502 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



literature; such a task requires the mutual contributions of many 

 scholars who are able to proceed in general agreement as to basic 

 principles. Linguistic principles alone carry the conviction neces- 

 sary to such scientific agreement. 



As the research progresses and expands and grows more sure it 

 becomes able to read with some confidence sentences which lack pic- 

 tures to control the translation. We shall thus begin to read cau- 

 tiously portions of the inscriptions, and the long pictureless texts of 

 the Peresianus codex whose meaning is now utterly mysterious. As 

 the major linguistic difficulties are conquered the study becomes more 

 and more philological; that is to say, subject matter, cultural data, 

 and history play an increasing role — it becomes a matter of not only 

 reading but of understanding as much as possible the allusions, the 

 references, the nonlinguistic contexts, the cultural patterns which 

 are seen by glimpses, as it were, through the bare words and gram- 

 mar of tl:tti translations. This is philology. But as the base of 

 philology we must have linguistics. Only in this way can we ever 

 hope to understand the history and culture of the Maya. 



