XL] THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 409 



and ideographic, the latter more ideographic and phonetic, and 

 consequently approximates nearer to a true phonetic system. No 

 doubt much diversity of opinion prevails regarding the real nature 

 of the Maya symbols, and it is a fact that no single text, how- 

 ever short, has yet been satisfactorily deciphered. Nevertheless 

 Dr Cyrus Thomas, than whom no greater authority can be quoted, 

 does not hesitate to say that many of the symbols possessed true 

 phonetic value and were used to express sounds and syllables. 

 " He does not claim that the Maya scribes had reached that ad- 

 vanced stage where they could indicate each letter sound by a 

 glyph or symbol. On the contrary, he thinks a symbol was 

 selected because the name or word it represented had as its chief 

 phonetic element a certain consonant sound or syllable. If this 

 were b the symbol would be used where b was the prominent 

 element of the word to be indicated, no reference, however, to 

 its original signification being necessarily retained. Thus the 

 symbol for cab, "earth," might be used in writing caban, a day 

 name, or cabil, u honey," because cab is their chief phonetic 

 element... One reason why attempts at decipherment have failed 

 is a misconception of the peculiar character of the writing, which 

 is in a transition stage from the purely ideographic to the pho- 

 netic 1 ." From the example here given, the Maya script would 

 appear to have in fact reached the rebus stage, which also plays 

 so large a part in the Egyptian hieroglyphic system. Cab is 

 obviously a rebus, and the transition from the rebus to true 

 syllabic and alphabetic systems has already been explained' 2 . 



But not only were the Maya day characters phonetic ; the 

 Maya calendar itself, afterwards borrowed by the 



. , , , ., , and Calendars. 



Aztecs, has been described as even more accurate 

 than the Julian itself. "Among the plains Indians the calendars 

 are simple, consisting commonly of a record of winters (' winter 

 counts,') and of notable events occurring either during the winter 

 or during some other season ; while the shorter time divisions 

 are reckoned by ' nights ' (days), ' dead moons ' (lunations), and 

 seasons of leafing, flowering, or fruiting of plants, migrating of 

 animals, etc., and there is no definite system of reducing days 



1 Day Symbols of the Maya Year in i6th Ann. Report, p. 205. 

 - p. 27. 



