which is said to have been the address on a letter that found its destination in John Underwood, Andover, Massachusetts. It might be supposed that, having acquired a knowledge of the method of the Aztec writing, the general principles of which, according to Brinton, were known many years ago, we would now be able to translate the Mexican documents with little difficulty. The trouble lies, however, in the lack of exact knowledge of the Nahuatl language itself, and till that is acquired small progress will be made. It will be necessary to understand this language before its modern additions and changes came in, in order to connect it with the picture-writing, or rather the ikonomatic writing, of the fifteenth and previous centuries. It has been doubted whether there is any phonetic element in either the Aztec or the Maya hieroglyphics, but the evidence seems to indicate that there is a phonetic element, notwithstanding that there has been a following in many cases of rather slender threads of evidence. [Illustration: PAGE FROM AN AZTEC BOOK (from a copy in the possession of M. H. Saville) Plate 67 of the Nahuan precolumbian Vatican Codex, No. 3773, Loubat edition. This is the 19th page of the Tonalamatl, the sacred astrological calendar of the Aztecs. The seated figure is the goddess Xochiquetzal, and on the left is the god Tezcatlipoca. The book is in size about 5 × 6 inches. ] [Illustration: MEXICAN WRITING OF NAME OF MONTEZUMA From Brinton ] Brinton gives the accompanying illustration of the character of the Aztec writing, this being the name of Montezuma, but really reading Moquahzoma. As most writers spell this name to suit themselves, judging from the great variety of spellings, we may as well accept Moquahzoma too. Indeed, as this seems to be supported by the evidence of the writing, it is more likely to be correct than the others. The picture at the right is of a mouse-trap, _montli_ in Nahuatl, “with a phonetic value of _mo_ or _mon_; the head of the eagle has the value _quauh_, from _quauhtli_; it is transfixed with a lancet _zo_ and surmounted with a hand _maitl_, whose phonetic value is _ma_, and these values combined give _Moquahzoma_.” [Illustration: PART OF PLATE 65, DRESDEN CODEX Maya ]