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CHAPTER III.

PICTURE-WRITING OF THE MEXICANS.

HE Art of Writing, as practised by the Mexicans, at the time of the Spanish

invasion of Cortez and his followers, had not developed itself much beyond the first, or purely pictorial stage; nor had the empire of the Aztecs existed above two centuries, a period far too brief for perfecting a system of writing; and no existing monuments tend to prove that their more polished predecessors, the Toltecs, had advanced farther in the art. Nevertheless, the first elements of an advance beyond mere pictography had begun to show itself in the occasional use of characters in a phonetic capacity, to express foreign names, in a manner analogous to that of the Egyptians. For instance, the pictures of such natural objects as might begin with sounds like qui, tsi, acs, &c., were combined to express a name composed of such sounds. These characters, with those of a symbolic kind, such as that of a tongue, when used to express the act of speaking, and the simple pictographs, or positive pictures of the objects signified, form the whole materiel of Mexican writing; which thus serves admirably to illustrate the first stages of the art. No kind of abbreviation or simplification in the pictorial forms had taken place, which is always the first step towards reducing a series of depicted objects to a system of writing, as we now understand that term. The farther progress of the Mexican system was permanently checked by the introduction of the European alphabet by the Spaniards.

A system of writing similar to that of the Mexicans was practised, at the same time, or previously, by the North American Indians; which has been described by Charleroix, and of which recently-discovered remains have afforded interesting evidence. Analogous characters were also found by Strahlenberg, on the rocks of Siberia.*

D'Acosta relates, that on the first arrival of the Spanish squadron on the shores of Mexico, expresses were sent to Montezuma bearing scrolls of cloth, on which were painted accurate representations of the Spanish ships; "In this manner," he continues, "they kept their histories, representing things that had bodily shapes in their proper figures, and those that had none in arbitrary, significant characters."

The Aztecs were but a semi-civilised race when they were surprised by the

* Botturini says the Peruvians were acquainted with a mode of recording events by means of knotted strings of different colours, of which Sylvestre has engraved a specimen in his Paleographie; but it is possible they had also a mode of recording events similar to the system of the Mexicans.

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Spaniards in possession of the plains of Mexico; but they had made considerable progress in the arts of domestic life, and in legislation; and were in possession of a system of arithmetic, as well as of the mode of writing about to be described, which they had no doubt derived from the more polished Toltecs, and other neighbouring nations whom they had subdued. For it is scarcely probable that during the period of their brief supremacy, not exceeding two hundred years, they should have originated and carried out a system of writing even as perfect as that which they possessed at the epoch of their subjection by the Spaniards. We have, indeed, as I have stated, evidence that similar signs were formerly in use among the North American Indians, the source from which the Aztecs of Mexico, or even their predecessors the Toltecs, may have derived the roots of this knowledge, if, indeed, they be not traces left by that nation in its early passage southward. Some of the most barbarous and remote tribes of the northern races of American Indians still make use of certain symbols, which are, in fact, the first steps towards picture-writing. Thus, the red-skinned warrior carves an arrow upon a tree to denote the direction of his course to his followers; the changing position of the carved symbol pointing out every sinuosity of his devious course through the forests.

In the improved and established system of Mexican writing, we find symbolic characters of similar import in use; thus, a foot-print denotes travelling; the figure of a tongue denotes, as I have previously stated, the act of speaking; and a man sitting on the ground, an earthquake. The manner in which the Mexicans began to use a limited number of phonetic, or soundexpressing characters, may be illustrated by the mode in which the name of the town of Cimatlan was expressed. The sound of this name was written by means of a painted figure of a certain root termed cimatte, and another object, the spoken sound of which was similar to tlan, near; the name of the town having no doubt originated from the circumstance of the country round abounding in the cimatte root.

A proper name was occasionally expressed by a picture of the object giving rise to it, without regard to its phonetic character or sound, as in the case of prince Nezahualcoyotl, alluded to by Mr. Prescott in his invaluable history of Mexico. Nezahualcoyotl signifies hungry fox, and this name was given to a Mexican chief in consequence of the sagacity he displayed during the vicissitudes of his youth; it was represented by the figure of a fox, which was also used as a symbol embroidered on his war-banners; and when thus used, or borne upon the wooden shield, it became a personal blazon, very similar in character and acceptation to the armorial bearings of the age of chivalry.

In writings of the pictorial kind, deriving but slight assistance from phonetic characters, it is easy to conceive that records must be brief, and that registers kept by such means must necessarily be of a fragmentary character. This is, in fact, the case; yet, in this respect, hieroglyphic records did not materially differ from the monkish chronicles of the dark ages, which frequently dispose of

the events of an entire year in a few brief sentences; which were nevertheless quite long enough, as Mr. Prescott remarks, for the annals of barbarians. However this may be, the writing of the Mexicans was apparently a much more. available system for its special purposes, than might at a first glance be deemed possible of one composed of merely pictorial characters, in their first absolute stage of direct imitation of the objects represented; for, in the college of the priests, it appears that the Mexican youth were instructed in the various branches of knowledge, and taught to record their progress by means of the national hieroglyphic system, which was used as a sort of stenography, for forming a collection of notes, which, when properly arranged, suggested to the initiated much more than could be conveyed by a mere literal interpretation.

