The more artificial _civilization_ becomes, the weaker is the desire for offspring; and we must relegate the Quichés, by this rule, to a very primitive state, for the burden of their prayers was “Give unto us children,” and their faith was incarnate in works. They believed, with the psalmist, that “children are an heritage of the Lord; happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.” Hence the birth of a child was a most auspicious event, to be celebrated with feasts and rejoicings, and each returning birthday was duly remembered. With the truest mercy, they put an end to all children born deformed or defective in mind or body; hence deformed or idiotic persons are exceedingly rare among their descendants. [Illustration: Ideographs.] [Illustration: Ancient Incense-burner.] The Quichés possessed the art of writing, though in logographs or ideographs, and they were skilled in the use of colors.[41] I present some of the more common forms, traced from the copies in Kingsborough’s “Antiquities.” The first, two interlocked elbows, signifies the fourth day of the month; one of the elbows was colored red in the manuscript, while the other was green, both having an inner border of yellow. The simple hinge was of blue and red, with a yellow articulation; the hinge enclosing a dagger was yellow and green with red inner borders, and the dagger was red, yellow, and blue. The character denoting or representing a temple is readily recognized, and its usual colors are red and yellow; but it must not be supposed that these colors were always the same, they evidently depended on the taste of the scribe. A rude figure of a censer with a long handle through which the priest could blow upon the burning gum copal used as incense, always denoted a sacrifice. This art of pictorial representation could not strictly be called writing, but was a very useful substitute for it, and it was continued long after the Conquest. I have thought, after looking at some of the caricatures of the priests of the new worship which was forced upon these Indios, of the rite of baptism, and of the sacrifice of the Mass, that perhaps these unfortunate subjects had as much influence in the wanton destruction of aboriginal literature as had the alleged doctrine of devilish things with which the books were said to be imbued. The old Spanish priests ought to have felt little fear of a creature they knew so well as they knew Satan. The shaven crowns of the padres were easily represented even by less skilled draughtsmen than the Quichés, and the new doctrines gave the irreverent splendid chances for effective caricatures.