INTKODUCTION. XXXV 



I translated the results, and gave them to the public in this country in the 

 same year (1870), together with a copy of the alphabet of Landa,i which 

 was the earliest notice of the subject which appeared in the-United States. 



The conclusion which M. de Charencey reached was that the Codex 

 Troano is "largely made up of combinations of numerals and reckonings 

 more or less complicated, either astronomical or astrological, the precise 

 purpose of which it were as yet premature to state." He especially ad- 

 dressed himself to the Plates VIII to XIII, and showed by diagrams the 

 arrangement in them of the signs of the days, and the probability that this 

 arrangement was taken from a "wheel,". such as we know the Mayas were 

 accustomed to use in adjusting their calendar. 



An ingenious and suggestive analysis of Landa's alphabet and of varipus 

 figures in the Dresden and Troano Codices was carried out by Dr. Harrison 

 Allen, professor of comparative anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania. 

 It was published in 1875, in the Transactions of the American Philosophical 

 Society. 



In the following year (1876) appeared the first part of Prof Leon de 

 Rosny's Essai sur le DecUffrement de VEcriture Hieratique de VAmeriqiie Cen- 

 trale, folio. The second part was published shortly afterward, but the third 

 part not till some years later. Professor de Rosny has collected many 

 facts which throw a side light on the questions he discusses. He points 

 out that the signs are to be read from left to right; he gives a valuable list 

 of variants of the same sign as it appears in difl:erent manuscripts; and he 

 distinguishes the signs of the cardinal points, although it is doubtful whether 

 he assigns to each its correct value. He has also offered strong evidence 

 to fix the phonetic value of some characters. Altogether, his work ranks 

 as the most thorough and fruitful which has heretofore been done in this field. 



In 1879 Prof. Charles Eau published, through the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, his work, "The Palenque Tablet in the United States National Mu- 

 seum, Washington." Its fifth chapter is devoted to the ' ' aboriginal writing in 

 Mexico, Yucatan, and Central America," and offers a judicious summary of 

 what had been accomplished up to that date. He defends the position, 



'The Ancient Phonetic Alphabet of Yucatan. By D. G. Brinton, M. D. New York, J. Sabin & 

 3ons, 1870, 8vo., i). 8. 



