pictures employed, which have
now become too complicated and bulky for rapid writing. For a time
this process of simplification would still leave a rude resemblance to
the original picture; but at last the resemblance would become very
faint, or only imaginary, and perhaps some arbitrary signs would be
added--in other words, a phonetic alphabet would be invented, the
highest degree of perfection yet achieved in this direction.
To recapitulate briefly: picture-writing may be divided, according to
the successive stages of its development, into three classes,
representative, symbolic, and phonetic, no one of which except the
last in its highest or alphabetic, and the first in its rudest, state,
would be used alone by any people, but rather all would be employed
together. In the representative stage a [Illustration: hand] might
express a human hand, or as the system is perfected, a large, small,
closed, black, or red hand; and finally 'Big Hand,' an Indian chief;
and all this would be equally intelligible to American or Asiatic,
savage or civilized, without respect to language.
[Sidenote: HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING.]
Symbolic picture-writing indicates invisible or abstract objects,
actions, or conditions, by the use of pictures supposed to be
suggestive of them; the symbols are originally in a manner
representative, and rarely, if ever, arbitrarily adopted. As a symbol
the [Illustration: hand] might express power, a blow, murder, the
number one or five. These symbols are also independent of language.
Phonetic picture-writing represents not objects, but sounds by the
picture of objects in whose names the sound occurs; first words, then
syllables, then elementary sounds, and last--by modification of the
pictures or the substitution of simpler ones--letters and an alphabet.
According to this system the [Illustration: hand] signifies
successively the word 'hand,' the syllable 'hand' in handsome, the
sound 'ha' in happy, the aspiration 'h' in head, and finally, by
simplifying its form or writing it rapidly, the [Illustration: hand]
becomes [Illustration: stylized hand], and then the 'h' of the
alphabet.
The process of development which I have attempted to explain by
imaginary examples and illustrations in our own language, is probably
applicable to a greater or less extent to all hieroglyphic systems;
yet such hieroglyphics as have been preserved are of a mixed class,
uniting in one word, or sentence, or document, all the forms,
representative, symbolic, and phonetic; the Egyptians first spelled a
word phonetically and then, to make the meaning clear, represented the
word by a picture or symbol; the Chinese characters were originally
pictures of visible objects, though they would not now be recognized
as such, if the originals were not in existence. What proportion of
the letters in modern alphabets are simplified pictures, or
representative characters, and what arbitrary, it is of course
impossible to determine; many of them, however, are known to be of the
former class.[657]
In the Aztec picture-writings all the grades or classes of pictures
are found, except the last and highest--the alphabet. A very large
part of the characters employed were representative; many conventional
symbols are known; and the Aztecs undoubtedly employed phonetic
paintings, though perhaps not very extensively in the higher grades of
development.
[Sidenote: SPECIMEN FROM CODEX MENDOZA.]
The plate on the opposite page is a reproduction of a part of the
_Codex Mendoza_ from Kingsborough's work. Its four groups describe the
education of the Aztec child under the care of its parents. In the
first group the father (fig. 3) is punishing his son by holding him
over the fumes of burning chile (fig. 5); while the mother threatens
her daughter with the same punishment. Figures 2 and 8 represent, like
11, 16, 20, 24, 30 and 34 in the other groups, the child's allowance
of tortillas at each meal. In the second group the son is punished by
being stretched naked on the wet ground, having his hands tied, while
the girl is forced to sweep, or, as she has no tear in her eye,
perhaps is merely being taught to sweep instead of being punished. In
the third group the father employs his boys in bringing wood (fig. 21)
or reeds either on the back or in a canoe; and the mother teaches her
daughter to make tortillas (fig. 27) and the use of the metate and
other household utensils (figs. 23, 25, 26, 28). In the last group the
son learns the art of fishing, and the daughter that of weaving.
[Illustration: Education of Aztec Children.]
