Chapter 2

Mayan numerals

â€œYantac thun yetel paiche tu pachob, he hunppel thune hunppel bin haabe, uaix cappele cappel bin haabe, uaix oxppel thuun, ua canppel thuune, canppel binbe, uaix oxppel thuun baixan; he paichee yan yokol xane, ua hunppel paichee, hoppel haab bin; ua cappel paichee lahunppiz bin; uaix hunppel paichee yan yokol xane, ua yan hunppel thuune uacppel bin be; uaix cappel thuune yan yokol paichee uucppel bin be; ua oxppel thuun yan yokole, uaxppel binbe; uaixcanppel thun yan yokole paichee (bolonppel binbe); yanix thun yokol (cappel) paichee bulucpiz; uaix cappel thune lahcapiz; ua oxppel thuun, oxlahunpiz.â€

â€œThey (our ancestors) used (for numerals in their calendars) dots and lines back of them; one dot for one year, two dots for two years, three dots for three, four dots for four, and so on; in addition to these they used a line; one line meant five years, two lines ten years; if one line and above it one dot, six years; if two dots above the line, seven years; if three dots above, eight; if four dots above the line, nine; a dot above two lines, eleven; if two dots, twelve; if three dots,thirteen.â€48-1

The plan of using the numerals in Maya differs somewhat from that in English.

In the first place, they are rarely named without the addition of anumeral particle, which is suffixed. These particles indicate the character or class of the objects which are, or are about to be, enumerated. When they are uttered, the hearer at once knows what kind of objects are to be spoken of. Many of them can be traced to a meaning whichhas a definite application to a class, and they have analogues in European tongues. Thus I may say â€œseven head ofâ€â€”and the hearer knows that I am going to speak of cattle, or sheep, or cabbages, or similar objects usually counted by heads. So in Mayaacmeans a turtle or a turtle shell; hence it is used as a particle in counting canoes, houses, stools, vases, pits, caves, altars, and troughs, and some general appropriateness can be seen; but when it is applied also to cornfields, the analogy seems remote.

Of these numeral particles, not less thanseventy-sixare given by Beltran, in his Grammar, and he does not exhaust the list. Of thesepizandpel, both of which mean, single, singly, are used in counting years, and will frequently recur in the annals I present in this volume.

By their aid another method of numeration was in vogue for counting time. For â€œeighty-one years,â€ they did not sayhutuyokal haab, butcan kal haab catac hunpel haab, literally, â€œfour score years and one year.â€ The copulativecatacis also used in adding a smaller number to abak, or 400, as for 450,hun bak catac lahuyoxkal, â€œonebakand ten toward the third score.â€Catacis a compound ofca tac,cameaning â€œthenâ€ or â€œand,â€ andtac,which Dr. Berendt considered to be an irregular future oftalel, to come, â€œthen will come fifty,â€ but which may be the imperative oftac(tacah,tace, third conjugation), which means to put something under another, as in the phrasetac ex che yalan cum, put you wood under the pot.

It will be seen that the latter method is by addition, the former by subtraction. Another variety of the latter is found in the annals. For instance, â€œninety-nine yearsâ€ is not expressed bybolonlahutuyokal haab, nor yet bycankal haab catac bolonlahunpel haab, but byhunpel haab minan ti hokal haab, â€œone single year lacking from five score years.â€

Â§ 7.The Calendar.

The system of computing time adopted by the Mayas is a subject too extensive to be treated here in detail, but it is indispensable, for the proper understanding of their annals, that the outlines of their chronological scheme be explained.

The year,haab, was intended to begin on the day of the transit of the sun by the zenith, and was counted from July 16th. It was divided into eighteen months,u(u, month, moon), of twentydays,kin(sun, day, time), each. The days were divided into groups of five, as follows:â€”

The months, in their order, were:â€”

As the Maya year was of 365 days, and as 18 months of 20 days each counted only 360 days, there were five days intervening between the last of the month Cumku and the first day of the following year. These were called â€œdays without names,â€xma kaba kin(xma, without,kaba, names,kin, days), an expression not quite correct, as they were named in regular order, only they were not counted in any month.

It will be seen, by glancing at the list of days, that this arrangement brought at the beginning of each year, the days Kan, Muluc, Ix and Cauac inturn, and that no other days could begin the year. These days were therefore calledcuch haab, â€œthe bearers of the yearsâ€ (cuch, to bear, carry,haab, year), and years were distinguished as â€œa year Kan,â€ â€œa year Muluc,â€ etc., as they began with one or another of these â€œyear bearers.â€

But the calendar was not so simple as this. The days were not counted from one to twenty, and then beginning at one again, and so on, but by periods of 13 days each. Thus, in the first month, beginning with 1 Kan, the 14th day of that month begins a new â€œweek,â€ as it has been called, and is named 1 Caban. Twenty-eight of these weeks make 364 days, thus leaving one day to complete the year. When the number of these odd days amounted to 13, in other words when thirteen years had elapsed, this formed a period which was called â€œthekatunof days,â€kin katun, and by Spanish writers an â€œindiction.â€

It will be readily observed by an inspection of the following table, that four of these indictions, in other words 52 years, will elapse before a â€œyear bearerâ€ of the same name and number recommences a year.

A cycle of 52 years was thus obtained in a manner almost identical with that of the Aztecs, Tarascos and other nations.

But the Mayas took an important step in advance of all their contemporaries in arranging a much longer cycle.

This long cycle was an application of the vigesimal system to their reckoning of time. Twenty days were a month,uoruinal; twenty years was a cycle,katun. To ask oneâ€™s age the question was puthaypel u katunil? How many katuns have you? And the answer was,hunpel katun, one katun (twenty years), or,hopel in katunil, I am five katuns, or a hundred years old, as the case might be.

The division of the katuns was on the principleof the Beltran system of numeration (see page40), as,

Literally these expressions are, â€œdividing the second katun,â€ â€œdividing the third katun,â€xelmeaning to cut in pieces, to divide as with a knife. They may be compared to the Germandritthalb, two and a half, or â€œthe third ahalf.â€54-1

The Katun of 20 years was divided into five lesser divisions of 4 years each, calledtzuc, a word with a signification something like the English â€œbunch,â€ and which came to be used as a numeral particle in counting parts, divisions, paragraphs, reasons, groups of towns,etc.54-2

Thesetzucwere called by the Spaniardslustros, from the Latinlustrum, although that was a periodfiveyears. Cogolludo says: â€œThey counted their eras and ages, which they entered in their books, by periods of 20 years each, and bylustrosof four years each. The first year they placed in the East [that is, on the Katun-wheel, and in the figures in their books], calling itcuch haab; the second in the West, calledHijx; the third in the South,Cavac; and the fourth, Muluc, in the North, and this served them for the Dominical letter. When five of thelustroshad passed, that is 20 years, they called it aKatun, and they placed one carved stone upon another, cemented with lime and sand, in the walls of their temples, or in the houses of theirpriests.â€55-1

The historian is wrong in saying that the first year was calledcuchhaab; that was the name applied to all the Dominical days, and as I have said, means â€œyear bearer.â€ The first year was calledKan, from the first day of its first month.

This is but one of many illustrations of how cautious we must be in accepting any statement of the early Spanish writers about the usages of the natives.

There is, however, some obscurity about the length of theKatun. All the older Spanish writers, without exception, and most of the native manuscripts, speak of it distinctly as a period of twenty years. Yet there are three manuscripts of high authority in the Maya which state that it embraced twenty-four years, although the last four were not reckoned. This theory was adopted and warmly advocated by Pio Perez, in his essay on the ancient chronology of Yucatan, and is also borne out by calculations which have been made on the hieroglyphic Codex Troano, by M. Delaporte, in France, and Professor Cyrus Thomas, in the UnitedStates.56-1

This discrepancy may arise from the custom of counting the katuns by two different systems, ground for which supposition is furnished by various manuscripts; but for purposes of chronology and ordinary life, it will be evident that the writers of the annals in the present volume adopted the Katun of twenty yearsâ€™ length; while on the other hand the native Pech, in his History of the Conquest, which is the last piece in the volume,gives for the beginning and the end of the Katun the years 1517-1541, and therefore must have had in mind one of twenty-four yearsâ€™ duration. The solution of these contradictions is not yet at hand.

