MORLEY] INTRODUCTION TO STUDY OF MAYA HIEROGLYPHS 23 



wise identical glyphs ; it is due entirely to the mechanical dissimilarity 

 of the two materials. Disregarding this consideration as unessential, 

 we may say that the glyphs in both the mscriptions and the codices 

 belong to one and the same system of writing, and if it were possible 

 to read either, the other could no longer withhold its meaning from us. 



In Maya inscriptions the glyphs are arranged in parallel columns, 

 which are to be read two columns at a time, beginnmg with the upper- 

 most glyph in the left-hand column, and then from left to right and 

 top to bottom, endmg with the lowest glyph in the second column. 

 Then the next two columns are read m the same order, and so on. 

 In reading glyphs in a horizontal band, the order is from left to right 

 in pairs. The writer knows of no text m which the above order of 

 Rnxding is not followed. 



A brief examination of any Maya text, from either the inscriptions 

 or the codices, reveals the presence of certain elements which occur 

 repeatedly but in varying combinations. The apparent multipUcity 

 of these combmations leads at first to the conclusion that a great 

 number of signs were employed in ]\Iaya writmg, l)ut closer study will 



a b c d e 



Fig. 10. Examples of glyph elision, showing elimination of all parts except essential element (liere, tlie 

 crossed bands). 



show that, as compared with the composite characters or glyphs 

 proper, the simple elements are few in number. Says Doctor 

 Brinton (1894 b: p. 10) in this connection: "If we positively laiew the 

 meaning ... of a hundred or so of these simple elements, none of 

 the inscriptions could conceal any longer from us the general tenor 

 of its contents." Unfortunately, it must be admitted that but little 

 advance has been made toward the solution of this problem, perhaps 

 because later students have distrusted the highly fanciful results 

 achieved by the earlier writers who "mterpreted" these "simple 

 elements." 



Moreover, there is encountered at the very outset in the study of 

 these elements a condition which renders progress slow and results 

 uncertain. In Egyptian texts of any given period the simple pho- 

 netic elements or signs are unchanging under all conditions of com- 

 position. Like the letters of our own alphabet, they never vary and 

 may be recognized as unfailingly. On the other hand, in Maya texts 

 each glyph is in itself a fuiished picture, dependent on no other for 

 its meaning, and consequently the various elements entering into it 

 undergo very considerable modifications m order that the resultmg 

 composite character may not only be a balanced and harmonious de- 



