596 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 28 



the true one, although the results could be but scanty at first. Valu- 

 able contributions have been made by Seler, with the aid of rich 

 material from cognate departments (Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, 

 1888). On the part of the American scholars, too, a gratifying suc- 

 cess has been attained in this field (Aids to the Study of the Maya 

 Codices, by Cyrus Thomas, AVashington, 1888), and the amazing 

 results which Professor Forstemann has won in the domain of the 

 Maya calendar and chronology are not far removed from a complete 

 solution. 



Having thus gained a firm footing, in contrast to the earlier fanci- 

 ful attemi^ts, and an important addition having been made to the 

 material for investigation in the Yucatan collection of the Ethno- 

 logic Museum at Berlin, we can now take a more comprehensive sur- 

 vey of the whole field than was hitherto possible. The first question 

 which presses upon us in such a comparative survey is in regard 

 to the unity of the whole, the period and place of origin of the 

 individual relics. The material must be carefully sifted and sorted 

 before it can be studied. In this respect Americanist research is 

 laboring under great disadvantages. In other fields ethnology col- 

 lects its material among nations, who, though on the eve of entire 

 absorption by European civilization, still live in a condition which 

 makes a study of their organism possible. Among nations, like 

 the Hindoos and Chinese, whose traditions are carefully fostered, 

 and who still preserve a close connection with the peculiar creations 

 of their past in the forms in which they have developed down through 

 the ages to the present time, the study of the earliest periods of 

 civilization is a comparatively easy matter. But in America ancient 

 civilization breaks off abruptly and forever at the point where it fell 

 a victim to a stronger power. No continuous development took place ; 

 no tradition preserved what had already been acquired. The bearers 

 of that more powerful civilization had no comprehension of humanity 

 when it manifested itself in a manner so utterly alien to and remote 

 from their own ; the tender care with which the remains of a peculiar, 

 highly developed intellectual life are cherished in these days was 

 wholly unknown to them. The origin of the little which still remains, 

 therefore, is for the most part undetermined. Archeologic diffi- 

 culties are also added to this difficulty of ethnologic investigation. 

 A multifarious swarming of races prevailed in Central America; 

 civilized nations roamed hither and thither; centers of civilization 

 flourished and perished; numerous languages existed side by side, 

 and were exchanged, changing and altered with marvelous rapidity. 

 Without transcending the limits of science in fanciful suppositions, 

 which are never more dangerous than in this domain, we may assume 

 that many chapters of ancient human history have sunk into oblivion 