Thus far all the pictures are purely representative; the remainder are
more or less symbolic. The small circles (fig. 1, 10, 19, 29) are
numerals, as explained in a preceding chapter, and indicate the age of
the children, eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen years
respectively; the character issuing from the mouth of the parents is
the symbol of speech, and indicates that the person to whom it is
attached is speaking; the tears in the children's eyes, are symbols of
the weeping naturally caused by the punishment inflicted; and figure
14 is interpreted to be a symbol of night, indicating that the child
was forced to sweep at night.[658]
Many of the Aztec symbols are of clearly representative origin, as
foot-prints, symbols of traveling; tongues, of speech; a man sitting
on the ground, of an earthquake; painted drops, of water; and other
signs for day, night, air, movement, etc., which are more or less
clear. But of others, as the serpent, symbol of time, the origin is
not affirmed. To define the extent to which the symbolic writing
prevailed is very difficult, because many of the characters which
were, originally at least, representative, would appear to the
uninitiated purely arbitrary; and it is not improbable that many signs
may have had a double meaning according to the connection in which
they were employed. The system is capable of indefinite expansion in
the hands of the priesthood for purposes of religious mystification;
and the fact that the religious and astrologic documents seem to
contain but few of the representative and phonetic signs by which
other paintings are interpreted, lends some probability to the theory
that the priests had a partially distinct symbolic system of their
own. The Abbé Brasseur goes so far as to say that all the historical
documents had a double meaning, one for the initiated, another for the
masses. The use of symbols doubtless accounts for the difficulty
experienced in the interpretation of the picture-writings which have
been preserved, and for the variety of extravagant theories that have
been founded on them.
The intermediate method already mentioned as coming between the
purely representative and the symbolic, was very extensively employed
by the Aztecs in writing the names of places and persons, nearly all
of which were derived from natural objects. Examples of this method
are: Itzcoatl, 'stone (or obsidian) serpent;' Chapultepec, 'hill of
the grasshopper;' Tzompanco, 'place of skulls;' Chimalpopoca, 'smoking
shield;' Acamapitzin, 'hand holding reeds;' Macuilxochitl, 'five
flowers;' Quauhtinchan, 'house of the eagle;' all written by the
simple pictures of the objects named. The picture expressing a
person's name was attached by a fine line to his head.
[Sidenote: AZTEC PHONETIC WRITING.]
The use of the phonetic element by the Aztecs was first noticed by the
early missionaries in their efforts to teach Church forms. The
natives, eager or obliged to learn the words so essential to their
salvation but so new to their ear, aided their memory by writing
phonetically in a rude way the strange words. Amen was expressed by
the symbol of water, _atl_, joined to a maguey, _metl_, forming the
sounds _atl-metl_ or _a-m[)e]_, sufficiently accurate for their
purpose. Pater noster was likewise written with a flag, _pantli_, and
a prickly pear, _nochtli_; or sometimes a stone, _tetl_, was
introduced before and after the prickly pear, the whole reading
_pa(ntli)-te(tl)-noch(tli)-te(tl)_. Here it will be observed that the
sound only of the objects employed is considered, with no reference to
their meaning. The name is an excellent specimen of the
syllabic-phonetic writing. It is written in one of the manuscripts of
the Boturini collection by a pictured pair of lips, _tentli_, for the
syllable _te_; footsteps, symbolic of a road, _otli_, for _o_; a
house, _calli_, for _cal_; and teeth, _tlantli_, for _tlan_, _ti_
being a common connective syllable. The termination _coatl_ is a very
frequent one in Aztec words, and is often written phonetically by a
'pot,' _comitl_, surmounted by the symbol of water, _atl_, _co-atl_;
but _coatl_ means 'serpent' and is also written representatively by a
simple picture of that reptile. Matlatlan 'net-place,' is written by
pictured teeth, _tlantli_, phonetic, and a net, _matla_,
representative. Mixcoatl, 'cloudy serpent,' is expressed by the
representative sign of a cloud, _mixtli_, and by the word _coatl_
phonetically written as before explained. These examples suffice to
illustrate the system. There is no evidence that the Aztecs ever
reached the highest or alphabetic stage of hieroglyphics, and so far
as is known they only used the syllabic method in writing names, and
foreign words after the coming of the Spaniards. Still there is some
reason to suspect that the phonetic element was much more in use than
has been supposed, and that many characters which, hitherto considered
by students as representative and symbolic signs, have yielded no
meaning, may yet prove to be phonetic, and may throw much light on a
complex and mysterious subject.[659]
[Sidenote: RECORD OF AN AZTEC MIGRATION.]
On the two following pages is a copy of the painting already referred
to as having been published by Gemelli Careri, Humboldt, Kingsborough,
Prescott, and others, and which I take from the work of Ramirez as
being probably the most reliable source.[660] This painting, preserved
in the National Museum, is about twenty by twenty-seven inches, on
maguey paper of the finest quality, now mounted on linen. I do not
propose to attempt in this chapter any interpretation of the painting,
to discuss the interpretations of others, or to investigate its
historical importance. I simply present the document as an
illustration of the Aztec picture-writing, with interpretations of
some of the figures as given by Señor Ramirez, leaving to another
volume all consideration of the old absurd theory that a part of the
painting (fig. 1-6) pictures the flood, the preservation of Coxcox,
the Aztec Noah, and the confusion of tongues.