The Mexicans were acquainted with modes of fabricating several sorts of material for writing upon, quite as excellent as the papyrus of the Egyptians; among which were a fine kind of cotton cloth, prepared skins, and a fabric made from the leaves of the agave, or American aloe; which is said, when of the best quality, to have been more beautiful than the finest vellum.

Sometimes the Mexican manuscripts were done up in rolls, but frequently like a folding screen, with a

more solid board at each end; so that, when folded up, they presented the appearance of a

modern European book. This form is much more convenient than that of the rolls of Greek, Egyptian, and Roman MSS., as it enables the reader to look at one page at a time, thus presenting nearly the same advantages as the leaves of a modern volume. The first Spanish archbishop of the newly-acquired territory considering the ancient archives of Mexico, preserved in these interesting folded MSS., to be nothing better than idolatrous books of magic, caused them to be collected in vast numbers, especially from the great seat of Mexican learning, Anahuac, and burnt them in a "mountain heap," as the chroniclers of the time have termed it. Another Spaniard, the well-known Ximenes, though remarkable for many high qualities, had shortly before, and even in Europe, committed a similar act to that of the fanatical archbishop of Mexico; for, on the taking of Grenada, he annihilated by a rival bonfire the vast hoard of Moorish literature there collected. It is, indeed, a curious fact, that among the few Mexican MSS. which have escaped destruction and been brought to Europe, where they are now among the most highly prized rarities of national museums, not one has found its way to the national libraries of Spain, where it might be presumed that a splendid collection would have existed.*

In the Mexican system of notation of figures, the numerals, up to twenty, are composed of groups of dots; twenty has a separate sign-a flag-perhaps because a standard was borne before each officer commanding twenty men; any number of twenties being expressed by so many flags. The square of twenty,

* Sperete appears to think that the original of the Codex Mendoza is in the Escurial.

four hundred, had also a separate sign-a plume-as had the cube of twenty, or eight thousand, which was a purse, or sack. Half or a quarter of these numbers were represented by half or a quarter of the sign.

As an illustration (Plate I.) of the precise mode in which the Mexican hieroglyphics were designed, I have selected a portion of a page of the book or folded MS. termed the Mendoza Codex, from having formed part of the Mendoza collection. It is supposed to relate to the history of Mexico from its first foundation. The second page has furnished my illustration, and, as interpreted, relates to the reign and conquests of Acamapich. The blue border at the side, which in the original is drawn in strong outline, and then washed over with an even tone of pale blue, represents a series of years, distinguished by means of the dots, counting from the first point as far as thirteen points: the compartment with five dots representing the fifth year of the reign, that with ten the tenth, and so on; the pictures of the acts of the prince being referred to each special year by means of a connecting line, or some other obvious device. The additional symbols have different significations, that of the flower signifying a calamitous year, &c. The Chinese had probably a similar method of distinguishing unfortunate from prosperous years, as we find on their modern coinage, instead of the name of a prince or the year of his reign, such inscriptions as "the happy year," "the flourishing year," &c. &c.

Fig. 1 (Plate I.) is Acamapich; fig. 2, warlike instruments, signifying his preparation for war; fig. 3 is again Acamapich in a subsequent year; figs. 4, 5, 6, and 7, are the cities Quahnahuac, Mezquic, Cuitlhuac, and Xochimilco, represented by descriptive symbols in a similar manner to that in which the name of the city of Cimatlan is expressed, as previously described.

The four heads are those of the respective chiefs, or kings, of these cities, beheaded by order of Acamapich, each distinguished by the iconographic symbol by which his name was expressed in this system of writing. These figures have been compressed somewhat closer together in my plate, to economise space, as in the original they are much more straggling, the four heads being all in front of the lower figure of Acamapich, instead of above and below, as I have shewn them.

This plate is taken from Lord Kingsborough's great work, in which he has published fac-similes of all the most remarkable Mexican MSS. in existence; a collection upon which the future labours of the student in Mexican paleography will necessarily be based, as it would be impossible for him to visit all the museums and private collections in which the originals are preserved. The specimens in the British Museum and the Bodleian Library at Oxford are the only accessible examples of original Mexican writing within reach of the English student.

However barbarous these MSS. may appear, both in rudeness of execution, and in the system of their pictorial records, there are modern English examples of equal barbarism, and even of a similar character; for, among the vast numbers

of our countrymen still uneducated in the first elements of the art of writing, many have been found, in remote districts, inventing an iconographic system of their own: a fact aptly illustrated by the well-worn story of the rustic merchant who kept his accounts in this pictorial manner, and charged one of his customers, the miller, with a cheese instead of a mill-stone, in consequence of having forgotten to mark the hole in the middle.

The art of writing, in its most primitive stage, having now been examined through the medium of Mexican remains, the next stage of its development must be sought among the Chinese, whose system will form the subject of the following chapter.

But before proceeding to consider the next stage of the art, it will in this place be necessary to assert, that all existing examples described in this work, and indeed all known monuments connected with its progress, prove beyond doubt that its first steps were simple pictorial representations of the objects intended to be named; and those who attempt to maintain that writing, as first invented, was a scientific system of the notation of sound, by an ingenious series of signs, similar to those used in music, must find better grounds than conjecture or assertion to support their views; which will be very difficult, as all existing authorities assist in proving its gradual development from pictorial to phonetic characters. The power of representing sound being the last, and not the first stage of the art.