44 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
These u kahlay katunob “‘or records of the katuns,”’ were written approx- 
imately in 1575 to 1800 a. p. by native Maya in the Maya language but in 
the characters of the Spanish script, and at least one of them, the first 
chronicle of the Book of Chilan Balam of Chumayel,' gives an unbroken 
succession of the katuns, or 7,200-day periods, for more than 1,100 years, 
carrying back the chronological outline of Maya history to about 450 A. D. 
The successive katuns appear in a column at the left of each page, with the 
corresponding events, if any, written after each, only the more important 
events being recorded, as shown at the bottom of the preceding page. 
The close resemblance of this extract from the first « kahlay katunob 
in the Book of Chilan Balam of Chumayel to the Aztec historical codices, 
such as the Codex Mendoza, the Codex ‘Telleriano-Remensis, and the 
Codex Aubin, 1576, for example, with their sequences of years, is so 
apparent as to require no further comment here, and it may be accepted as 
indicating that the u kahlay katunob in the Books of Chilan Balam were 
copied by natives in the Spanish script from older pre-Columbian historical 
manuscripts, which gave the outline and principal events of Maya history— 
in short, that Maya historical manuscripts formerly existed in spite of the 
fact that none of them have yet been discovered. Moreover, it should be 
borne in mind in this connection that_many Maya manuscripts are known 
to have been destroyed by the Spanish priests in their efforts to stamp out 
the native religion, and the fact that only those of a non-historical char- 
acter have been preserved is doubtless due to accident rather than to any 
failure on the part of the Maya to have recorded their history.’ 
Turning next to the Maya inscriptions, it must be admitted that their 
possible historical content is still an open question, although both Lehmann 
and Spinden (as well as the writer) are of the opinion that the as yet unde- 
ciphered glyphs will prove to contain some historical data. Indeed, occa- 
sionally the subjects portrayed on the monuments are themselves such as to 
lend color to the idea. Many of the stele show bound captives with glyphs 
inscribed on their shoulders and thighs, or somewhere near them, and in 
such cases the conclusion is almost inevitable that these signs stand for 
the personal or place names of conquered rulers, tribes, or cities, as in the 
related Aztec codices. Lehmann says in this connection: 
“T feel no doubts that a number of the Maya reliefs and inscriptions are 
intended to commemorate historical events, particularly the scenes wherein a 
number of men in humble attitude, often loaded with chains, approach the Maya 
ruler. Each of these figures is apparently the chieftain of a conquered tribe, the 
name and origin of which are carefully denoted by a number of hieroglyphics.’” 



1See Brinton, 1882, pp. 152-157; and Gordon, 1913, plates 74-77, for a facsimile reproduction of this chronicle. 
2Bishop Landa himself, to whom we otherwise owe so much, naively confesses to having burned a number of 
these manuscripts: “We found among them a great number of books in their letters, and because they had nothing 
but superstitions and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they felt marvellously and gave them pain.” 
(1881, p. 103.) In this conflagration, according to a letter written by the Yucatecan Jesuit, Domingo Rodri- 
guez, to a Senor Estévez from Bologne on March 20, 1805, the following material was destroyed: 5,000 idols of 
different forms and dimensions; 13 large stones which served as altars; 22 small stones of various forms; 27 rolls of 
signs and hieroglyphics on deerskin; and 197 vases of all dimensions and shapes. See Molina Solis, 1897, p. 195. 
3Lehmann, 1909, pp. 16, 17. 