[Illustration: The Aztec Migration.]
[Sidenote: PICTURE-WRITING FROM GEMELLI CARERI.]
The winding parallel lines, with frequent foot-prints, by which the
different groups of figures are united, are symbols of a journey, and
there is little doubt that the whole painting describes the migrations
or wanderings of the Aztec people. The square at the right represents
the place from which they started. Fig. 1, 2, perhaps express
phonetically its name, but their interpretation is doubtful. It was
evidently a watery region, probably a lake island in the valley of
Mexico. Fig. 3 is a _xiuhmolpilli_, 'bundle of grass,' symbol of the
Aztec cycle of fifty-two years; fig. 4 is a 'curved mountain,' or the
city of Culhuacan, on the borders of the lake; fig. 5 is a bird
speaking to the people (fig. 6), the tongues issuing from its mouth
being, as I have said, the usual symbols of speech. It was a popular
tradition among the Aztecs that the voice of a bird started them on
their wanderings. The fifteen human forms (fig. 7, 12,) are the chiefs
of the migrating tribes, whose names are hieroglyphically expressed
by the figures connected with their heads. At their first
stopping-place they completed another 'sheaf' of fifty-two years (fig.
8), and perhaps built a temple (fig. 11). The stay at Cincotlan (fig.
15) was ten years as indicated by the ten circles; fig. 17 is
interpreted by Gemelli Careri Tocolco, 'humiliation,' and fig. 18,
Oztotlan, 'place of caves.' At the next stopping-place fig. 20
represents a body wrapped in the Mexican manner for burial; his name
as shown by the character over his head is that of the central figure
in the group shown in fig. 7. As this name does not appear again, the
meaning is perhaps that one of the tribes here became extinct. Fig. 25
is Tetzapotlan, 'place of the tree _tetzapotl_.' The generic name of
the tree is _tzapotl_ (modern _zapote_), but a particular species is
_tetzapotl_, and the prefix _te_ is phonetically expressed by the
stone, _tetl_, at the base of the tree. Fig. 28 is Tzompanco, 'place
of skulls,' representing supposably a skull impaled on a stick; fig.
29 is Apazco, 'earthen vase;' fig. 31, Quauhtitlan 'place of the
eagle,' and here one of the chiefs of tribes, the right hand figure of
group 7, separates from the rest to form a settlement at fig. 33. The
time of stopping at each place and the completion of each fifty-two
years are clearly indicated and need not be mentioned here. Fig. 34 is
Azcapuzalco, 'the anthill;' fig. 83 is Chalco, 'the chalchiuite-stone;'
fig. 36, Tlecohuatl, _tletl-cohuatl_, or 'fire-serpent;' fig. 39,
Chicomoztoc, _chicome-oztotl_, 'seven caves;' the lower part of fig.
47 is the symbol of water; fig. 48, Teozomaco, 'the monkey of stone.'
Fig. 50 is Chapultepec, 'hill of the locust or grasshopper.' After the
arrival at Chapultepec a great variety of events, most of which can be
identified with traditional occurrences in the early history of the
Aztecs, are pictured. I shall not attempt to follow them. The route
seems to continue towards fig. 80, Tlatelolco; but five tribes (fig.
53), all but one identical with those of the group in fig. 7, 12,
return as fugitives or prisoners (fig. 51) to Culhuacan (fig. 54),
the original starting-point. Fig. 61, and one of the characters of
fig. 65, are the symbols of combat or war. Fig. 67 is Inixiuhcan,
'birth-place,' the picture representing a woman who has just given
birth to a child. Fig. 74 is Tenochtitlan, 'place of _tenochtli_,' the
tenochtli being a species of nopal represented in the figure, and
being also the sign of the name of Tenoch, one of the original chiefs
of the group in fig. 12, and also seen in the group in fig. 81. Six of
the original tribes seem to have reached Tenochtitlan, afterwards
Mexico, with the tribe that joined them at Chapultepec; nine having
perished or been scattered on the way, which agrees with the
historical tradition. The preceding brief sketch will give an idea of
a document whose full description and interpretation, even if
possible, would require much space and would not be appropriately
included here.
