Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 12 of 407 - First - Home
I Have Given In This Work A Description Of The Teocalli,
Or Mexican Pyramids, And Have Compared Their Structure With That Of
The Temple Of Belus.
I have described the arabesques which cover
the ruins of Mitla, the idols in basalt ornamented with the
calantica
Of the heads of Isis; and also a considerable number of
symbolical paintings, representing the serpent-woman (the Mexican
Eve), the deluge of Coxcox, and the first migrations of the natives
of the Aztec race. I have endeavoured to prove the striking
analogies existing between the calendar of the Toltecs and the
catasterisms of their zodiac, and the division of time of the
people of Tartary and Thibet, as well as the Mexican traditions on
the four regenerations of the globe, the pralayas of the Hindoos,
and the four ages of Hesiod. In this work I have also included (in
addition to the hieroglyphical paintings I brought to Europe),
fragments of all the Aztec manuscripts, collected in Rome, Veletri,
Vienna, and Dresden, and one of which reminds us, by its lineary
symbols, of the kouas of the Chinese. Together with the rude
monuments of the aborigines of America, this volume contains
picturesque views of the mountainous countries which those people
inhabited; for example, the cataract of Tequendama, Chimborazo, the
volcano of Jorullo and Cayambe, the pyramidal summit of which,
covered with eternal ice, is situated directly under the
equinoctial line. In every zone the configuration of the ground,
the physiognomy of the plants, and the aspect of lovely or wild
scenery, have great influence on the progress of the arts, and on
the style which distinguishes their productions. This influence is
so much the more perceptible in proportion as man is farther
removed from civilization.
I could have added to this work researches on the character of
languages, which are the most durable monuments of nations. I have
collected a number of materials on the languages of America, of
which MM. Frederic Schlegel and Vater have made use; the former in
his Considerations on the Hindoos, the latter in his Continuation
of the Mithridates of Adelung, in the Ethnographical Magazine, and
in his Inquiries into the Population of the New Continent. These
materials are now in the hands of my brother, William von Humboldt,
who, during his travels in Spain, and a long abode at Rome, formed
the richest collection of American vocabularies in existence. His
extensive knowledge of the ancient and modern languages has enabled
him to trace some curious analogies in relation to this subject, so
important to the philosophical study of the history of man. A part
of his labours will find a place in this narrative.
Of the different works which I have here enumerated, the second and
third were composed by M. Bonpland, from the observations which he
made in a botanical journal. This journal contains more than four
thousand methodical descriptions of equinoctial plants, a ninth
part only of which have been made by me. They appear in a separate
publication, under the title of Nova Genera et Species Plantariem.
In this work will be found, not only the new species we collected,
which, after a careful examination by one of the first botanists of
the age, Professor Willdenouw, are computed to amount to fourteen
or fifteen hundred, but also the interesting observations made by
M. Bonpland on plants hitherto imperfectly described.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 12 of 407
Words from 5762 to 6324
of 211363