1 882.] Anthropology. 331 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 1 



The Maya-Kiche Gods.— After a few years of cessation from 

 literary labor, Dr. Daniel G. Brinton takes up his polished pen to 

 illuminate the thrilling history of the Maya-Kiche tribes of Cen- 

 tral America, in a paper read before the American Philosophical 

 Society, November 4, 1 88 1 , and entitled " The names of the Gods in 

 the Kiche Myths, Central America." The communication is 

 published in a separate pamphlet of 37 pages octavo by McCalla 

 & Stavely, of Philadelphia. 



The Maya-Kiche stock is divided into sixteen dialects and 

 spoken at present by half a million persons. These people for- 

 merly used mnemonic signs approaching an alphabet to record 

 and recall their mythology and history. Fragments of their tra- 

 ditions have been preserved, the most notable being the Popol- 

 Vuh, the national legend of the Kiches of Guatemala. This 

 story was translated by Ximenez and by Abbe Brasseur (de 

 Bourbourg), but so imperfectly as to throw suspicion upon the 

 authenticity of the original. As contributing to substantiate the 

 mythical portion, Dr. Brinton has undertaken, in the paper before 

 us, to analyze the proper names of the divinities therein men- 

 tioned, assisted by two manuscript vocabularies of the Cakchi- 

 quel dialect presented to the library of the American Philosophical 

 Society by the Governor of Guatemala, in 1836, and by original 

 papers from the collection of the late Dr. C. H. Berendt. With 

 much new light thrown upon the labors of his predecessors, Dr. 

 Brinton then takes up the following names of Kiche deities : 



IIun-Ahpu Vuch- The One ni;^tei ol supernatural power, the Opossum. 



, White Great Hog < 



m: 



-The paternal and n 



Cakulha Hurakan 



} The storm and-earthquake gods. 

 Iha S 

 Qabauil— The Divinity. 

 '"" ■ i-nanaua. , - ,irit of Knowledge, the Genius of Reason. 



1 Edited by Professor Otis T. 



