6 PREFATORY NOTE. [ 



BUREAU OF 

 ETHNOLOGY 



with the Aztec aud i^erhaps with other iieigiiboriiig- storks, markedly 

 distiuct from all others. 



The early history of the Maya people is lost in the unwritten past; 

 but from the few remaining- Maya aud Aztec traditions and codices, 

 from the modern native books of Yucatan and Mexico, and from the early 

 Spanish chronicles it appears that the people were not autochthonous, 

 but entered Yucatan from northward, i)robably as one of the two prin- 

 cipal branches of a race represented also by the Aztecs. Evidence of 

 this relation is found also in the existence of a prominent branch of the 

 Maya linguistic family, the Huastecas, a formerly populous tribe found 

 by the Spaniards on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico about the river 

 Panuco; for the Huastecas play a prominent part in the Aztec tradi- 

 tions and records. The descendants of the ancient Mayas remain an 

 important element in the population of Yucatan. In 1862 it was esti- 

 mated that there were nearly or quite 200,000 jiure-blood Indians and 

 perhaps 100,000 mixed bloods using the Maya tongue. 



The Maya language may be characterized as analytic rather than 

 synthetic. In comparison with the native American languages gener- 

 ally it is remarkably simple in construction. It is largely monosyl- 

 labic and, like the English, is essentially a language of vocables, the 

 formal grammar being simple and inconspicuous. Phonetically, also, it 

 is highly developed, the Spaniards finding but six j)honetic elements 

 new to their tongue. For these reasons th%.lauguage is remarkably 

 facile. It has longbeen observed that foreigners acquire the Maya more 

 readily than the Spanish ; and the remarkable persistence of the tongue 

 in comparative purity attests an inherent strength which can be ascribed 

 only to its economy as a vehicle of expression. In its sim[)licity of con- 

 struction, its wealth of vocabulary aud dearth of formal grammar, in the 

 difterentiation of its phonetic elements, and in several minor respects 

 the Maya tongue is analogous to the English. So in language as in 

 culture, and indeed in physical development, the Maya may be regarded 

 as the Saxon of the Western Hemisphere. 



The graphic system of the ancient Mayas was from the first discrimi- 

 nated by the Spaniards from that of Mexico. It is exemplified in manu- 

 script books and codices, as well as in tablets and inscriptions carved in 

 the stones or i)ainted on the plaster of the walls of their domiciles, palaces, 

 and temples. The system was largely hieroglyphic and known chiefly 

 or solely by priests and nobles. The Spanish chronicles, as well as the 

 records themselves, so far as interpreted, indicate that it was a com- 

 posite system comprising pictures, ideograms, and phonetic characters. 

 From the rounded forms of the characters the system has been called 

 calcuUform. 



The Maya numeral system is elaborate. Its basis is vigesimal, the 

 cardinal numbers running from one to twenty; and the higher numera- 

 tion is also vigesimal, each unit comprising twenty of the next lower 

 order and forming one-twentieth of the next higher. According to 