This great cycle of 13Â Ã—Â 20=260 years was called anahau Katuncollectively, and each period in it bore the same name.

This name,ahau Katun, deserves careful analysis.Ahauis the ordinary word for chief, king, ruler. It is probably a compound ofah, which is the male prefix and sign of thenomen agentis, andu, collar, a collar of gold or other precious substance, distinguishing the chiefs.Katunhas been variously analyzed. Don Pio Perez supposed it was a compound ofkat, to ask, andtun, a stone, because at the close of these periods they set up the sculptured stone, which was afterwards referred to in order to fix the dates ofoccurrences.57-1This, however, would certainly require thatkatbe in the passive,katalorkataan, and would givekatantun. Beltran in his Grammar treats the word as an adjective, meaning very long,perpetual.57-2But this is a later, secondary sense. Its usual signification is a body orbatallionof warriors engaged in action. As a verb, it is to fight, to give battle, and thus seems related to the Cakchiqueltresilloat, to cut, or wound, to makeprisoner.58-1The series of years, ordered and arranged under a controlling day and date, were like a row of soldiers commanded by a chief, and hence the nameahau katun.

Each of theseahausor chiefs of the Katuns was represented in the native calendars by the picture or portrait of a particular personage who in some way was identified with the Katun, and his name was given to it. This has not been dwelt upon nor even mentioned by previous writers on the subject, but I have copies of various native manuscripts which illustrate it, and give the names of each of the rulers of the Katuns.

The thirteenahau katunswere not numbered from 1 upward, but beginning at the 13th, by the alternate numbers, in the following order:â€”

13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2

Various reasons have been assigned for this arrangement. It would be foreign to my purpose to discuss them here, and I shall merely quote the following, from a paper I wrote on the subject, printed in theAmerican Naturalist, Sept., 1881:â€”

â€œGallatin explained them as the numerical characters of the days â€œAhauâ€ following the first day of each year called Cauac; Dr. Valentini thinks they refer to the numbers of the various idols worshiped in the different Ahaus; Professor Thomas that they are the number of the year (in the indiction of 52 years) on which the Ahau begins. Each of these statements is true in itself, but each fails to show any practical use of the series; and of the last mentioned it is to be observed that the objection applies to it that at the commencement of an Ahau Katun the numbers would run 1, 12, 10, 8, etc., whereas we know positively that the numbers of the Ahaus began with 13 and continued 11, 9, 7, 5, etc.â€œThe explanation which I offer is that the number of the Ahau was taken from the last day Cauac preceding the Kan with which the first year of each Ahau beganâ€”for, as 24 is divisible by 4, the first year of each Ahau necessarily began with the day Kan. This number was the â€œruling numberâ€ of the Ahau, and not for any mystical or ceremonial purpose, but for the practical one of at once and easily converting any year designated in the Ahau into its equivalent in the currentKin Katun, or 52 year cycle. All that is necessary to do this is, toadd the number of the year in the Ahau to the number of the year Cauac corresponding to this â€œruling number.â€ When the sum exceeds 52, subtract that number.â€œTake an example: To what year in the Kin Katun does 10 AhauXI(the 10th year of the 11th Ahau) correspond?â€œOn referring to a table, or, as the Mayas did, to a â€˜Katun wheel,â€™ we find the 11th Cauac to be the 24th year of the cycle; add ten to this and we have 34 as the number of the year in the cycle to which 10 AhauXIcorresponds. The great simplicity and convenience of this will be evident without further discussion.â€

â€œThe explanation which I offer is that the number of the Ahau was taken from the last day Cauac preceding the Kan with which the first year of each Ahau beganâ€”for, as 24 is divisible by 4, the first year of each Ahau necessarily began with the day Kan. This number was the â€œruling numberâ€ of the Ahau, and not for any mystical or ceremonial purpose, but for the practical one of at once and easily converting any year designated in the Ahau into its equivalent in the currentKin Katun, or 52 year cycle. All that is necessary to do this is, toadd the number of the year in the Ahau to the number of the year Cauac corresponding to this â€œruling number.â€ When the sum exceeds 52, subtract that number.

â€œTake an example: To what year in the Kin Katun does 10 AhauXI(the 10th year of the 11th Ahau) correspond?

â€œOn referring to a table, or, as the Mayas did, to a â€˜Katun wheel,â€™ we find the 11th Cauac to be the 24th year of the cycle; add ten to this and we have 34 as the number of the year in the cycle to which 10 AhauXIcorresponds. The great simplicity and convenience of this will be evident without further discussion.â€

The important question remains, how closely, by these cycles, did the Mayas approximate to preserving the exact date of an event?

To answer this fairly, we should be sure that we have a perfectly authentic translation of their hieroglyphic annals. It is doubtful that we have. Those I present in this volume are the most perfect, so far as I know, but they certainly do not agree among themselves. Can their discrepancies be explained? I think they can in a measure (1) by the differing length of the katuns, (2) by the era assumed as the commencement of the reckoning.

It must be remembered that there was apparently no common era adopted by the Mayas; each province may have selected its own; and it is quite erroneous to condemn the annals off-handfor inaccuracy because they conflict between themselves.

Â§ 8.Ancient Hieroglyphic Books.

The Mayas were a literary people. They made frequent use of tablets, wrote many books, and covered the walls of their buildings with hieroglyphic signs, cut in the stones or painted upon the plaster.

The explanation of these signs is one of the leading problems in American archÃ¦ology. It was supposed to have been solved when the manuscript of Bishop Landaâ€™s account of Yucatan was discovered, some twenty years ago, in Madrid. The Bishop gave what he called â€œan A, B, C,â€ of the language, but which, when applied to the extant manuscripts and the mural inscriptions, proved entirely insufficient to decipher them.

The disappointment of the antiquaries was great, and by one of them, Dr. Felipe Valentini, Landaâ€™s alphabet has been denounced as â€œa Spanishfabrication.â€61-1But certainly any one acquainted with the history of the Latin alphabet, how it required the labor of thousands of years and the demands of three wholly different families of languages, to bring it to its perfection, should not have looked to find among the Mayas, oranywhere else, a parallel production of human intelligence. Moreover, rightly understood, Landa does not intimate anything of the kind. He distinctly states that what he gives are the sounds of the Spanish letters as they would be transcribed in Maya characters; not at all that they analyzed the sounds of their words and expressed the phonetic elements in these characters. On the contrary, he takes care to affirm that they could not do this, and gives an example inpoint.62-1Dr. Valentini, therefore, was attacking a windmill, and entirely misconstrued the Bishopâ€™s statements.

I shall not, in this connection, enter into a discussion of the nature of these hieroglyphics. It is enough for my purpose to say that they were recognized by the earliest Spanish explorers as quite different from those of Mexico, and as the only graphic system on the continent, so far as they knew it, which merited the name ofwriting.62-2

The word for book in Maya ishuun, a monosyllable which reappears in the Kichevuhand the Huastecauuh. In Maya this initialhis almost silent and is occasionally dropped, asyuunil Dios, the book of God (syncopated form ofu huunil Dios, the suffixilbeing the â€œdeterminativeâ€ ending). I am inclined to believe thathuunis merely a form ofuoohan, something written, this being the passive participle ofuooh, to write, which, as a noun, also means a character, aletter.63-1

Another name for their books, especially those containing the prophecies and forecasts of the priestly diviners, is said to have beenanahte; oranalte. This word is not to be found in any of the early dictionaries. The usual authority for it is Villagutierre Sotomayor, who describes these volumes as they were seen among the Itzas of Lake Peten, about1690.64-1

These books consisted of one long sheet of a kind of paper made by macerating and beating together the leaves of the maguey, and afterwards sizing the surface with a durable white varnish. The sheet was folded like a screen, forming pages about 9Â Ã—Â 5 inches. Both sides were covered with figures and characters painted in various brilliant colors. On the outer pages boards were fastened, for protection, so that the completed volume hadthe appearance of a bound book of large octavo size.

