36 BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 57 



of their gods, who alone knew how to read and expound them and 

 who were beheved ui and revered as much as the gods themselves." 



Father Ponce (tome lviii, p. 392) who visited Yucatan as early as 

 1588, is equally clear: "The natives of Yucatan are among all the 

 Inhabitants of New Spain especially deserving of praise for three 

 things. First that before the Spaniards came they made use of 

 characters and letters with wliich they wrote out their histories, their 

 ceremonies, the order of sacrifices to their idols and their calendars 

 in books made of the bark of a certain tree." 



Doctor Aguilar, who wrote but little later (1596), gives more details 

 as to the kind of events wliich were recorded. "On these [the fiber 

 books] they painted in color the reckonmg of their years, wars, pesti- 

 lences, hurricanes, mundations, famines and other events." 



Finally, as late as 1697, some of these liistorical codices were in the 

 possession of the last great independent Maya ruler, one Canek. 

 Says Villagutierre (1701: hb. vi, cap. iv) in this connection: "Because 

 their king [Canek] had read it in his analtehes [fiber-books or codices] 

 they had knowledge of the provinces of Yucatan, and of the fact that 

 their ancestors had formerly come from them; analtehes or histories 

 being one and the same thing." 



It is clear from the foregomg extracts, that the Maya of Yucatan 

 recorded their history up to the time of the Spanish Conquest, in their 

 hieroglyphic books, or codices. That fact is beyond dispute. It 

 must be remembered also in this connection, that the Maya of Yucatan 

 were the direct inheritors of that older Maya civilization m the south, 

 which had produced the hieroglyphic monuments. For this latter 

 reason the wi-iter believes that the practice of recording history in the 

 hieroglyphic wTitmg had its origin, along with many another custom, 

 in the southern area, and consequently that the inscriptions on the 

 monuments of the southern cities are probably, in part at least, of an 

 historical nature. 



Wliatever may be the meaning of the undeciphered glyphs, enough 

 has been said in this chapter about those of known meaning to mdi- 

 cate the extreme importance of the element of time in Maya writing. 

 The very great preponderance of astronomical, calendary, and nu- 

 merical signs in both the codices and the inscriptions has determined, 

 so far as the beginner is concerned, the best way to approach the 

 study of the glyphs. First, it is essential to understand thoroughly 

 the Maya system of counthig time, in other words, their calendar and 

 chronology. Second, in order to make use of this knowledge, as did 

 the ^laya, it is necessary to familiarize ourselves with their arithmetic 

 and its signs and symbols. Third, and last, after this has been 

 accomphshed, we are ready to apply ourselves to the deciphering 

 of the inscriptions and the codices. For this reason the next chapter 

 will be devoted to the discussion of the Maya system of counting time. 



