Of all these we have examples preserved, and many of them
have been published.
Quite another and a more perfect method of writing prevailed among the
Mayas of Yucatan and Central America. Their books were exceedingly neat,
and strongly resembled an ordinary quarto volume, such as appears on
European bookshelves. I have so lately discussed their manufacture, and
the so-called alphabet in which they were written, and in a work of such
easy access, that it is enough if I quote the conclusions there arrived
at.[10] They are:--
1. The Maya graphic system was recognized, from the first, to be
distinct from the Mexican.
2. It was a hieroglyphic system, known only to the priests and a few
nobles.
3. It was employed for a variety of purposes, prominent among which was
the preservation of their history and calendar.
4. It was a composite system, containing pictures (figuras), ideograms
(caracteres), and phonetic signs (letras).
The ruins of Palenque, Copan, and other Maya cities, abound in such
hieroglyphs.
The natives of Nicaragua, those, at least, of Aztec lineage, made use of
parchment volumes, folded into a neat and portable compass, in which
they painted, in red and black ink, certain figures, "by means of
which," says the chronicler Oviedo, "they could express and understand
whatever they wished, with entire clearness.
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