It has long been known that the Aztec employed ikonomatic characters in their writing to express the names of persons and places, though this practice does not seem to have been extended by them to the representation of abstract words. The Aztec codices contain many glyphs which are to be interpreted ikonomatically, that is, like our own rebus writing. For example in figure 15, _a_, is shown the Aztec hieroglyph for the town of Toltitlan, a name which means "near the place of the rushes." The word _tollin_ means "place of the rushes," but only its first syllable _tol_ appears in the word Toltitlan. This syllable is represented in _a_ by several rushes. The word _tetlan_ means "near something" and its second syllable _tlan_ is found also in the word _tlantli_, meaning "teeth." In _a_ therefore, the addition of the teeth to the rushes gives the word Toltitlan. Another example of this kind of writing is given in figure 15, _b_, where the hieroglyph for the town of Acatzinco is shown. This word means "the little reed grass," the diminutive being represented by the syllable _tzinco_. The reed grass (_acatl_) is shown by the pointed leaves or spears which emerge from the lower part of a human figure. This part of the body was called by the Aztecs _tzinco_, and as used here expresses merely the sound _tzinco_ in the diminutive _acatzinco_, "the little reed grass," the letter _l_ of _acatl_ being lost in composition. [Illustration: FIG. 14. A rebus. Aztec, and probably Maya, personal and place names were written in a corresponding manner.] The presence of undoubted phonetic elements in these Aztec glyphs expressing personal names and place names would seem to indicate that some similar usage probably prevailed among the Maya. {30} While admitting this restricted use of phonetic composition by the Maya, Professor Seler refuses to recognize its further extension: Certainly there existed in the Maya writing compound hieroglyphs giving the name of a deity, person, or a locality, whose elements united on the phonetic principle. But as yet it is not proved that they wrote texts. And without doubt the greater part of the Maya hieroglyphics were conventional symbols built up on the ideographic principle. Doctor Förstemann also regards the use of phonetic elements as restricted to little more than the above when he says, "Finally the graphic system of the Maya ... never even achieved the expression of a phrase or even a verb." On the other hand, Mr. Bowditch (1910: p. 255) considers the use of phonetic composition extended considerably beyond these limits: