1887.-I i [Brinton. 



the natives wore "jacos fuertes de sal y de algodon," "strong 

 jackets (made) of siU and cotton 1" And this is repeated, p. 

 172, with tlie specific addition that these jacliets were "quilted 

 doubly with salt for grinding !^^ No wonder the Abbe was non- 

 plussed by this outrageous assertion I (See his note to p. 49.) 

 The explanation is interesting. The word in the Maya language 

 for salt is taab^ while that for a twisted strand or cord is tab^ the 

 only difference being in the length of the vowel. Evidently 

 Bishop Landa, or the person from whom he derived his infor- 

 mation, mistook the native description of these quilted jackets. 

 They were of cotton and twisted cords (tab), the layers of the 

 former being quilted to the latter. The historian of Yucatan, 

 Father CogoUudo, refers to them, stating that they were called 

 by the Mexicans (Nahuas), ichcavipiles. This is a sound Na- 

 huatl word, found in Molina's Vocabulario, and shows that the 

 same defense was known and employed by the Aztecs. It was 

 also familiar to the tribes of Maya lineage in Guatemala. 



The Maya Characters. 



A close comparison of the various Ma3^a characters printed in 

 Brasseur's edition with those in the Madrid copy proves that in 

 the main his tracings were accurate. 



The Calendar beginning on p. 240 reveals, however, a number 

 of minor differences. All of Brasseur's characters tend more to 

 the circular form than those in the later edition wliich are ap- 

 proximately quadrangular. Occasionally points of detail differ 

 considerably, as for instance, on p. 240, the signs Ix and Cib. 

 The lines for the month signs are much fainter and sharper in 

 Brasseur, and that of the month Minan is incomplete, lacking a 

 bracket-shaped appendage to the left. 



The Katun-wheel on p. ;U2 in the Madrid edition has the in- 

 scription in its centre. The Maya words should read u uazaJdotn 

 Katun, " their return the Katuns," i. e., the return or revolution 

 of the Katuns. Brasseur translates the Spanish rendering of 

 this, " gerra de los Katunes " by " la guerre on le jeu des Ka- 

 tuns." The word gerra means neither game nor war, but is dia- 

 lectic for gira or giro, from girar, to turn around. 



In the important matter of the alphabet on p. 320, Brasseur 

 makes only one serious error, that is, that he places the first 

 form of the letter b (No. 4 of his list) lengthwise instead of up- 