Instead of this paper, parchment was sometimes used. This was made from deerskins, thoroughly cured and also smoked, so that they should be less liable to the attacks of insects. A very durable substance was thus obtained, which would resist most agents of destruction, even in a tropical climate. Twenty-seven rolls of such parchment, covered with hieroglyphics, were among the articles burned by Bishop Landa, at Mani, in 1562, in a general destruction of everything which related to the ancient life of the nation. He himself says that he burned all that he could lay his hands upon, to the great distress of thenatives.65-1

A very few escaped the destructive bigotry of the Spanish priests. So far as known these are.â€”

1. The Codex Tro, or Troano, in Madrid, published by the French government, in 1869.

2. What is believed to be the second part of the Codex Troano, now (1882) in process of publication in Paris.

3. The Codex Peresianus, in the National Library, Paris, a very limited edition of which has been issued.

4. The Dresden Codex, in Kingsboroughâ€™s Mexico, and photographed in colors, to the number of 50 copies, in 1880, which is believed to contain fragments of two different manuscripts.

To these are, perhaps, to be added one other in Europe and two in Mexico, which are in private hands, and are alleged to be of the same character.

All the above are distinctly in characters which were peculiar to the Mayas, and which are clearly variants of those found on the sculptured beams and slabs of Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Palenque and Copan.

It is possible that many other manuscripts may be discovered in time, for Landa tells us that it was the custom to bury with the priests the books which they had written. As their tombs were at times of solid stones, firmly cemented together, and well calculated to resist the moisture and other elements of destruction for centuries, it is nowise unlikely that explorations in Yucatan will bring to light some of these hidden documents.

The contents of these books, so far as we can judge from the hints in the early writers, related chiefly to the ritual and calendar, to their history or Katuns, to astrological predictions and divinations, to their mythology, and to their system of healing disease.

Â§ 9.Modern Maya Manuscripts.

As I have said, the Mayas were naturally a literary people. Had they been offered the slightest chance for the cultivation of their intellects they would have become a nation of readers and writers. Striking testimony to this effect is offered by Doctor Don Augustin de Echano, Prebend of the Cathedral Church of Merida, about the middle of the last century. He observes that twelve years of experience among the Indians had taught him that they were very desirous of knowledge, and that as soon as they learned to read, they eagerly perused everything they could lay their hands on; and as they had nothing in their tongue but some old writings that treated of sorceries and quackeries, the worthy Prebend thought it an excellent idea that they should be supplied, in place of these, with some â€”â€”sermons!67-1But what else could be expected of a body of men who crushed out with equal bigotry every spark of mental independence in their own country?

The â€œold writingsâ€ to which the Prebend alludes were composed by natives who had learned to write the Maya in the alphabet adopted by the early missionaries and conquerors. An official document in Maya, still extant, dates from 1542, and from that time on there were natives who wrote their tongue with fluency. But their favorite compositions were works similar to those to which their forefathers had been partial, prophecies, chronicles and medical treatises.

Relying on their memories, and no doubt aided by some of the ancient hieroglyphical manuscripts, carefully secreted from the vandalism of the monks, they wrote out what they could recollect of their national literature.

There were at one time a large number of these records. They are referred to by Cogolludo, Sanchez Aguilar and other early historians. Probably nearly every village had one, which in time became to be regarded with superstitious veneration.

Wherever written, each of these books bore the same name; it was always referred to as â€œThe Book of Chilan Balam.â€ To distinguish them apart, the name of the village where one was composed was added. Thus we have still preserved to us, in whole or in fragments, the Book of Chilan Balam of Chumayel, of Kaua, of Nabula, etc., in all, it is said, about sixteen.

â€œChilan Balamâ€ was the designation of a class of priests. â€œChilan,â€ says Bishop Landa, â€œwas the name of their priests, whose duty it was to teach the sciences, to appoint holy days, to treat the sick, to offer sacrifices, and especially to utter the oracles of the gods. They were so highly honored by the people that usually they were carried on litters on the shoulders of thedevotees.â€69-1Strictly speaking, in Maya,chilanmeans â€œinterpreter,â€ â€œmouth-piece,â€ from â€œchij,â€ â€œthe mouth,â€ and in this ordinary sense frequently occurs in other writings. The wordbalamâ€”literally, â€œtiger,â€â€”was also applied to a class of priests, and is still in use among the natives of Yucatan as the designation of the protective spirits of fields and towns, as I have shown at length in a study of the wordas it occurs in the native myths ofGuatemala.70-1â€œChilan Balam,â€ therefore, is not a proper name, but a title, and in ancient times designated the priest who announced the will of the gods and explained the sacred oracles. This accounts for the universality of the name and the sacredness of its associations.

The dates of the books which have come down to us are various. One of them, â€œThe Book of Chilan Balam of Mani,â€ was undoubtedly composed not later than 1595, as is proved by internal evidence. Various passages in the works of Landa, Lizana, Sanchez Aguilar and Cogolludoâ€”all early historians of Yucatanâ€”prove that many of these native manuscripts existed in the sixteenth century. Several rescripts date from the seventeenth centuryâ€”most from the latter half of the eighteenth.

The names of the writers are generally not given, probably because the books, as we have them, are all copies of older manuscripts, withmerely the occasional addition of current items of note by the copyist; as, for instance, a malignant epidemic which prevailed in the peninsula in 1673 is mentioned as a present occurrence by the copyist of â€œThe Book of Chilan Balam of Nabula.â€

These â€œBooks of Chilan Balamâ€ are the principal sources from which SeÃ±or Pio Perez derived his knowledge of the ancient Maya system of computing time, and also drew what he published concerning the history of the Mayas before the Conquest, and from them also are taken the various chronicles which I present in the present volume.

That I am enabled to do so is due to the untiring researches of Dr. Carl Hermann Berendt, who visited Yucatan four times, in order to study the native language, to examine the antiquities of the peninsula, and to take accurate copies, often in fac-simile, of as many ancient manuscripts as he could discover. After his death, his collection came into my hands.

The task of deciphering these manuscripts is by no means a light one, and I must ask in advance for considerable indulgence for my attempt. Words and phrases are used which are not explained in the dictionaries, or, if explained, are used in a different sense from that now current.The orthography is far from uniform, each syllable is often written separately, and as the punctuation is wholly fanciful or entirely absent, the separation of words, sentences and paragraphs is often uncertain and the meaning obscure.

Another class of documents are the titles to the municipal lands, the records of surveys, etc. I have copies of several of these, and among them was found the history of the Conquest, by Nakuk Pech, which I publish. It was added to the survey of his town, as a general statement of his rights and defence of the standing of his family.

My translations are not in flowing and elegant language. Had they been so, they would not have represented the originals. For the sake of accuracy I have not hesitated to sacrifice the requirements of English composition.

Â§ 10.Grammars and Dictionaries of the Language.

The learned Yucatecan, Canon Crescencio Carillo y Ancona, states in his last work that there have been written thirteen grammars and seventeen dictionaries of theMaya.72-1

The first grammar printed was that of Father Luis de Villalpando. This early missionary died in 1551 or 1552, and his work was not issued untilsome years later. Father Juan Coronel also gave a short Maya grammar to the press, together with aDoctrina. It is believed that copies of both of these are preserved. Beltran, however, acknowledges that in preparing his own grammar he has never seen either of these earlierworks.73-1

In 1684, theArte de la Lengua Maya, composed by Father Gabriel de San Buenaventura, a French Franciscan stationed in Yucatan, was printed inMexico.73-2Only a few copies of this work are known. It has, however, been reprinted, though not with a desirable fidelity, by the Abbe Brasseur (de Bourbourg), in the second volume of the reports of theMission Scientifique au Mexique et Ã lâ€™Amerique Centrale, Paris, 1870.