[Sidenote: CHRONOLOGIC RECORD.]
The picture-writing shown on the following pages is the one already
mentioned as having formed part of the Boturini collection, is equally
important with the one already described, and is preserved like the
former in the National Museum. This painting, like the other,
describes a migration, indicated by the line of foot-prints. Starting
from an island, a passage by boat is indicated to Culhuacan, 'the
curved mountain,' on the mainland. In this painting we have not only
the number of years spent in the migration, and at each
stopping-place, but the years are named according to the system
described in the last chapter, and the migration began in the year Ce
Tecpatl. The character within that of Culhuacan is the name of
Huitzilopochtli, the great Aztec god. Next we have in a vertical line
the names of the eight tribes, hieroglyphically written, who started
on the migration, the Chalcas, Matlaltzincas, Tepanecs, etc., agreeing
with the tradition, except three which cannot be accurately
interpreted. The first stopping-place after Culhuacan was Coatlicamac,
the first figure in the lower column of the first page. Here they
remained twenty-eight years from Ome Calli to Yey Tecpatl as indicated
by the squares connected by a line. The last but one of these years
completed the cycle and is represented by a picture showing the
process of kindling fire by friction, instead of the bundle of grass
as before. Between the groups of small squares are the hieroglyphic
names of the stopping-places, which are in the following order,
beginning with the second column of the first page, Coatlicamac,
Tollan, Atlicalaquiam, Tlemaco, Atotonilco, Apazco, Tzompanco,
Xaltocan, Acolhuacan, Ehecatepec, Tolpetlac, Coatitlan (where they
first cultivated the maguey), Huixachtitlan (where they made pulque
from the maguey), Tecpayocan, Pantitlan, 'place of the flag,'
Amalinalpan, Azcapuzalco, Pantitlan, Acolnahuac, Popotla, ----,
Atlacuihuayan (Tacubaya), Chapultepec, Acocolco, and Culhuacan (as
prisoners). The migration is not brought down to the arrival in
Tenochtitlan, but the chronology is perfectly recorded. Several of the
names of places are indicated by the same hieroglyphic signs as in the
other painting. It will be observed that there is nothing to locate
the starting-place in the north-west. It was probably either on the
lakes of Anáhuac, or in the south beyond what is now the isthmus of
Tehuantepec. Both of these paintings will be noticed in the historical
investigations to be given in volume V. of this work.
[Sidenote: THE AZTEC MIGRATION.]
[Illustration: PICTURE-RECORD OF THE AZTEC MIGRATION.
FROM THE BOTURINI COLLECTION.]
The hieroglyphic paintings afford no test of the Aztec painter's
skill; in an artistic point of view the picture-writing had probably
been nearly stationary for a long time before the conquest. The
pictures were in most cases conventionally distorted; indeed, to
permit different painters to exercise their skill and fancy in
depicting the various objects required would have destroyed the value
of the paintings as records. The first progressional steps had taught
the native scribes to paint only so much of representative and
symbolic objects as was necessary to their being understood;
convenience and custom would naturally tend to fix the forms at an
early period. Bold outlines, and bright contrasted colors were the
desiderata; elegance was not aimed at. Hence no argument respecting
the Aztec civilization can be drawn from the rude mechanical execution
of these painted characters.
The American hieroglyphics contain no element to prove their foreign
origin, and there is no reason to look upon them as other than the
result of original native development. Whether enough of the painted
records have been preserved to throw much additional light on
aboriginal history, may well be doubted; but it is certain that great
progress will be made in the art of interpreting such as have been
saved, when able men shall devote their lives to a faithful study of
this indigenous American literature as they have to the study of
old-world hieroglyphics.[661]
[Sidenote: THE NEPOHUALTZITZIN.]
I will in conclusion call attention to Boturini's statement that
knotted cords, similar to the aboriginal Peruvian _quipus_, but called
in Aztec _nepohualtzitzin_, were also employed to record events in
early times, but had gone out of use probably before the Aztec
supremacy. This author even claims to have found one of these knotted
records in a very dilapidated condition in Tlascala. His statement is
repeated by many writers; if any information on the subject is
contained in the old authorities, it has escaped my notice.[662]
FOOTNOTES:
[642] 'Todas las cosas que conferimos me las dieron por pinturas, que
aquella era la escritura que ellos antiguamente usaban: los gramáticos
las declararon en su lengua, escribiendo la declaracion al pie de la
pintura. Tengo aun ahora estos originales.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._,
tom. i., p. iv. 'Aunque no tenian escritura como nosotros tenian
empero sus figuras y caracteres que todas las cosas qui querian,
significaban; y destas sus libros grandes por tan agudo y sutil
artificio, que podriamos decir que nuestras letras en aquello no les
hicieron mucha ventaja.' _Las Casas_, _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap.
