AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE MAYA HIEROGLYPHS 



By SYLVANUS GRISWOLD MORLEY 



Chapter I. THE MAYA 

 Habitat 



Broadly speaking, the Maya were a lowland people, inhabiting the 

 Atlantic coast plains of southern Mexico and northern Central Amer- 

 ica. (See pi. 1.) The southern part of this region is abundantly 

 watered by a network of streams, many of which have their rise in 

 the Cordillera, while the northern part, comprising the peninsula of 

 Yucatan, is entirely lacking in water courses and, were it not for 

 natural wells (cenotes) here and there, would be uninhabitable. This 

 condition in the north is due to the geologic formation of the penin- 

 sula, a vast plain underlaid by limestone through which water 

 quickly percolates to subterranean channels. 



In the south the country is densely forested, though occasional 

 savannas break the monotony of the tropical jungles. The rolling 

 surface is traversed in places by ranges of hills, the most important 

 of which are the Cockscomb Mountains of British Honduras; these 

 attain an elevation of 3,700 feet. In Yucatan the nature of the soil 

 and the water-supply not being favorable to the growth of a luxuriant 

 vegetation, this region is covered with a smaller forest growth and a 

 sparser bush than the area farther southward. 



The chmate of the region occupied by the Maya is tropical; there 

 are two seasons, the rainy and the dry. The former lasts from May 

 or June until January or February, there being considerable local 

 variation not only in the length of this season but also in the time of 

 its beginning. 



Deer, tapirs, peccaries, jaguars, and game of many other kinds 

 abound throughout the entire region, and doubtless formed a large 

 part of the food supply in ancient times, though formerly corn was 

 the staple, as it is now. 



There are at present upward of twenty tribes speaking various 

 dialects of the Maya language, perhaps half a milUon people in all. 

 These live in the same general region their ancestors occupied, but 

 under greatly changed conditions. Formerly the Maya were the van 

 of civihzation in the New World,^ but to-day they are a dwindhng 



» All things considered, the Maya may be regarded as having developed probably the highest aboriginal 

 civilization in the Western Hemisphere, although it should be borne in mind that they were surpassed in 

 many lines of endeavor by other races. The Inca, for example, excelled them in the arts of weaving and 

 dyeing, the Chiriqui in metal working, and the Aztec in military proficiency. 



43508°— Bull. 57—15 1 1 



