1887.] 'J [Brinton. 



lie did not hesitate occasionally to alter the original when he 

 could not get at its meaning conveniently'. Thus, p. 100, he 

 prints " pero que a parte de los espaiioles," whereas the original 

 is " pero que entre los Espaiioles," which conveys exactly' the 

 opposite sense. Again, p. 162, lines 2, 3, he writes " otras se 

 separavan partes de su cuerpo," where the original is " se seja- 

 van." Oddly enough, in the note on p. 104, he claims to have 

 altered the text from " tres fiestas " to " otras fiestas," whereas 

 the latter alone stands in the original. 



The proof-reading of Brasseur's Spanish text leaves something 

 to be desired. On the first page I have noted three errors, vaya 

 for om, haz el for haz a, and hiervas for sierras, which last error 

 he carries into his translation. Others, as Uamaron for Uevaron, 

 p. 20, line 1, and alcangaron for alancearon, p. 16, line 10, are 

 not much misleading. 



Of greater moment is his inaccuracy in both the spelling and 

 translation of proper names and Maya words. I shall mention a 

 few of these : 



Taiza, p. 4. This is for tah itza, " the lord or ruler of the 

 Itzas." 



Ulumil Cuz y Etel Ceh, p. 6. These Ma3'a words were un- 

 derstood and translated by Brasseur as two distinct names con- 

 nected by the copulative conjunction y, ef, and. This is not the 

 case. They form one term, the correct spelling of which is 

 vluumil cutz yetel ceh, "the land of the wild turkey and deer." 



Ciizmil, p. 12. The "Swallow-island," ah-cuzamil pelen, ac- 

 cording to the Diccionario Maya-Espanol del Convento de 

 3IotuI, MS., was also called Oycen and Oycib. In these names 

 cen means " ornament," and cib, " wax," while the prefix oy is an 

 interjection. 



Maya., p. 14. The form adopted by Brasseur, Ma~ay-ha, 

 meaning "there is no water," is incorrect. This phrase in the 

 Yucatecan tongue is Ma yan ha. For a more plausible deriva- 

 tion of the word Maya., see The Maya Chronicles, p. 16 (PLila- 

 delphia, 1880, vol. i of Brinton's Library of Aboriginal Ameri- 

 can Literature). 



The names of the idols mentioned, p. 16, read in the original 

 Ixhunie, and Ixhuniefa, not Ixbunie, etc. The prefix ix in all 

 four names is the feminine particle. The meanings are : 



