If we find decided
affinities between two or three letters, we may reasonably presume that
similar coincidences existed as to many others which have disappeared
under the attrition of centuries.
The first thought that occurs to us on examining the Landa alphabet is
the complex and ornate character of the letters. Instead of the two or
three strokes with which we indicate a sign for a sound, we have here
rude pictures of objects. And we find that these are themselves
simplifications of older forms of a still more complex character. Take,
for instance, the letter pp in Landa's alphabet, ### : here are
evidently the traces of a face. The same appear, but not so plainly, in
the sign for x, which is ### . Now, if we turn to the ancient
hieroglyphics upon the monuments of Central America, we will find the
human face appearing in a great many of them, as in the following, which
we copy from the Tablet of the Cross at Palenque. We take the
hieroglyphs from the left-hand side of the inscription. Here it will be
seen that, out of seven hieroglyphical figures, six contain human faces.
And we find that in the whole inscription of the Tablet of the Cross
there are 33 figures out of 108 that are made up in part of the human
countenance.
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