134 
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