The leading authority on Maya grammar is Father Pedro Beltran, who was a native of Yucatan, and instructor in the Maya language in the convent of Merida about 1740. He was thoroughly conversant with the native tongue, and hisArtewas reprinted in Merida, in 1859, as the best work of the kind which had beenproduced.74-1

The eminent antiquary, Don Juan Pio Perez contemplated writing a Maya grammar, and collected a number of notes for thatpurpose,74-2as did also the late Dr. Berendt, but neither brought his work to any degree of completeness. I have copies of the notes left by both these diligent students, as also both editions of Beltran, and an accurate MS. copy of Buenaventura, from all of which I have derived assistance in completing the present study.

The first Maya dictionary printed was issued in the City of Mexico in 1571. It was published as that of Father Luis de Villalpando, but as he had then been dead nearly twenty years, it was probably merely based upon his vocabulary. It was in large 4to, of the same size as the second edition of Molinaâ€™sVocabulario de la Lengua Mexicana. At least one copy of it is known to be in existence.

For more than three centuries no other dictionary was put to press, although for some unexplained reason that of Villalpando was unknown in Yucatan. At length, in 1877, the publication was completed at MÃ©rida, of theDiccionario de la Lengua Maya, by Don Juan PioPerez.75-1It contains about 20,000 words, and is Maya-Spanish only. It is the result of a conscientious and lifelong study of the language, and a work of great merit. The deficiencies it presents are, that it does not give the principal parts of the verbs, that it omits or does not explain correctly many old terms in the language, and that it gives very few examples of idioms or phrases showing the uses of words and the construction of sentences.

I can say little in praise of theVocabulaire Maya-Francais-Espagnole, compiled by the AbbÃ© Brasseur (de Bourbourg), and printed in the second volume of the Report of theMission Scientifique au Mexique et Ã lâ€™Amerique Centrale. It contains about ten thousand words, but many of these are drawn from doubtful sources, and are incorrectly given; while the derivations and analogies proposed are of a character unknown to the science of language.

Besides the above and various vocabularies of minor interest, I have made use of three manuscript dictionaries of the first importance, which were obtained by the late Dr. Berendt. They belonged to three Franciscan convents which formerly existed in Yucatan, and as they are all anonymous, I shall follow Dr. Berendtâ€™s example, and refer to them by the names of the convents to which they belonged. These were the convent of San Francisco in Merida, that at the town of Ticul and that at Motul.

The most recent of these is that of the convent of Ticul. It bears the date 1690, and is in two parts, Spanish-Maya and Maya-Spanish.

TheDiccionario del Convento de San Francisco de Meridabears no date, but in the opinion of the most competent scholars who have examined it, among them SeÃ±or Pio Perez, it is older than that of Ticul, probably by half a century. It is also in two parts, which have evidently been prepared, by different hands.

The Diccionario del Convento de Motulis by far the most valuable of the three, and has not been known to Yucatecan scholars. A copy of itwas picked up on a book stall in the City of Mexico by the AbbÃ© Brasseur, and sold by him to Mr. John Carter Brown, of Providence, R.Â I. In 1864 this was very carefully copied by Dr. Berendt, who also made extensive additions to it from other sources, indicating such by the use of inks of different colors. This copy, in three large quarto volumes, in all counting over 2500 pages, is that which I now have, and have found of indispensable assistance in solving some of the puzzles presented by the ancient texts in the present volume.

The particular value of theDiccionario de Motulis not merely the richness of its vocabulary and its numerous examples of construction, but that it presents the language as it was when the Spaniards first arrived. The precise date of its compilation is indeed not given, but the author speaks of a comet which he saw in 1577, and gives other evidence that he was writing in the first generation after the Conquest.

