118 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [Vou. VI. 
by Landa; third,there are some reasons for believing, even from Landa’s 
words, that during the festival petitions for rain and abundant crops 
were offered. I presume also that, during this festival, took place the 
rejoicing over the first fruits of the maize harvest. I may as well state 
here as elsewhere that I do not think the offering made by the priest on 
the right is an infant; the probability is that it is a dough image. 
Although we see what appears to be the body and limbs, we have to 
assume that the head wears a mask to believe it to be the body ofa 
child. If it is the figure of a child, then the scene represents a special 
occasion, when the sacrifice was made to avert some impending danger. 
The difference in the height of the two priests favors. the idea that the 
artist referred by his figures to particular persons, if not to a special 
occasion. Finally, it is possible that, although the inscription relates 
chiefly to this festival, others are also alluded to. But, be this as it may, 
I have reached my conclusion as to the rendering by legitimate 
steps.” 
With all due respect for Professor Cyrus Thomas, whose patient 
labours in many fields of archeological research entitle him to honour, 
the writer fails to see that he has made his point in this case. It is true 
that guess work has contributed to discovery since the days of Sir Isaac 
Newton, and there are legitimate hypotheses which it is allowable to 
employ for a time as working theories, but between blind submission to 
doubtful authority and a preconception of the mind as to what an unread 
description should contain, there lies a wide field of induction and 
tentative inference, which it is well in the interest of science to exhaust. 
The testimony of one credible eye-witness is sufficient to overturn the 
most formidable arguments based upon circumstantial evidence. In the 
case of the Tablet, the witness is the engraver of the hieroglyphics, and 
when his tale is told, we shall know what is the true story contained in 
the central slab. 
CHAPTER III. 
MAYA-QUICHE DOCUMENTS AND THE MATERIAL FOR THEIR 
DECIPHERMENT. 
The Maya-Quiche family of languages consists of three divisions. The 
first is the Huastec, spoken in the northern part of the Mexican province 
of Vera Cruz. It stands alone in its class. The second is the Maya. 
Maya proper is the language of Yucatan and the island of Carmen, and 
