EXPLANATORY. 



MAYA AND MAYAN. 



The adjectival term Maya, instead of Mayan at times, is employed throughout this 

 book. The nice distinction, which it is sought to bring into vogue, of applying the 

 former only to matters pertaining to Yucatan and using the latter only with regard to 

 affairs relating to the race in general, appears to me ill-advised and liable to result in 

 confusion. I think it would be better to distinguish the separate developments by 

 the terms Yucatec, Tzental, Chiapec, Cakchiquel, and so on, as far as they can be 

 thus intelligibly designated, retaining the adjective Maya alone, as the simpler form, 

 and employing it solely in a generic sense. Hence, not knowing what particular 

 designation to give the authors of the inscriptions, I have simply applied the broad 

 racial appelation to them, and used the single term Maya adjectively throughout. 



SYSTEM OP NOTATION. 



To particularize every separate period by name in setting down dates or chronological 

 reckonings, especially when the requirement is frequent and the record long, becomes 

 tedious, and the result is not readily comprehensible. Thus, to write : the 9th cycle, 

 12th katun, 18th ahau, 5th chuen and 16th day, to 2 Cib, the 14th day of Mol, is not 

 only laborious, but the eye does not take it all in at a glance. To obviate both 

 objections I have long made use of a system of notation that combines the advantages 

 of facility and comprehensibleness. By it the above record would be reduced to this : 

 9 — 12 — 18 — 5x16 — 2 Cib-14 Mol. The cross between the chuens and days renders 

 the identity of all the periods unmistakable. When there are no days or chuens, or 

 even ahaus — a fact denoted by the use of the extreme numeral for the period in question 

 — the plan is still adhered to, as in the inscriptions themselves — thus : 9 — 15 — 20 — 18 

 X20 — 4 Ahau-13 Yax. This system of notation will be made use of throughout 

 these pages. 