9-1â€œTambien diz [el Almirante] que supÃ³ que ... aquella isla EspaÃ±ola Ã³ la otra isla Jamaye estaba cerca de tierra firme, diez jornadas de Canoa que podia ser sesenta Ã¡ setenta leguas, y que era la gente vestida alli.â€ Navarrete,Viages, Tom. I, pag. 127.10-1â€œIn questo loco pigliorono una Nave loro carica di mercantia et merce la quale dicevono veniva da una cierta provintia chiamataMaiamvel Iuncatam con molte veste di bambasio de le quale ne erono il forcio di sede di diversi colori.â€Informatione di Bartolomeo Colombo.It is thus printed in Harisse,Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima, p. 473; but in the original MS. in the Magliabechian library the words â€œvel Iuncatamâ€ are superscribed over the word â€œMaiam,â€ and do not belong to the text. (Note of Dr. C.Â H. Berendt.) They are, doubtless, a later gloss, as the name â€œYucatanâ€ cannot be traced to any such early date. The mention ofsilkis, of course, a mistake. Peter Martyr also mentions the name in his account of the fourth voyage: â€œEx Guaassa insula et Taia Maiaque et cerabazano, regionibus VeraguÃ¦ occidentalibus scriptum reliquit Colonus, hujus inventi princeps,â€ etc.Decad.III, Lib. IV.10-2I have collected this evidence, drawing largely from the manuscript works on the Arawack language left by the Moravian missionary, the Rev. Theodore Schultz, and published it in a monograph, entitled:The Arawack Language of Guiana in its Linguistic and Ethnological Relations. (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 1871.) There was a province in Cuba namedMaiye; see Nicolas Fort y Roldan,Cuba IndÃgena, pp. 112, 167 (Madrid, 1881). According to Fort, this meant â€œorigin and beginning,â€ in the ancient language of Cuba; but there is little doubt but that it presents the Arawack negative prefixma(which happens to be the same in the Maya) and may be a form ofmajÃ¹jun, not wet, dry.12-1Eligio Ancona,Historia de Yucatan, Tom. I, p. 31 (Merida, 1878).12-2Diccionario Maya-EspaÃ±ol del Convento de Motul.MS.Sub voce, ichech.The manuscript dictionaries which I use will be described in the last section of this Introduction. The example given is:â€”â€œIchech; tu eres, en lengua de Campeche;ichex, vosotros seis;in en, yo soy;in on, nosotros somos. De aqui sale en lengua de Maya,tech cech ichech e, tu que eres por ahi quien quiera,â€ etc.13-1See Eligio Ancona,Hist. de Yucatan, Tom. I, p. 37.13-2â€œMaya(accento en la primera); nombre proprio de esta tierra de Yucatan.â€Diccionario de Motul, MS. â€œUna provincia que llamavan de laMaya, de la qual la lengua de Yucatan se llamaMayathan.â€ Diego de Landa,Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 14. â€œEsta tierra de Yucatan, Ã quien los naturales llamanMaÂ´ya,â€ Cogolludo,Historia de Yucatan, Lib. IV, Cap. III. â€œEl antiguo Reyno de Maya Ã² Mayapan que hoy se llama Yucatan.â€ Villagutierre,Historia de el Itza y de el Lacandon, p. 25. The numerous MSS. of the Books of Chilan Balam are also decisive on this point.14-1Nombres Geograficos en Lengua Maya, folio, MS. in my collection.15-1Note to Landa,Rel. de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 14.15-2Vocabulaire Maya-Francais-Espagnole,sub voce,Maya.15-3Hist. de Yucatan, p. 37.19-1A discussion of the items of the census of 1862 may be found in the work of the Licentiate Apolinar Garcia y Garcia,Historia de la Guerra de Castas de Yucatan, Tomo I, Prologo, pp. lxvii, et seq. (Merida 1865.) The completion of this meritorious work was unfortunately prevented by the war. The author was born near Chan Æ†enote, Yucatan, in 1837, and was appointedJuez de Letrasat Izamal in 1864.20-1See, for example,El Toro de Sinkeuel, Leyenda Hipica(Merida, 1856), a political satire, said to be directed against General Ampudia, by Manuel Garcia.20-2D.Â G. Brinton,The Myths of the New World; a Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America, Chap. VI (2d Ed. New York, 1876).23-1Maya-uelmay be frommayaandohel, to know either intellectually or carnally; or the last syllable may beuol, will, desire, mind. This inventive woman would thus have been named â€œthe Maya witâ€ (in the old meaning of the word).23-2Sahagun,Historia de la Nueva EspaÃ±a, Lib. X, Cap. XXIX, p. 12.24-1Fray Diego Duran,Historia de las Indias de Nueva EspaÃ±a y Islas de Tierra Firme, Cap. XIX (Ed. Mexico, 1867).24-2SeeLettre de Fray Nicolas de Witt(should be Witte), 1554, in Ternaux Compans,Recueil desPiÃ©cessur le Mexique, p. 254, 286; also the report of the â€œAudienciaâ€ held in Mexico in 1531, in Herrera,Historia de las Indias Occidentales, Dec. IV, Lib. IX, Cap. V.27-1I mention this particularly in order to correct a grave error in Landaâ€™sRelacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 130. He says, â€œSuelen de costumbre sembrar para cada casado con su muger medida de cccc piÃ©s que llamanhun-uinic, medida con vara de XX pies, XX en ancho y XX en largo.â€ The agrarian measureuinicorhun uinic(one man) contained 20kaan, each 24 yards (varas) square. Onekaanwas estimated to yield two loads of corn, and hence the calculation was forty loads of the staff of life for each family. Landaâ€™s statement that a patch 20 feet square was assigned to a family is absurd on the face of it.28-1â€œLa lengua castellana es mas dificultosa que la Maya para la gente adulta, que no la ha mamado con la leche, como lo ha enseÃ±ado la experiencia en los estranjeros de distintas naciones, y en los negros bozales que se han radicado en esta provincia, que mas facilmente han aprendido la Maya que la castellana.â€ Apolinar Garcia y Garcia,Historia de la Guerra de Castas en Yucatan. Prologo, p. lxxv. (folio, Merida, 1865).31-1Friedrich MÃ¼ller,Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft, II Band, s. 309. (Wien, 1882).31-2Lucien Adam,Etudes sur six Langues AmÃ©ricaines, p. 155. (Paris, 1878).35-1Gabriel de San Buenaventura,Arte de la Lengua Maya, fol. 28 (Mexico, 1684).40-1MÃ©moire sur la numÃ©ration dans la langue et dans lâ€™Ecriture sacrÃ©e des anciens Mayas, in the Compte-Rendu of the CongrÃ¨s International des AmÃ©ricanistes, Vol.II, p. 439 (Paris, 1875).41-1Leti u Ebanhelio Hezu Crizto hebix Huan, London, 1869. This translation was made by the Rev. A. Henderson and the Rev. Richard Fletcher, missionaries to the British settlements at Belize.41-2Leti u Cilich Evangelio Jesu Christo hebix San Lucas.Londres, 1865. The first draught of this translation, in the handwriting of Father Ruz, with numerous corrections by himself, is in the library of the Canon Crescencio Carrillo at MÃ©rida. A copy of it was obtained by the Rev. John Kingdon of Belize, and printed in London without any acknowledgment of its origin. It does not appear to me to be accurate. For instance, chap. X, v. 1, â€œThe Lord appointed other seventy also,â€ where the Maya hasxan lahcatu cankal, â€œseventy-two;â€ and again chap. XV, v. 4, the ninety-nine sheep are increased tobolon lahu uaxackal, one hundred and fifty-nine!42-1Apuntes para una Gramatica Maya.Por Don Juan Pio Perez, MSS. pp. 126, 128.42-2â€œMe parece quetues sÃncopa deti u.â€ (Note of Dr. Berendt.) There is no doubt but that Dr. Berendt is correct.43-1This is not correct. Beltran gives for 45,hotu yoxkal, which I analyze,ho ti u u ox kal.44-1Apuntes del Diccionario de la Lengua Maya. Por un yucateco aficionado Ã la lengua, 4to, pp. 486, MSS.45-1â€œCal: hartar Ã´ emborrachar la fruta.â€Diccionario Maya-EspaÃ±ol del Convento de San Francisco, Merida, MS. I have not found this word in other dictionaries within my reach.46-1Calepino en Lengua Cakchiquelpor FrayFrancisco de Varea, MS. s.Â v.chuvi. This MS. is in the Library of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.46-2F. Pantaleon de Guzman,Compendio de Nombres en Lengua Cakchiquel, MS. This MS. is in my collection.48-1Codice Perez, p. 92, MS. This is a series of extracts from various ancient Maya manuscripts obtained by the late distinguished Yucatecan antiquary, Don Juan Pio Perez, and named from him by Canon Crescencio Carrillo and other linguists. A copy of it is in my collection. It is in quarto, pp. 258.54-1All the examples in the above paragraph are from the Appendix to theDiccionario Maya-EspaÃ±ol del Convento de San Francisco, Merida, MS. It also gives its positive authority to the length of the katuns, as follows: â€œDicese que los Indios contaban los aÃ±os Ã pares (sic), y cuando llegaba uno a veinte aÃ±os, entonces decian que tenianhunpel katun, que son veinteaÃ±os.â€™I think the wordsÃ pares, must be an error forÃ veintenas; they may mean â€œin equal series.â€54-2TheDiccionario de MotulMS. has the following lengthy entries:â€”â€œTzuc: copete Ã´ coleta de cabellos; Ã´ de crines de caballo, Ã´ las barbas que echa el maiz por arriba estando en la mazorca; y la cabeza que tienen algunas hachas y martillos en contra del tajo, y la cabeza del horcon, y las nubes levantadas en alto y que dan que denotan segun dice tempestad de agua. Partes, enpartimieÃ±tos. Cuenta para pueblos, para partes, parrafos i articulos, diferencios y vocablos montones.â€55-1Historia de Yucatan, Lib.IV, cap.V.56-1M. Delaporteâ€™s calculations are mentioned by Leon de Rosny,Essai sur le DÃ©chiffrement de lâ€™Ecriture HiÃ©ratique de lâ€™AmÃ©rique Centrale, p. 25 (Paris, 1876); Professor Thomasâ€™ will be found in theAmerican Naturalist, for 1881, and in hisStudy of the Codex Troano, Washington, 1882.57-1Pio Perez,Cronologia Antigua de Yucatan. Â§VIII.57-2â€œKatun, para siempre.â€ Beltran de Santa Rosa,Arte del Idioma Maya, p. 177.58-1The following extracts from two manuscripts in my hands will throw further light on this derivationâ€”Katun: espacio de veinte aÃ±os;hun katun, 20 aÃ±os;ca katun, 40 aÃ±os, etc.Katun: batallon de gente, ordenada de guerra y ejercito asi, y soldados cuando actualmente andan en la guerra.Katun(TAH,TÃ‰): guerrear, hacer guerra, Ã² dar guerra.Katunben: el que tiene tantas venteinas de aÃ±os, segun el numeral que se le junta,hay katunben ech?cuantas venteinas de aÃ±os tienes tu?ca katunben en, tengo dos venteinas.Diccionario de Motul, MS., 1590.Ã‡at(he): generalmente sigacortar algo con acha, cuchillo Ã´ hiera; detener algo que se huya, atajarlo, etc.Varea,Calepino enLengvaCakchiquel, MS., 1699.61-1Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 1880.62-1The example he gives is the wordle, which he says â€œpara escrivirle con sus caractereshabiendoles nosotros hecho entenderque son dos letras, lo escrivian ellos con tres,â€ etc., thus plainly saying that they did not analyze the word to its phonetic radicals in their system.Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 318.62-2Las Casas says, with great positiveness, that they found in Yucatan â€œletreros de ciertos caracteres que en otra ninguna parte.â€Historia Apologetica, cap. CXXIII. I also add an interesting description of their books and letters, furnished by the companions of Father Alonso Ponce, the Popeâ€™s Commissary-General, who traveled through Yucatan in 1586, when many natives were still living who had been born before the Conquest (1541). Father Ponce had traveled through Mexico, and, of course, had learned about the Aztec picture-writing, which he distinctly contrasts with the writing of the Mayas. Of the latter he says: â€œSon alabados de tres cosas entre todos los demas de la Nueva EspaÃ±a, la una de que en su antiguedad tenian caracteres y letras, con que escribian sus historias y las ceremonias y orden de los sacrificios de sus idolos y su calendario, en libros hechos de corteza de cierto arbol, los cuales eran unas tiras muy largas de quarta Ã³ tercia en ancho, que se doblaban y recogian, y venia Ã¡ queder Ã¡ manera de un libro encuardenada en cuartilla, poco mas, Ã³ menos. Estas letras y caracteres no las entendian, sino los sacerdotes de los idolos, (que en aquella lengua se llaman â€˜ahkinesâ€™), y algun indio principal. Despues las entendieron y supieron lÃ©er algunos frailes nuestros y aun las escribien.â€ (Relacion Breve y Verdadera de Algunas Cosas de las Muchas que Sucedieron al Padre Fray Alonso Ponce, Comisario-General en las Provincias de la Nueva EspaÃ±a, page 392). I know no other author who makes the interesting statement that these characters were actually used by missionaries to impart instruction to the natives.63-1â€œuooh; caracter o letra.uooh(tah, te) escribir.uoohan, cosa que esta escrita.â€Diccionario de Motul, MS.64-1His words are: â€œY satisfaciendoles por la quenta seÃ±alada, que ellos mismos tenian, de que vsavan, para ajustar sus antiguas Profezias, y los Tiempos de su cumplimiento, que eran vnos Caracteres y Figuras pintadas en vnas cortezas de Arboles, como de una quarta de largo cada hoja, Ã² tabilla, y del gruesso como de vn real de Ã ocho, dobladas Ã vna parte, y Ã otra, Ã manera de Viombo, que ellos llamavan Analtees,â€ etc.,Historia de la Conquista de la Provincia de el Itza, Lib. VII. cap I (Madrid, 1701). Pio Perez spells the wordanahtÃ©,Diccionario de la Lengua Maya, s.Â v. following a MS. of the last century, given in theCodice Perez. The wordhuniltÃ©, fromhuunil, the â€œdeterminativeâ€ form of â€œhun,â€ andtÃ©, a termination to nouns which specifies or localizes them (e.Â g.amay, an angle,amay tÃ©, an angular figure, etc)., would offer a plausible derivation foranaltÃ©.65-1â€œSe les quemamos todos lo qual Ã maravilla sentian y les dava pena.â€Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 316.67-1â€œLa experiencia de manejar tan incessantemente Ã los Indios en cerca de doce aÃ±os que los servi, me enseÃ±Ã³, que el motivo de estar todavia muchos tan pegados Ã sus antiguedades, era porque siendo los naturales muy curiosÃ²s, y aplicandose Ã saber leer: los que esto logran, quanto papel tienen Ã mano, tanto leen: y no aviendo entre ella, mas tratados en su idioma, que los que sus antepasados escribieron, cuya materia es solo de sus hechicerias, encantos, y curaciones con muchos abusos, y ensalmos; ya se ve que en estos bebian insensiblemente el tosigo para vomitar despues su malicia en otros muchos.â€Aprobacion del Doctor D. Augustin de Echano, etc., to Dr. Don Francisco Eugenio Dominguez,Platicas de los Principales Mysterios deNvestraStaFee, hechas en el Idioma Yucateco. Mexico, 1758. This extremely rare work is highly prized for the purity and elegance of the Maya employed by the author.69-1Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, page 160.70-1The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths of Central America. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol.XIX, 1881. The terminal letter in both these wordsâ€”â€œchilan,â€ â€œbalam,â€â€”may be either â€œnâ€ or â€œm,â€ the change being one of dialect and local pronunciation. I have followed the older authorities in writing â€œChilan Balam,â€ the modern preferring â€œChilam Balam.â€72-1Historia Antigua de Yucatan, p. 123(Merida, 1882).73-1Arte del Idioma Maya, p. 242 (2d ed).73-2Arte de la Lengua Maya, compuesto por el R.Â P. Fr. Gabriel de San Buenaventura Predicador y difinidor habitual de la Provincia de San Joseph de Yucathan del Orden de N.Â P.Â S. Francisco. AÃ±o de 1684. Con licencia; En Mexico, por la Viuda de Bernardo Calderon, 4to. pag. 1-4, leaves 5-41.74-1Arte del Idioma Maya reducido a succintas reglas, y semilexicon Yucatecopor el R.Â P.Â F. Pedro Beltran de Santa Rosa Maria. En Mexico por la Viuda de D. Joseph Bernardo de Hogal. AÃ±o de 1746. 8vo, pp. 8, 1-188. Segunda edicion, MÃ©rida de Yucatan, Imprenta de J.Â D. Espinosa. Julio, 1859. 8vo, 9 leaves, pp. 242.74-2Apuntes para una Gramatica Maya.Por Don Juan Pio Perez, pp. 45-136.MSS.75-1Diccionario de la Lengua Maya, por D. Juan Pio Perez. Merida de Yucatan. Imprenta literaria, de Juan F. Molina Solis, 1866-1877. Large 8vo, two cols. pp. i-xx, 1-437.

