Brinton.] ^o4 [Nov. 5, 



at once struck with the presence of a connected series of words 

 expressing this emotion, while at the same time they, or otliers 

 closely akin to them and from the same root, mean pain, injury, 

 difficulty, suffering, wounds and misery. Bolh are formed by 

 the usual rules from the monosyllable ya.* Were the ancient 

 Mayas so sensitive to love's wounds and the pangs of passion as 

 to derive their very words for suffering from the name of this 

 sentiment ? 



No ; that solution is too unlikely for our acceptance. More 

 probable is it that we have here an illustration of the develop- 

 ment of language from interjectional cries. In fact, we may be 

 said to have the proof of it, for we discover that this monosyl- 

 lable ya is still retained in the language as a verb, with the sig- 

 nification " to feel anything deeply, whether as a pain or as a 

 pleasure." f Its derivatives were developed with both mean- 

 ings, and as love and friendship are the highest forms of pleas- 

 ure, the word ya in its happier senses became confined to them. 



It seems to have sufficed to express the conception in all its 

 forms, for the writers in the language apply it to the love of the 

 sexes, to that between parents and children, that among friends, 

 and also to that which men feel toward God, and that which He 

 is asserted to feel toward men. J 



The Mayas, therefore, were superior to the Nahuas in possess- 

 ing a radical word which expressed the joy of love ; and they 

 must be placed above even the early Aryans in that this radical 

 was in significance purely psychical, referring strictl} to a men- 

 tal state, and neither to similarity nor desire. 



It is noteworthy that this interjectional root, although belong- 



*Thus: 



ya or yail, love; pain, sickness, a wound ; difficult, laborious, 



yate, to love. 



yuc.unah, to love. 



yaili, painfully, laboriously. 



yalal, to taste; to have relations with a woman. 



yalzil, love, charity ; something difficult or painful. 

 ■\"ya: senlir mucho una cosa. 



yamab : sin sentir [the ma is the negative!. 



Diccionario Maya-ExpaUol del Convento de Motul. (MS. in my possession ) 



J Thus: 



yahtetabal c«h lumen Dins, we are loved by God. 



11 yacunah Dios toon, the love of God to us. 



yacunahil Dios, the love with which God is loved. 



mehenbi.i yacunah, filial love. 



bakil yacunah, carnal love. 

 All from the Diccionario de Motul (MS.). 