ccxxxv. 'Tenian sus figuras, y Hieroglyficas con que pintauan las
cosas en esta forma, que las cosas que tenian figuras, las ponian con
sus proprias ymagines, y para las cosas que no auia ymagen propria,
tenian otros caracteres significatiuos de aquello, y con este modo
figurauan quanto querian.' _Acosta_, _Hist. de las Ynd._, p. 408.
'Letras Reales de cosas pintadas, como eran las pinturas, en que leiò
Eneas la destruicion de Troya.' 'Y esto que afirmo, es tomado de las
mismas Historias Mexicanas, y Tetzcucanas, que son las que sigo en
este discurso, y las que tengo en mi poder.' _Torquemada_, _Monarq.
Ind._, tom. i., pp. 29, 149, also pp. 30-1, 36, 253, tom. ii., pp.
263, 544-6. 'I haue heeretofore sayde, that they haue books whereof
they brought many: but this Ribera saith, that they are not made for
the vse of readinge.... What I should thinke in this variety I knowe
not. I suppose them to bee bookes.' _Peter Martyr_, dec. v., lib. x.,
dec. iii., lib. viii. 'Y entre la barbaridad destas naciones (de
Oajaca) se hallaron muchos libros à su modo, en hojas, ò telas de
especiales cortesas de arboles.... Y destos mesmos instrumentos he
tenido en mis manos, y oydolos explicar à algunos viejos con bastante
admiracion.' _Burgoa_, _Palestra Hist._, pt i., p. 89. 'Pintaban en
vnos papeles de la tierra que dan los arboles pegados vnos con otros
con engrudos, que llamaban _Texamaltl_ sus historias, y batallas.'
_Vetancvrt_, _Teatro Mex._, pt ii., p. 60. 'Lo dicho lo comprueban
claramente las Historias de las Naciones Tulteca y Chichimeca,
figuradas con pinturas, y Geroglíficos, especialmente en aquel Libro,
que en Tula hicieron de su origen, y le llamaron Teomaxtli, esto es,
Libro divino.' _Lorenzana_, in _Cortés_, _Hist. N. España_, pp. 6,
8-9. 'It is now proven beyond cavil, that both Mexico and Yucatan had
for centuries before Columbus a phonetic system of writing, which
insured the perpetuation of their histories and legends.' _Brinton's
Myths._ See also _Ixtlilxochitl_, _Hist. Chich._, in _Kingsborough's
Mex. Antiq._, vol. ix., pp. 203-4, 235, 287; _Id._, _Relaciones_, in
_Id._, p. 325; _Ritos Antiguos_, p. 4, in _Id._; _Garcia_, in _Id._,
vol. viii., pp. 190-1; _Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 299; _Motolinia_,
_Hist. Indios_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. de Doc._, tom. i., pp. 186,
209; _Fuenleal_, in _Ternaux-Compans_, _Voy._, série i., tom. x., p.
250; _Veytia_, _Hist. Ant. Mej._, tom. i., pp. 6-7, 251-2; _Bernal
Diaz_, _Hist. Conq._, fol. 68; _Purchas his Pilgrimes_, vol. iv., p.
1135.
[643] 'Aunque por haverse quemado estos Libros, al principio de la
conversion ... no ha quedado, para aora, mui averiguado todo lo que
ellos hicieron.' _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 544, tom.
i., prólogo. Some of them burned by order of the monks, in the fear
that in the matter of religion these books might prove injurious. _Las
Casas_, _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. ccxxxv. Royal archives of
Tezcuco burned inadvertently by the first priests. _Ixtlilxochitl_,
_Hist. Chich._, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. ix., p. 203.
'Principalmente habiendo perecido lo mejor de sus historias entre las
llamas, por no tenerse conocimiento de lo que significaban sus
pinturas.' _Leon y Gama_, _Dos Piedras_, pt i., pp. 2, 5. 'Por
desgracia los misioneros confundieron con los objetos del culto
idolátrico todos los geroglíficos cronológicos é históricos, y en una
misma hoguera se consumia el ídolo ... y el manuscrito.' _Alaman_,
_Disertaciones_, tom. ii., p. 154. See also _Prescott's Mex._, vol.
i., p. 101; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., lib. x., pp. 139-41;
_Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 188;
_Bustamante_, _Mañanas_, tom. ii., prólogo; _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom.
i., p. 226; _Wilson's Conq. Mex._, p. 24.
