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instructed the young warriors to draw red and
black figures, similar to those which are made on
the belts, and who explained their signification
with great emphasis, while the students lis-
tened to the recital with profound silence and
attention. It was not, therefore, extraordinary,
that, on seeing similar figures on the Egyptian
trophy, he should have thought that they were
intended to transmit the record of transactions
like the Wampum belts._A language of signs
derived from natural objects, must have some-
thing universal in its very nature; for the qua-
lities represented by the emblematic figure,
would, doubtless, be those for which the ori-
ginal of the iigure was most remarkable: and,
therefore, if there be any resemblance between
the Egyptian hieroglyphics and those used by
the American Indians, the probability is, that
there is also some similar intrinsic meaning in
their signification. But the Walnpum belts
are probably not all chronicles; there is rea-
son to believe that some of them partake of the
nature of calendars, by which the Indians are re-
gulated in proceedings dependant on the seasons ;
and that, in this respect, they answer to the