662 BUREAU OF AMERTCAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



L']yi)lis ill (jiK'stioii to take into consicleration, and if I could l)e 

 convinced of the exclusively astronomic purport of the manuscripts 

 and of the myths of the Central Americans. But I think that all the 

 personages, including /, exhibit so much i-ealism and local color that 

 we can not rest content with mere astronomy. This realism is like- 

 wise fully a])preciated by Mr P^orstemann. 



A certain analogy existing between the first person in the picture 

 given al)ove in ((, figure 133, and /, plate xi.viii, of the vase picture, 

 might admit of another explanation. The Maya races in (juatemala, 

 as I have already shown in an earlier essay," were well acquainted 

 with the Toltecs, the Yaqui-Vinak, and their god Quetzalcoatl. In 

 the Popol Vuh the creative god is identified with (Tucumatz, that 

 is, Quetzalcoatl. and in one place he is actually called Ah-Toltecat, 

 the Toltec. According to the traditions of the Guatemala tribes, 

 as well as those of the Mayas of Yucatan, the ancestors of their races 

 came from Tula, the city of the Toltecs. In a most valuable treatise 

 upon the Toltec question Doctor StoU '^ calls attention to the great 

 part which traveling Nahuatl merchants and the great hordes of 

 Nahuatl nationality which crowded into these southern regions as 

 traders and colonists must doubtless have played in Central America. 

 ^s it not possil)le that the painting on our. vase illustrates the ap])ear- 

 ance of one of these tribal hordes, represented by their deity, in the 

 midst of the native Maya population? There is undoubtedly a cer- 

 tain contrast between the figures on the right and those on the left 

 of the pictui'e. The arrangement and bearing of the different figures 

 in the two groups would seem entirely natural if we accept such a 

 solution. Unfortunately, there is very little prospect of ever attain- 

 ing positive knowledge in regard to questions of this sort. It is 

 principally in Guatemala that we are very insufficiently or not at all 

 informed respecting the local traditions and myths of the various 

 tribes. Priests sent to Guatemala were forbidden by an absurd 

 decree to teach Christianity to the Indians in their own language. 

 Hence the jiriests took no interest in the language or in the traditions 

 of the natives, and the later discovery of such interesting documents 

 as the Popol Vuh can not wholly supply the absolute want of a 

 mediiun of interpretation. Unfortunately, a Sahagun did not arise 

 for the ancient races of Central America. 



In concluding these remarks I will add a few observations concern- 

 ing the other vessels from Chama which Mr Dieseldorff has de- 

 scribed. It is particularly worthy of notice that at least four of the 

 vessels — the one first discussed, the one with the bat god (Verhand- 

 lungen, 1894, plate xiii), and the two vessels shown in plate xvi, Ver- 



« Verhandlungen, 1894, p. 578. 



"Guatemala. Reisen und Schildenmgen aus den Jahren, 1878-1883, Leipzig, 1886, 

 pp. 408 to 412. 