[644] 'It is to this transition-period that we owe many, perhaps most,
of the picture-documents still preserved.' _Tylor's Researches_, p.
97. 'There was ... until late in the last century, a professor in the
University of Mexico, especially devoted to the study of the national
picture-writing. But, as this was with a view to legal proceedings,
his information, probably, was limited to deciphering titles.'
_Prescott's Mex._, vol. i., p. 106. 'L'usage de ces peintures, servant
de pièces de procès, c'est conservé dans les tribunaux espagnols
long-temps après la conquête.' _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., pp.
169-70. 'Escriben toda la doctrina ellos por sus figuras y caracteres
muy ingeniosamente, poniendo la figura que correspondia en la voz y
sonido á nuestro vocablo. Asi como si dijeremos Amen, ponian pintada
una como fuente y luego un maguey que en su lengua corresponde con
Amen, porque llamada _Ametl_, y así de todo lo demas.' _Las Casas_,
_Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. ccxxxv. See also _Ritos Antiguos_, p.
53, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. ix.; _Ramirez_, _Proceso de
Resid._; _Carbajal_, _Discurso_, p. 115; _Motolinia_, _Hist. Indios_,
in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. de Doc._, tom. i., p. 122.
[645] 'Au Mexique, l'usage des peintures et celui du papier de maguey
s'étendoient bien au delà des limites de l'empire de Montezuma,
jusqu'aux bords du lac de Nicaragua.' 'On voit que les peuples de
l'Amèrique étoient bien éloignés de cette perfection qu'avoient
atteinte les Égyptiens.' _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., pp. 208, 193-4.
'Clumsy as it was, however, the Aztec picture-writing seems to have
been adequate to the demands of the nation.' _Prescott's Mex._, vol.
i., pp. 97-8, 108. 'The Mexicans may have advanced, but, we believe,
not a great way, beyond the village children, the landlady (with her
ale-scores), or the Bosjesmans.' _Quarterly Review_, 1816, vol. xv.,
pp. 454, 449. 'The _picture writings_ copied into the monster volumes
of Lord Kingsborough, we have denounced as Spanish fabrications.'
_Wilson's Conq. Mex._, pp. 21-24. 'Until some evidence, or shadow of
evidence, can be found that these quasi records are of Aztec origin,
it would be useless to examine the contradictions, absurdities and
nonsense they present.... The whole story must be considered as one of
Zumárraga's pious frauds.' _Id._, pp. 91-2. 'Las pinturas, que se
quemaron en tiempo del señor de México, que se decia _Itzcóatl_, en
cuya época los señores, y los principales que habia entónces,
acordaron y mandaron que se quemasen todas, para que no viniesen á
manos del vulgo, y fuesen menospreciadas.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._,
tom. iii., lib. x., pp. 140-1; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat.
Civ._, tom. iii., p. 209. See also _Waldeck_, _Voy. Pitt._, pp. 46-7;
_Gallatin_, in _Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., p. 144;
_Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, p. 100; _Mayer's Mex. Aztec_, etc.,
vol. i., p. 93.
[646] See _Mexican MSS._, in the list of authorities in vol. i. of this
work, for the location of this and other codices in Kingsborough's
work. This codex was published also in _Purchas his Pilgrimes_, vol.
iv.; _Thevenot_, _Col. de Voy._, 1696, tom. ii.; and by _Lorenzana_,
in _Cortés_, _Hist. N. España_. 'D'après les recherches que j'ai
faites, il paroît qu'il n'existe aujourd'hui en Europe que six
collections de peintures mexicaines: celles de l'Escurial, de Bologne,
de Veletri, de Rome, de Vienne et de Berlin.' _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom.
i., p. 215. See also on the Codex Mendoza: _Id._, tom. ii., pp.
306-22; _Robertson's Hist. Amer._, (Lond., 1777), vol. ii., p. 480;
_Prescott's Mex._, vol. i., pp. 40, 103-4; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant.
del Messico_, tom. i., pp. 22-3, 25; _Gallatin_, in _Amer. Ethno.
Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 116-29; _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._,
vol. vi., p. 299.