10-1â€œIn questo loco pigliorono una Nave loro carica di mercantia et merce la quale dicevono veniva da una cierta provintia chiamataMaiamvel Iuncatam con molte veste di bambasio de le quale ne erono il forcio di sede di diversi colori.â€Informatione di Bartolomeo Colombo.It is thus printed in Harisse,Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima, p. 473; but in the original MS. in the Magliabechian library the words â€œvel Iuncatamâ€ are superscribed over the word â€œMaiam,â€ and do not belong to the text. (Note of Dr. C.Â H. Berendt.) They are, doubtless, a later gloss, as the name â€œYucatanâ€ cannot be traced to any such early date. The mention ofsilkis, of course, a mistake. Peter Martyr also mentions the name in his account of the fourth voyage: â€œEx Guaassa insula et Taia Maiaque et cerabazano, regionibus VeraguÃ¦ occidentalibus scriptum reliquit Colonus, hujus inventi princeps,â€ etc.Decad.III, Lib. IV.

10-2I have collected this evidence, drawing largely from the manuscript works on the Arawack language left by the Moravian missionary, the Rev. Theodore Schultz, and published it in a monograph, entitled:The Arawack Language of Guiana in its Linguistic and Ethnological Relations. (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 1871.) There was a province in Cuba namedMaiye; see Nicolas Fort y Roldan,Cuba IndÃgena, pp. 112, 167 (Madrid, 1881). According to Fort, this meant â€œorigin and beginning,â€ in the ancient language of Cuba; but there is little doubt but that it presents the Arawack negative prefixma(which happens to be the same in the Maya) and may be a form ofmajÃ¹jun, not wet, dry.

12-1Eligio Ancona,Historia de Yucatan, Tom. I, p. 31 (Merida, 1878).

12-2Diccionario Maya-EspaÃ±ol del Convento de Motul.MS.Sub voce, ichech.The manuscript dictionaries which I use will be described in the last section of this Introduction. The example given is:â€”â€œIchech; tu eres, en lengua de Campeche;ichex, vosotros seis;in en, yo soy;in on, nosotros somos. De aqui sale en lengua de Maya,tech cech ichech e, tu que eres por ahi quien quiera,â€ etc.

â€œIchech; tu eres, en lengua de Campeche;ichex, vosotros seis;in en, yo soy;in on, nosotros somos. De aqui sale en lengua de Maya,tech cech ichech e, tu que eres por ahi quien quiera,â€ etc.

13-1See Eligio Ancona,Hist. de Yucatan, Tom. I, p. 37.

