No. ([33]) is an article for the use of students of the Nahuatl language, mentioning the principal grammars, dictionaries and text-books which are available.
The numbers ([34]), ([35]), ([36]), ([37]), ([38]), ([39]), ([40]) and ([41]), are devoted to the methods of writing invented by the cultured natives of Mexico and Central America in order to preserve their literature, such as it was. The methods are various, that of the Nahuas not being identical with that of the Mayas. The former is largely phonetic, but in a peculiar manner, for which I have proposed the term of “ikonomatic,” the principle being that of the rebus. That this method can be successfully applied to the decipherment of inscriptions I demonstrated in the translation of one which is quite celebrated, the “Stone of the Giants” at Orizaba, Mexico ([41]). The translation I proposed has been fully accepted.[16-1]
The “Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphics” ([39]) was intended as a summary of what had been achieved up to that time (1895) by students in this branch. It endeavored, moreover, to render to each student the credit of his independent work; and as, unfortunately, some, notably in Germany, had put forward as their own what belonged to others of earlier date, the book naturally was not very well treated by such reviewers. Its aim, however, to present a concise and fair statement of what had been accomplished in its field up to the date of its publication was generally conceded to have been attained.
Much of the considerable manuscript material which I have accumulated on the languages of this section of the continent was obtained from the collections of the late Dr. Carl Hermann Berendt and the Abbé E. C. Brasseur (de Bourbourg).
When in Spain, in 1888, I found in the Royal Library the MS. of the earlier portion of Sahagun’s “History of New Spain” in Nahuatl. I described it in ([42]).
The term “Anahuac” has long been applied to the territory of Mexico. Dr. E. Seler, of Berlin, published an article asserting that this was an error, and devoid of native authority. In ([43]) I pointed out that in this he was wrong, as early Nahuatl records use it in this sense.
The Alaguilac language of Guatemala, long a puzzle to linguistics, is shown in ([44]) to be an isolated dialect of the Nahuatl.
Nos. ([45]), ([46]), ([47]), ([49]) and ([54]), have been already mentioned.
The term Chilan balam, which may be freely rendered “the inspired speaker,” was the title of certain priests of the native Mayas. Many records in the Maya tongue, written after the conquests, go by the name of “the Books of Chilan Balam.” They have never been published, but copies of them, made by Dr. Berendt, are in my possession. Their purpose and contents were described in ([50]).
There are reasons for believing that previous to the arrival of the Cakchiquels in Guatemala its area was largely peopled by Xincas. Of this little-known stock I present in ([58]) three extended vocabularies, from unpublished sources, with comments on the “culture-words.”