ABORIGINAL WRITING IN MEXICO, ETC. 49 



vandalism, which rivals similar deeds of Zumarraga, the first archbishop of 

 Mexico, and other Spanish ecclesiastics of that period, plainly shows that Landa 

 was no less imbued with the fanatical spirit of his time than his contemporaries. 

 He gives several examples of Maj^a spelling, but only one of them is per- 

 fectly intelligible. Ma hi Kati, he says, means, "I will not;" they write it in 



this manner 



©-^^^5< 



Quite diverging opinions have been expressed with regard to the value of 

 Landa's alphabet: while some, as mentioned, see in it the key by which the 

 mystery of Central American glyphs may ultimately be solved, others are less 

 sanguine, and not a few even go so far as to deny that it possesses at all the 

 character attributed to it by the bishop of Merida. Among the latter is Pro- 

 fessor H. Wuttke, an author who has made the subject of writing in its various 

 stages his special study. He says: — "AVe must decline for the present to accept 

 the view entertained by several modern scholars that the Centi-al Americans were 

 acquainted with alphabetical Avriting. None of the earlier historians Avho still 

 had intercourse with the more educated Mexicans has pronounced such a view, 

 excepting Landa, whose statements are very indistinct. In some cases their 

 observations even point to the contrary. In writing in their books, Landa says, 

 the Yucatecs made use of certain characters or letters (de ciertos caratcrcs o 

 letras), and with the aid of these and figures and certain marks in the figures 

 [y con ellas, y firfuras, y algunas senates en las figuras) they understood their atfairs 

 [sus cosas). Landa communicates an alphabet of these letters, which, however, 

 may be only an attempt made by the natives after the introduction of the Spanish 

 alphabet. Landa's deficient insight into the Yucatcc system of writing is not only 

 shown by the indistinctness of liis communications — for an indistinct account 

 nearly always betokens non-understanding — but also by his uncertainty concern- 

 ing the value of two of the signs. To the sign fl he adds as an explanation 

 ^signo de aspiracion?', and to the sign for MA ^qidzd tamUcn (perhaps also!) 

 JfiJo i¥0."'* 



Landa evidently thought very little of Yucatec writing, treating the subject 

 almost as a thing below his notice. He had not taken the trouble of informing 

 himself sufficiently concerning the application of Maya characters, which, as he 

 himself states, had already entirely fallen into disuse at his time, in consequence 

 of the introduction of Spanish letters among the natives.f 



" We consider Central American writing," Wuttke continues, " as real 

 picture-writing, and we are of opinion that Gama is right in denying the existence 

 of a general, thoroughly applicable key. The very nature of picture-writing 



» Wuttke: Die Entstehung der Schrift, etc.; Leipzig, 1872, S. 205. 

 t Landa : Relation etc., p. 322. 