13-2â€œMaya(accento en la primera); nombre proprio de esta tierra de Yucatan.â€Diccionario de Motul, MS. â€œUna provincia que llamavan de laMaya, de la qual la lengua de Yucatan se llamaMayathan.â€ Diego de Landa,Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 14. â€œEsta tierra de Yucatan, Ã quien los naturales llamanMaÂ´ya,â€ Cogolludo,Historia de Yucatan, Lib. IV, Cap. III. â€œEl antiguo Reyno de Maya Ã² Mayapan que hoy se llama Yucatan.â€ Villagutierre,Historia de el Itza y de el Lacandon, p. 25. The numerous MSS. of the Books of Chilan Balam are also decisive on this point.

14-1Nombres Geograficos en Lengua Maya, folio, MS. in my collection.

15-1Note to Landa,Rel. de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 14.

15-2Vocabulaire Maya-Francais-Espagnole,sub voce,Maya.

15-3Hist. de Yucatan, p. 37.

19-1A discussion of the items of the census of 1862 may be found in the work of the Licentiate Apolinar Garcia y Garcia,Historia de la Guerra de Castas de Yucatan, Tomo I, Prologo, pp. lxvii, et seq. (Merida 1865.) The completion of this meritorious work was unfortunately prevented by the war. The author was born near Chan Æ†enote, Yucatan, in 1837, and was appointedJuez de Letrasat Izamal in 1864.

20-1See, for example,El Toro de Sinkeuel, Leyenda Hipica(Merida, 1856), a political satire, said to be directed against General Ampudia, by Manuel Garcia.

20-2D.Â G. Brinton,The Myths of the New World; a Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America, Chap. VI (2d Ed. New York, 1876).

23-1Maya-uelmay be frommayaandohel, to know either intellectually or carnally; or the last syllable may beuol, will, desire, mind. This inventive woman would thus have been named â€œthe Maya witâ€ (in the old meaning of the word).

23-2Sahagun,Historia de la Nueva EspaÃ±a, Lib. X, Cap. XXIX, p. 12.

24-1Fray Diego Duran,Historia de las Indias de Nueva EspaÃ±a y Islas de Tierra Firme, Cap. XIX (Ed. Mexico, 1867).

24-2SeeLettre de Fray Nicolas de Witt(should be Witte), 1554, in Ternaux Compans,Recueil desPiÃ©cessur le Mexique, p. 254, 286; also the report of the â€œAudienciaâ€ held in Mexico in 1531, in Herrera,Historia de las Indias Occidentales, Dec. IV, Lib. IX, Cap. V.

27-1I mention this particularly in order to correct a grave error in Landaâ€™sRelacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 130. He says, â€œSuelen de costumbre sembrar para cada casado con su muger medida de cccc piÃ©s que llamanhun-uinic, medida con vara de XX pies, XX en ancho y XX en largo.â€ The agrarian measureuinicorhun uinic(one man) contained 20kaan, each 24 yards (varas) square. Onekaanwas estimated to yield two loads of corn, and hence the calculation was forty loads of the staff of life for each family. Landaâ€™s statement that a patch 20 feet square was assigned to a family is absurd on the face of it.

28-1â€œLa lengua castellana es mas dificultosa que la Maya para la gente adulta, que no la ha mamado con la leche, como lo ha enseÃ±ado la experiencia en los estranjeros de distintas naciones, y en los negros bozales que se han radicado en esta provincia, que mas facilmente han aprendido la Maya que la castellana.â€ Apolinar Garcia y Garcia,Historia de la Guerra de Castas en Yucatan. Prologo, p. lxxv. (folio, Merida, 1865).

31-1Friedrich MÃ¼ller,Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft, II Band, s. 309. (Wien, 1882).

35-1Gabriel de San Buenaventura,Arte de la Lengua Maya, fol. 28 (Mexico, 1684).

40-1MÃ©moire sur la numÃ©ration dans la langue et dans lâ€™Ecriture sacrÃ©e des anciens Mayas, in the Compte-Rendu of the CongrÃ¨s International des AmÃ©ricanistes, Vol.II, p. 439 (Paris, 1875).

41-1Leti u Ebanhelio Hezu Crizto hebix Huan, London, 1869. This translation was made by the Rev. A. Henderson and the Rev. Richard Fletcher, missionaries to the British settlements at Belize.

41-2Leti u Cilich Evangelio Jesu Christo hebix San Lucas.Londres, 1865. The first draught of this translation, in the handwriting of Father Ruz, with numerous corrections by himself, is in the library of the Canon Crescencio Carrillo at MÃ©rida. A copy of it was obtained by the Rev. John Kingdon of Belize, and printed in London without any acknowledgment of its origin. It does not appear to me to be accurate. For instance, chap. X, v. 1, â€œThe Lord appointed other seventy also,â€ where the Maya hasxan lahcatu cankal, â€œseventy-two;â€ and again chap. XV, v. 4, the ninety-nine sheep are increased tobolon lahu uaxackal, one hundred and fifty-nine!

42-1Apuntes para una Gramatica Maya.Por Don Juan Pio Perez, MSS. pp. 126, 128.

42-2â€œMe parece quetues sÃncopa deti u.â€ (Note of Dr. Berendt.) There is no doubt but that Dr. Berendt is correct.

43-1This is not correct. Beltran gives for 45,hotu yoxkal, which I analyze,ho ti u u ox kal.

44-1Apuntes del Diccionario de la Lengua Maya. Por un yucateco aficionado Ã la lengua, 4to, pp. 486, MSS.

45-1â€œCal: hartar Ã´ emborrachar la fruta.â€Diccionario Maya-EspaÃ±ol del Convento de San Francisco, Merida, MS. I have not found this word in other dictionaries within my reach.

46-1Calepino en Lengua Cakchiquelpor FrayFrancisco de Varea, MS. s.Â v.chuvi. This MS. is in the Library of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.

46-2F. Pantaleon de Guzman,Compendio de Nombres en Lengua Cakchiquel, MS. This MS. is in my collection.

48-1Codice Perez, p. 92, MS. This is a series of extracts from various ancient Maya manuscripts obtained by the late distinguished Yucatecan antiquary, Don Juan Pio Perez, and named from him by Canon Crescencio Carrillo and other linguists. A copy of it is in my collection. It is in quarto, pp. 258.

54-1All the examples in the above paragraph are from the Appendix to theDiccionario Maya-EspaÃ±ol del Convento de San Francisco, Merida, MS. It also gives its positive authority to the length of the katuns, as follows: â€œDicese que los Indios contaban los aÃ±os Ã pares (sic), y cuando llegaba uno a veinte aÃ±os, entonces decian que tenianhunpel katun, que son veinteaÃ±os.â€™I think the wordsÃ pares, must be an error forÃ veintenas; they may mean â€œin equal series.â€

54-2TheDiccionario de MotulMS. has the following lengthy entries:â€”â€œTzuc: copete Ã´ coleta de cabellos; Ã´ de crines de caballo, Ã´ las barbas que echa el maiz por arriba estando en la mazorca; y la cabeza que tienen algunas hachas y martillos en contra del tajo, y la cabeza del horcon, y las nubes levantadas en alto y que dan que denotan segun dice tempestad de agua. Partes, enpartimieÃ±tos. Cuenta para pueblos, para partes, parrafos i articulos, diferencios y vocablos montones.â€

54-2TheDiccionario de MotulMS. has the following lengthy entries:â€”

â€œTzuc: copete Ã´ coleta de cabellos; Ã´ de crines de caballo, Ã´ las barbas que echa el maiz por arriba estando en la mazorca; y la cabeza que tienen algunas hachas y martillos en contra del tajo, y la cabeza del horcon, y las nubes levantadas en alto y que dan que denotan segun dice tempestad de agua. Partes, enpartimieÃ±tos. Cuenta para pueblos, para partes, parrafos i articulos, diferencios y vocablos montones.â€

55-1Historia de Yucatan, Lib.IV, cap.V.

56-1M. Delaporteâ€™s calculations are mentioned by Leon de Rosny,Essai sur le DÃ©chiffrement de lâ€™Ecriture HiÃ©ratique de lâ€™AmÃ©rique Centrale, p. 25 (Paris, 1876); Professor Thomasâ€™ will be found in theAmerican Naturalist, for 1881, and in hisStudy of the Codex Troano, Washington, 1882.

