Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/738

 720 HIEROGLYPHICS latter. Many manuscripts or paintings, hav- ing their origin with the early priests and missionaries, have been confounded with the paintings and manuscripts of true Mexican ori- gin, and of earlier date. Many condemn all the Mexican manuscripts in existence as monk- ish impostures, and of a date subsequent to the Spanish conquest; but a number of paint- ings and manuscripts are of undoubted abo- riginal origin, historical and ritual in charac- ter, dating back beyond the discovery of the continent. Some of the historical manuscripts were continued in the spirit and style of the ancient system, by competent native hands, af- ter the conquest, and contain the Indian ver- sion of that event. There are others of equally unquestionable ancient date, but generally of a religious or mythological character, which there is reason to believe have been changed in copies, or altered in the originals, with a view to conform with priestly teachings, and illustrate the dogmas of the church. And finally there is that large class of manuscripts originating with Testera, and perfected by his followers. These seem to have been of three kinds: 1, those of Testera and the early Fran- ciscans, which were simple paintings, more or less adapted to Indian conventionalisms in their style of execution ; 2, those of a mixed kind, in which some simple paintings were preserved, largely illustrated by arbitrary native and oth- er figures ; and 3, those in phonetic characters or representations, forming a complete adapta- tion of the Mexican system. The third class of Christian or post-Mexican paintings are cor- rectly described by Torquemada, who says of the mode in which the Pater Noster was learned : u The word in their language most nearly representing Pater being pantli, the name of a kind of small flag, they put this flag for Pater. In place of nosier, a word resem- bling their nochtli, they paint a' tuna (cactus) fig, the name of which, nochtli, recalls the Lat- in noster ; and so they go on to the end of the prayer. By a similar process and like charac- ters they wrote down what they wished to learn by heart. This was during the first pe- riod of their conversion, for now [between 1592 and 1614] they no longer require to use these ancient characters." The following rep- resentation of the title Pater Noster is copied from a manuscript in the museum of Mexico : Pa-te noch-te, or Pa-tetl noch-tetL First is the figure of a little flag, or pantli in Nahuatl, the root of which is pan or pa ; sec- ond is the sign of stone, tetl, root te, the whole making syllabically Pa-te for Pater, the r being wanting in the Mexican language. Next we have the sign of the fruit of the cactus, nochtli, root noch, and that of stone, tetl, root te, as be- fore, making noch-te for noster. The whole is therefore the nearest possible approach to the Latin, represented by Mexican figures of exact and unmistakable phonetic value. A general comparison of the ancient and positively Mexi- can paintings leaves no doubt that this mode of representation, by syllabic phonetics, in which the roots of words only were to be understood by the figures or sounded in reading, was the mode universally accepted, more or less mixed up with ideographic signs and simple pictures. In the historical and administrative documents of a superior order, written on skins or paper made from the maguey, the figurative writing, constantly phonetic, is no longer ideographic except in rare instances where the phonetic system fails. But paintings relating the same history do not always coincide in their signs, even when phonetically exactly alike. For in- stance, the name of Itzcoatl, the fourth king of Mexico, is expressed in some of the manuscripts by the figure of a serpent (coatl), with its back crested with knives or arrow heads of obsidian (itzli) ; the whole, Itz-coatl. In other paint- ings, however, it is written syllabically as fol- lows : figure of an arrow head, itzli, root itz ; figure of a vase, comitl, root co ; figure or sign of water, ail ; the whole, Itz-co-atl. The doc- uments of this class, in which the syllabic wri- ting predominates, are generally land registers, tribute rolls, judgments of courts, genealogies, &c., and were continued long after the con- quest, and for the use of the Spanish adminis- trations were often accompanied by literal trans- lations from which alone a very full diction- ary of the Mexican signs might be construct- ed. In numeration and chronology the Mexi- can system was exact and ample. Most of the historical paintings are simple annals, but some give more specific dates, down to the day of the month on which the event recorded took place. The most striking and to the uneduca- ted eye the most interesting of the Mexican paintings are the ritual calendars, and schemes of judicial astrology, which make up the great- er part of Lord Kingsborough's published col- lection. Excepting the designations of the days, these seem to be purely figurative or sym- bolical, intended only for the use of the priests and diviners, and possessed of an esoteric sig- nificance. They are valuable only in connec- tion with the study of Mexican mythology and the Aztec religion and superstitions. There is a wide distinction to be drawn between those found in Mexico and those obtained in Central America. Of the latter but few examples are known to exist. The so-called Dresden man- uscript, published by Lord Kingsborough, is perhaps the only perfect example of this kind in Europe. Its figures and signs coincide with those sculptured on the monuments of Palen- que, Yucatan, and Copan, and identify it as the work of the same people. It has but slight re- semblance to the Mexican manuscripts already discussed, and seems to mark a far higher de- velopment of the graphic art. So far as they can be made out, the elements of the Central