4. It was a composite system, containing pictures (figuras), ideograms
(caracteres), and phonetic signs (letras).

The ruins of Palenque, Copan, and other Maya cities, abound in such
hieroglyphs.

The natives of Nicaragua, those, at least, of Aztec lineage, made use of
parchment volumes, folded into a neat and portable compass, in which
they painted, in red and black ink, certain figures, "by means of
which," says the chronicler Oviedo, "they could express and understand
whatever they wished, with entire clearness."[11]

In South America the Peruvians had their _quipus_, cords of
different lengths, sizes and colors, knotted in various ways, and
attached to a base cord, an arrangement that was a decided aid to the
memory, though it could not be connected with the sounds of words. There
are also faint traces of figures, with definite meaning, among the
Muyscas of Colombia; and the Moxos of Western Bolivia are said to have
employed, as late as the last century, a method of writing, consisting
of lines traced on wooden slabs.[12]




Section 3. _Narrative Literature_.


Of all forms of sustained discourse, we may reasonably suppose that of
narration to have been the earliest. The incidents of the hunt were
related at the return; the experiences of the past were told as a guide