Part 2

[5-+] Of the numerous authorities which could be quoted on this point, I shall give the words of but one, Father Alonso Ponce, the Pope's Commissary-General, who travelled through Yucatan in 1586, when many natives were still living who had been born before the Conquest (1541). Father Ponce had travelled 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: "_Son alabados de tres cosas entre todos los demas de la Nueva España, 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 ó tercia en ancho, que se doblaban y recogian, y venia á queder á manera de un libro encuardenada en cuartilla, poco mas ó menos. Estas letras y caracteres no las entendian, sino los sacerdotes de los idolos, (que en aquella lengua se llaman 'ahkines,') y algun indio principal. Despues las entendieron y supieron léer algunos frailos nuestros y aun las escribien._"--("_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 España_," page 392). I know no other author who makes the interesting statement that these characters were actually used by the missionaries to impart instruction to the natives; but I learn through Mr. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, that a manuscript written in this manner by one of the early _padres_ has recently been discovered.

[5-++] "_Se les quemamos todos_," he writes, "_lo qual á maravilla sentian y les dava pena._"--"_Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan_," page 316.

[7-*] "_Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan_," page 160.

[7-+] "The 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 words--"_chilan_," "_balam_,"--may be either "_n_" or "_m_," the change being one of dialect and local pronunciation. I have followed the older authorities in writing "_Chilan Balam_," the modern preferring "_Chilam Balam_." Señor Eligio Ancona, in his recently published "_Historia de Yucatan_," (Vol. I., page 240, note, Merida, 1878,) offers the absurd suggestion that the name "_balam_" was given to the native soothsayers by the early missionaries in ridicule, deriving it from the well-known personage in the Old Testament. It is surprising that Señor Ancona, writing in Merida, had never acquainted himself with the Perez manuscripts, nor with those in the possession of Canon Carrillo. Indeed, the most of his treatment of the ancient history of his country is disappointingly superficial.

[10-*] For example, in the "_Registro Yucateco_," _Tome III._; "_Diccionario Universal de Historia y Geografia_," _Tome VIII._ (Mexico, 1855); "_Diccionario Historico de Yucatan_," _Tome I._ (Merida, 1866); in the appendix to Landa's "_Cosas de Yucatan_" (Paris, 1864), etc. The epochs, or _katuns_, of Maya history have been recently again analyzed by Dr. Felipe Valentini, in an essay in the German and English languages, the latter in the "Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 1880."

[11-*] The Abbé's criticism occurs in the note to page 406 of his edition of Landa's "_Cosas de Yucatan_."

[14-*] It is described at length by Don Crescencio Carrillo y Ancona, in his "_Disertacion sobre la Historia de la Lengua Maya_" (Merida, 1870).

[14-+] "_Je dois déclarer que l'examen dans tous leurs détails du 'Codex Troano' et du 'Codex Peresianus' m'invite de la façon la plus sérieuse à n'accepter ces signes, tout au moins au point de vue de l'exactitude de leur tracé, qu'avec une certaine réserve._"--Leon de Rosny's "_Essai sur le Déchiffrement de l'Ecriture Hiératique de l'Amérique Centrale_," page 21 (Paris, 1876). By the "_Codex Peresianus_," he does not mean the "_Codice Perez_," but the Maya manuscript in the Bibliothêque[TN-4] Nationale. The identity of the names is confusing and unfortunate.

[15-*] "The Manuscript Troano," published in _The American Naturalist_, August, 1881, page 640. This manuscript or codex was published in chromo-lithograph, Paris, 1879, by the French Government.

[18-*] "_Declarar las necesidades y sus remedios._"--"_Relation de las Cosas de Yucatan_," page 160. Like much of Landa's Spanish, this use of the word "_necesidad_" is colloquial, and not classical.

[18-+] A "_Medicina Domestica_," under the name of "Don Ricardo Ossado, (alias, _el Judio_,)" was published at Merida in 1834; but this appears to have been merely a bookseller's device to aid the sale of the book by attributing it to the "great unknown."

[19-*] In his "_Disertacion sobre la Historia de la Lengua Maya ó Yucateca_" (Merida, 1870).

Transcriber's Note

The following misspellings and typographical errors were maintained.

Page Error TN-1 11 re should read are TN-2 13 hierogylphs should read hieroglyphs TN-3 19 An cona should read Ancona TN-4 fn. 14-+ Bibliothêque should read Bibliothèque