store of vellum rolls, and folds on folds of cloth covered with paintings, that had been discovered at Anahuac, the chief seat of Mexican learning, ordered the entire collection to be burnt in a heap--a _mountain_ heap, the chroniclers of the time call it--lest they should contain incantations or instructions for the practice of magical arts. As some excuse for this notion of the archbishop’s, we will mention the subjects treated of in the five books of picture-writing which Montezuma gave to Cortez:--the first book treated of years and seasons; the second of days and festivals; the third of dreams and omens; the fourth of the naming of children; the fifth of ceremonies and prognostications. The few specimens of Mexican writing which have come down to us, show that, though the Aztecs had not used their picture-signs as skilfully as some other nations have done, they had taken the first step towards phonetic, or sound-writing; a step which, if pursued, would have led them through some such process as we shall afterwards see was followed by the Egyptians and Phœnicians, to the formation of a true alphabet. They had begun to write proper names of chiefs and towns by pictures of things that recalled the _sound_ of their names, instead of by a symbol suggestive of the appearance or quality of the place or chieftain, or of the _meaning_ of the names. It is difficult to explain this without pictures; but as this change of method involves a most important step in the discovery of the art of writing, we had better pause upon it a little, and get it clear to our minds. There was a king whose name occurs in a chronicle now existing, called Itz-co-atle, Knife-snake; his name is generally written by a picture of a snake, with flint knives stuck in it; but in one place it is indicated in a different manner. The first syllable is still _pictured_ by a knife; but for the second, instead of a snake, we find an earthen pot and a sign for water. Now the Mexican name for pot is ‘co-mitle,’ for water ‘atle;’ read literally the name thus pictured would read ‘Itz-comitle-atle,’ but it is clear, since the name intended was ‘Itz-co-atle,’ that the pot is drawn to suggest only the first syllable of its name, _co_, and by this change it has become no longer a picture, but a phonetic, syllabic sign, the next step but one before a true letter. What great results can be elaborated from this change we shall see when we begin to speak of Egyptian writing.