[647] _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., pp. 173, 231-47; _Atlas_, pl. 13,
14, 26, 55-6. 60, tom. ii., p. 118; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del
Messico_, tom. i., p. 23; _Gallatin_, in _Amer. Ethno. Soc.,
Transact._, vol. i., pp. 116, 125, 132-43; _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. vi., pp. 95, 155; _Wilson's Conq. Mex._, p. 91. 'The
fiction of some Spanish monk.' _Quarterly Review_, 1816, vol. xv., p.
448.
[648] _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., pp. 216-19, 248-56, with portions
of the Borgian Codex in plates 15, 27, 37. Some pages of the Vienna
Codex were published in _Robertson's Hist. Amer._, (Lond., 1777), vol.
ii., p. 482.
[649] _Careri_, _Giro del Mondo_, (Naples, 1699-1700), tom. vi.;
_Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. ii., pp. 168-85, _Atlas_, pl. xxxii.;
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. iv.; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol.
i., p. 20; _Prescott's Hist. Conq. Mex._, (Mex. 1846), tom. iii.;
_García y Cubas_, _Atlas_; _Simon's Ten Tribes_, frontispiece;
Gallatin, in _Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., p. 127,
pronounces it an imitation and not a copy of a Mexican painting, whose
authenticity may be doubted.
[650] _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. i., pp. 22-6.
[651] _Boturini_, _Catálogo_, in _Id._, _Idea_; _Aubin_, in _Brasseur
de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp. xxxiii.; _Prescott's
Mex._, vol. i., pp. 159-60; _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., pp. 162-3,
226-8; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. i., pp. 16-17,
23-5; _Gallatin_, in _Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp.
120-1; _Veytia_, _Hist. Ant. Mej._, tom. i., p. xxi., et seq., p. 116.
That portion of the Codex Mendoza given in _Cortés_, _Hist. N.
España_, was from a copy in the Boturini collection. The manuscript
describing the Aztec migration was published in Kingsborough,
Schoolcraft, Prescott, (Mex. 1846), Humboldt's _Atlas_, Delafield's
_Antiq. Amer._, García y Cubas' _Atlas_, and I have in my library two
copies on long strips of paper folded in the original form.
[652] Ortega, in _Veytia_, _Hist. Ant. Mej._, tom. i., pp. xxii-xxiv.,
says they were not given to Veytia as Boturini's executor, but simply
entrusted to him for use in his work, and afterwards returned to the
archives.
[653] Gondra, in _Prescott_, _Hist. Conq. Mex._ (Mex., 1846), tom.
iii., p. ii., says that Gama was Sigüenza's heir.
[654] _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., pp. 163, 230-1.
[655] _Bustamante_, in _Leon y Gama_, _Dos Piedras_, pt i., pp.
ii-iii.
[656] See list of part of M. Aubin's manuscripts in _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp. lxxvi-lxxviii.; also a
very complete account of the different collections of Aztec
picture-writings in the introductory chapter of _Domenech_, _Manuscrit
Pictographique_.
[657] In the Egyptian development, a pictured mouth first signified
the word _ro_, then the syllable _ro_, and finally the letter or sound
_r_, although it is doubtful if they made much use of the third stage,
except in writing some foreign words. Many of the Chinese pictures are
double, one being determinative of sound, the other of sense; as if in
English we should express the sound _pear_ by a picture of the fruit
of that name, the fruit _pear_ by the same picture accompanied by a
tree, the word _pare_ by the same picture and a knife, the word _pair_
by the picture and two points, etc. _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., pp.
177-9; _Tylor's Researches_, pp. 98-101.
[658] _Codex Mendoza_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. i., pl.
lxi. Explanation, vol. v., pp. 96-7. See p. 241 of this volume.
[659] 'On trouve même chez les Mexicains des vestiges de ce genre
d'hiéroglyphes que l'on appelle phonétiques, et qui annonce des
rapports, non avec la chose, mais avec la langue parlée.' _Humboldt_,
_Vues_, tom. i., p. 191, also pp. 162-202. 'But, although the Aztecs
were instructed in all the varieties of hieroglyphical painting, they
chiefly resorted to the clumsy method of direct representation.'
_Prescott's Mex._, vol. i., p. 97, also pp. 88-107. 'It is to M.
