INTRODUCTION. Xxix 



tongue with the Spanisli alphabet vohxmes Avliose contents are very simihir 

 to those described by Landa (above, page xxvi). 



A number of these are still in existence and offer an interesting field 

 for antiquarian and linguistic study. Although, as I say, they are no longer 

 in the Maya letters, they contain quite a number of ideograms, as the signs 

 of the days and the months, and occasional cartouches and paintings, which 

 show that they were made to resemble the ancient n)anuscripts as closely 

 as possible. 



They also contain not infrequent references to the "writing'" of the 

 ancients, and what are alleged to be extracts from the old records, chiefly 

 of a mystic character. The same terms are employed in speaking of the 

 ancient graphic system as of the present one. Thus in one of them, known 

 as "The Book of Chilan Balam of Chumayel," occurs this phrase; Bay 

 dzibanil tumenel Evangelistas yetel profeta Balam — "as it was written by the 

 Evangelists, and also by the prophet Balam," this Balam being one of their 

 own celebrated ancient seers. 



Among the predictions preserved from a time anterior to the Conquest, 

 there are occasional references to their books and their contents. I quote, 

 as an example, a short prophecy attributed to Ahkul Chel, "priest of the 

 idols." It is found in several of the oldest Maya manuscripts, and is in all 

 probability authentic, as it contains nothing which would lead us to suppose 

 that it was one of the "pious frauds'' of the missionaries. 



"EnJd oibte katune i/ume, maixtan a naate; 

 Ualac u talel, mac bin ca oahac tu coo pop ; 

 Katune yume hin iduc, Jiolom uil tucal ya; 

 Tali ti xaman, tali ti chiJdne; ahkinob uil yane yume; 

 Mac to ahkin, mac to ahbohat, bin alic u than uoohe, 

 Ychil Bolon Ahau, maixtan d naate f" 



"The lord of the cycle has been written down, but ye will not under- 

 stand ; 



He has come, who will give the enrolling of the years; 



The lord of the cycle will arrive, he will come on account of his love: 