57-1Pio Perez,Cronologia Antigua de Yucatan. Â§VIII.

57-2â€œKatun, para siempre.â€ Beltran de Santa Rosa,Arte del Idioma Maya, p. 177.

58-1The following extracts from two manuscripts in my hands will throw further light on this derivationâ€”Katun: espacio de veinte aÃ±os;hun katun, 20 aÃ±os;ca katun, 40 aÃ±os, etc.Katun: batallon de gente, ordenada de guerra y ejercito asi, y soldados cuando actualmente andan en la guerra.Katun(TAH,TÃ‰): guerrear, hacer guerra, Ã² dar guerra.Katunben: el que tiene tantas venteinas de aÃ±os, segun el numeral que se le junta,hay katunben ech?cuantas venteinas de aÃ±os tienes tu?ca katunben en, tengo dos venteinas.Diccionario de Motul, MS., 1590.Ã‡at(he): generalmente sigacortar algo con acha, cuchillo Ã´ hiera; detener algo que se huya, atajarlo, etc.Varea,Calepino enLengvaCakchiquel, MS., 1699.

58-1The following extracts from two manuscripts in my hands will throw further light on this derivationâ€”

Katun: espacio de veinte aÃ±os;hun katun, 20 aÃ±os;ca katun, 40 aÃ±os, etc.

Katun: batallon de gente, ordenada de guerra y ejercito asi, y soldados cuando actualmente andan en la guerra.

Katun(TAH,TÃ‰): guerrear, hacer guerra, Ã² dar guerra.

Katunben: el que tiene tantas venteinas de aÃ±os, segun el numeral que se le junta,hay katunben ech?cuantas venteinas de aÃ±os tienes tu?ca katunben en, tengo dos venteinas.

Diccionario de Motul, MS., 1590.

Ã‡at(he): generalmente sigacortar algo con acha, cuchillo Ã´ hiera; detener algo que se huya, atajarlo, etc.

Varea,Calepino enLengvaCakchiquel, MS., 1699.

61-1Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 1880.

62-1The example he gives is the wordle, which he says â€œpara escrivirle con sus caractereshabiendoles nosotros hecho entenderque son dos letras, lo escrivian ellos con tres,â€ etc., thus plainly saying that they did not analyze the word to its phonetic radicals in their system.Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 318.

62-2Las Casas says, with great positiveness, that they found in Yucatan â€œletreros de ciertos caracteres que en otra ninguna parte.â€Historia Apologetica, cap. CXXIII. I also add an interesting description of their books and letters, furnished by the companions of Father Alonso Ponce, the Popeâ€™s Commissary-General, who traveled through Yucatan in 1586, when many natives were still living who had been born before the Conquest (1541). Father Ponce had traveled through Mexico, and, of course, had learned about the Aztec picture-writing, which he distinctly contrasts with the writing of the Mayas. Of the latter he says: â€œSon alabados de tres cosas entre todos los demas de la Nueva EspaÃ±a, la una de que en su antiguedad tenian caracteres y letras, con que escribian sus historias y las ceremonias y orden de los sacrificios de sus idolos y su calendario, en libros hechos de corteza de cierto arbol, los cuales eran unas tiras muy largas de quarta Ã³ tercia en ancho, que se doblaban y recogian, y venia Ã¡ queder Ã¡ manera de un libro encuardenada en cuartilla, poco mas, Ã³ menos. Estas letras y caracteres no las entendian, sino los sacerdotes de los idolos, (que en aquella lengua se llaman â€˜ahkinesâ€™), y algun indio principal. Despues las entendieron y supieron lÃ©er algunos frailes nuestros y aun las escribien.â€ (Relacion Breve y Verdadera de Algunas Cosas de las Muchas que Sucedieron al Padre Fray Alonso Ponce, Comisario-General en las Provincias de la Nueva EspaÃ±a, page 392). I know no other author who makes the interesting statement that these characters were actually used by missionaries to impart instruction to the natives.

63-1â€œuooh; caracter o letra.uooh(tah, te) escribir.uoohan, cosa que esta escrita.â€Diccionario de Motul, MS.

64-1His words are: â€œY satisfaciendoles por la quenta seÃ±alada, que ellos mismos tenian, de que vsavan, para ajustar sus antiguas Profezias, y los Tiempos de su cumplimiento, que eran vnos Caracteres y Figuras pintadas en vnas cortezas de Arboles, como de una quarta de largo cada hoja, Ã² tabilla, y del gruesso como de vn real de Ã ocho, dobladas Ã vna parte, y Ã otra, Ã manera de Viombo, que ellos llamavan Analtees,â€ etc.,Historia de la Conquista de la Provincia de el Itza, Lib. VII. cap I (Madrid, 1701). Pio Perez spells the wordanahtÃ©,Diccionario de la Lengua Maya, s.Â v. following a MS. of the last century, given in theCodice Perez. The wordhuniltÃ©, fromhuunil, the â€œdeterminativeâ€ form of â€œhun,â€ andtÃ©, a termination to nouns which specifies or localizes them (e.Â g.amay, an angle,amay tÃ©, an angular figure, etc)., would offer a plausible derivation foranaltÃ©.

65-1â€œSe les quemamos todos lo qual Ã maravilla sentian y les dava pena.â€Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 316.

67-1â€œLa experiencia de manejar tan incessantemente Ã los Indios en cerca de doce aÃ±os que los servi, me enseÃ±Ã³, que el motivo de estar todavia muchos tan pegados Ã sus antiguedades, era porque siendo los naturales muy curiosÃ²s, y aplicandose Ã saber leer: los que esto logran, quanto papel tienen Ã mano, tanto leen: y no aviendo entre ella, mas tratados en su idioma, que los que sus antepasados escribieron, cuya materia es solo de sus hechicerias, encantos, y curaciones con muchos abusos, y ensalmos; ya se ve que en estos bebian insensiblemente el tosigo para vomitar despues su malicia en otros muchos.â€Aprobacion del Doctor D. Augustin de Echano, etc., to Dr. Don Francisco Eugenio Dominguez,Platicas de los Principales Mysterios deNvestraStaFee, hechas en el Idioma Yucateco. Mexico, 1758. This extremely rare work is highly prized for the purity and elegance of the Maya employed by the author.

69-1Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, page 160.

70-1The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths of Central America. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol.XIX, 1881. The terminal letter in both these wordsâ€”â€œchilan,â€ â€œbalam,â€â€”may be either â€œnâ€ or â€œm,â€ the change being one of dialect and local pronunciation. I have followed the older authorities in writing â€œChilan Balam,â€ the modern preferring â€œChilam Balam.â€

72-1Historia Antigua de Yucatan, p. 123(Merida, 1882).

73-1Arte del Idioma Maya, p. 242 (2d ed).

73-2Arte de la Lengua Maya, compuesto por el R.Â P. Fr. Gabriel de San Buenaventura Predicador y difinidor habitual de la Provincia de San Joseph de Yucathan del Orden de N.Â P.Â S. Francisco. AÃ±o de 1684. Con licencia; En Mexico, por la Viuda de Bernardo Calderon, 4to. pag. 1-4, leaves 5-41.

74-1Arte del Idioma Maya reducido a succintas reglas, y semilexicon Yucatecopor el R.Â P.Â F. Pedro Beltran de Santa Rosa Maria. En Mexico por la Viuda de D. Joseph Bernardo de Hogal. AÃ±o de 1746. 8vo, pp. 8, 1-188. Segunda edicion, MÃ©rida de Yucatan, Imprenta de J.Â D. Espinosa. Julio, 1859. 8vo, 9 leaves, pp. 242.

74-2Apuntes para una Gramatica Maya.Por Don Juan Pio Perez, pp. 45-136.MSS.

75-1Diccionario de la Lengua Maya, por D. Juan Pio Perez. Merida de Yucatan. Imprenta literaria, de Juan F. Molina Solis, 1866-1877. Large 8vo, two cols. pp. i-xx, 1-437.

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