Aubin, of Paris, a most zealous student of Mexican antiquities, that
we owe our first clear knowledge of a phenomenon of great scientific
interest in the history of writing. This is a well-defined system of
phonetic characters, which Clavigero and Humboldt do not seem to have
been aware of.' _Tylor's Researches_, p. 95, also pp. 89-100. 'Dans
les compositions grossières, dont les auteurs se sont presque
exclusivement occupés jusqu'ici, elle (l'écriture Aztèque) est fort
semblable aux rébus que l'enfance mêle à ses jeux. Comme ces rébus
elle est généralement phonétique, mais souvent aussi confusément
idéographique et symbolique. Tels sont les noms de villes et de rois,
cités par Clavigero, d'après Purchas et Lorenzana et d'après
Clavigero, par une foule d'auteurs.' _Aubin_, in _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp. xliv., xxx-lxxiv. See also
on Aztec hieroglyphics and their explanation: _Buschmann_,
_Ortsnamen_, tom. i., pp. 37-48; _Gondra_, in _Prescott_, _Hist. Conq.
Mex._, (Mex. 1846), tom. iii.; _Leon y Gama_, _Dos Piedras_, pt ii.,
pp. 29-45; _Ewbank_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., pp. 453-6;
_Mendoza_, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, 2da época, tom. i., pp.
896-904; _Ramirez_, in _Id._, tom. iii., pp. 69-70; _Boturini_,
_Idea_, pp. 5, 77-87, 96, 112-13; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del
Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 187-94; _Pimentel_, _Mem. sobre la Raza
Indígena_, pp. 49-50; _Carbajal_, _Discurso_, p. 5; _Klemm_,
_Cultur-Geschichte_, tom. v., pp. 131-7; _Chevalier_, _Mex., Ancien.
et Mod._, pp. 37-8, 58; _Humboldt_, _Essai Pol._, tom. i., pp. 77, 93;
_Foster's Pre-Hist. Races_, p. 322; _Gallatin_, in _Amer. Ethno. Soc.,
Transact._, vol. i., pp. 126, 165-68; _Ramirez_, _Proceso de Resid._;
_Lenoir_, _Parallèle_, pp. 13-16; _Lubbock's Pre-Hist. Times_, p. 279;
_N. Amer. Review_, 1839, vol. xlviii., p. 289, 1831, vol. xxxii., pp.
98-107; _Amer. Quart. Review_, June 1827, vol. i., p. 438.
[660] In _García y Cubas_, _Atlas_, with an interpretation.
[661] 'On distingue dans les peintures mexicaines des têtes d'une
grandeur énorme, un corps excessivement court, et des pieds qui, par
la longueur des doigts, ressemblent à des griffes d'oiseau.... Tout
ceci indique l'enfance de l'art, mais il ne faut pas oublier que des
peuples qui expriment leurs idées par des peintures ... attachent
aussi peu d'importance à peindre correctement que les savans d'Europe
à employer une belle écriture dans leurs manuscrits.' _Humboldt_,
_Vues_, tom. i., pp. 198-200; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat.
Civ._, tom. iii., pp. 653-4. Valades in 1579 gave an American phonetic
alphabet, representing each letter by an object of whose name it was
the initial in some language not the Aztec. Nothing is known of it.
_Id._, tom. i., p. lxx. Borunda gives a _Clave General de Geroglíficos
Americanos_, in _Voz de la Patria_, 1830, tom. iv., No. iii.--an
extract in _Leon y Gama_, _Dos Piedras_, pt ii., p. 33. Sr Eufemio
Mendoza, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, 2da época, tom. i., p. 899,
attaches some importance to Borunda's efforts. On the difficulty of
interpretation see _Boturini_, _Idea_, p. 116; _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 87; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., p.
149; _Ixtlilxochitl_, _Hist. Chich._, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._,
vol. ix., p. 201; _Prescott's Mex._, vol. i., p. 107.
[662] _Boturini_, _Idea_, pp. 85-7; _Veytia_, _Hist. Ant. Mej._, tom.
i., p. 6; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 194;
_Carbajal Espinosa_, _Hist. Mex._, tom. i., p. 656. Some additional
references on hieroglyphics are: _Id._, pp. 244, 591-2, 650-6, tom.
ii., p. 86; _Norman's Rambles in Yuc._, pp. 293-5; _Domenech's
Deserts_, vol. i., pp. 407-8; _Soden_, _Spanier in Peru_, tom. ii.,
pp. 27-8; _Bussierre_, _L'Empire Mex._, pp. 175-6; _Montanus_, _Nieuwe
Weereld_, pp. 266-7; _Dapper_, _Neue Welt_, p. 300; _Delafield's
Antiq. Amer._, p. 42; _Bonnycastle's Span. Amer._, vol. i., p. 52.