XXxiv INTEODUCTION. 



5.— EFFORTS AT INTEEPEETATION. 



The study of the Maya hieroglyphic system is still in its infancy. It 

 is only two years since an unquestionably faithful reproduction of the 

 Dresden Codex supplied a needed standard of comparison for the Codex 

 Troano. Some knowledge of the Maya language, if not indispensable, is 

 certainly desirable in such an undertaking, particularly if the writing is in 

 any degree phonetic. But it was not till 1877 that any printed dictionary 

 of that tongue could be had. The publication of the Biccionario de la 

 Lengua Maya of Don Juan Pio Perez was completed in that year, and, 

 though still leaving much to be desired, especially in reference to the ancient 

 forms and meanings of words, it is a creditable monument of industry. 



When the Abbci Brasseur edited the Codex Troano he also attempted an 

 explanation of its contents. He went so far as to give an interlinear version 

 of some pages, and wonderful work he made of it! But I am relieved of 

 expressing an opinion as to his success by his own statement in a later work, 

 that he had, by mistake, commenced at the end of the Codex instead of its 

 beginning; that he had read the lines from right to left, when he should 

 have read them from left to right; and that his translations were not intended 

 for more than mere experiments.^ 



The attempt at a translation of the Dresden Codex by Mr. William 

 Bollaert, published in the Memoirs of the Anthropological Society of London, 

 1870, may be passed over for the same reason. He also "read from the 

 bottom upwards, and from right to left," and his renderings were altogether 

 fanciful. 



The first who addressed himself to an investigation of the Maya 

 hieroglyphics with anything like a scientific method was M. Hyacinthe 

 de Charencey, of France. I append, in a note, a list of his essays on this 

 subject, with their dates, so far as I know them.^ When they first appeared 



• Brasseur de Bourbourg, Bibliolheque Mejcico-Guatemalienne, precidie d'un Coup d'(Eil sur les Etudes 

 Jmirkaines, p. xxvii, note (Paris, 1871). 



^ITyaciutbe de Charencey, £«8ai de Dicliiffrement d^un fragment Winsaiption Palcnqueenc, in the 

 Actes do la Soci(5t^ Philologique, mars 1870. 



Essai de DMiiffrement d'un fragment du Manuscript Troano, in the Bcvue de Philologie et d'Ethno- 

 graphic, Paris, 1875. 



The above two were republished under the title: Etudes dc Paleographie AnUricaine ; Dichiffremcnt 

 des Ecritures Calculiformes ou Mayas. 



Mecherches sur te Codex Troano, Paris, Ernest Leroux, ^diteur, 1876, 6vo., p. IG. 



