[232]. Dr. Valentini’s article was published in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 1880. More recently Dr. Ed. Seler has condemned the Landa alphabet as “ein Versuch von Ladinos, von in die Spanische Wissenschaft eingeweihten Eingebornen in der Art, wie sie die Spanier ihre Lettern verwenden sahen, auch mit den Eingebornen geläufigen Bildern und Charaktern zu hantiren.” Verhandlungen der Berliner anthropologischen Gesellschaft, 1887, s. 227. I am far from adopting this sweeping statement, which I believe is contradicted by the whole tenor of Landa’s words and the testimony of other writers.
[233]. Diego de Landa, Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 44.
[234]. I add a few notes on this text:
Enhi is the preterit of the irregular verb, hal, to be, pret. enhi, fut. anac. Katun yum, father or lord of the Katun or cycle. Each Katun was under the protection of a special deity or lord, who controlled the events which occurred in it. Tu coɔ pop, lit., “for the rolling up of Pop,” which was the first month in the Maya year. Holom is an archaic future from hul; this form in om is mentioned by Buenaventura, Arte de la Lengua Maya, 1684, and is frequent in the sacred language, but does not occur elsewhere. Tucal ya, on account of his love; but ya means also “suffering,” “wound,” and “strength,” and there is no clue which of these significations is meant. Ahkinob; the original has lukinob, which I suspect is an error; it would alter the phrase to mean “In that day there are fathers” or lords, the word yum, father, being constantly used for lord or ruler. The ahkin was the priest; the ahbobat was a diviner or prophet. The 9th Ahau Katun was the period of 20 years which began in 1541, according to most native authors, but according to Landa’s reckoning in the year 1561.
[235]. In quoting and explaining Maya words and phrases in this article, I have in all instances followed the Diccionario Maya-Español del Convento de Motul (Yucatan); a copy of which in manuscript (one of the only two in existence) is in my possession. It was composed about 1580. The still older Maya dictionary of Father Villalpando, printed in Mexico in 1571, is yet in existence in one or two copies, but I have never seen it.
[236]. Read before the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, at its twenty-fourth annual meeting, January 5th, 1882, and published in The Penn Monthly.
[237]. Of the numerous authorities which could be quoted on this point, I shall give the words of but one, Father Alonso Ponce, the Pope’s Commissary-General, who traveled through Yucatan in 1586, when many natives were still living who had been born before the Conquest (1541). Father Ponce had traveled through Mexico, and, of course, had learned about the Aztec picture writing, which he distinctly contrasts with the writing of the Mayas. Of the latter, he says: “Son alabados de tres cosas entre todos los demas de la Nueva España, la una de que en su antiguedad tenian caracteres y letras, con que escribian sus historias y las ceremonias y orden de los sacrificios de sus idolos y su calendario, en libros hechos de corteza de cierto arbol, los cuales eran unas tiras muy largas de quarta ó tercia en ancho, que se doblaban y recogian, y venia á queder á manera de un libro encuardenado en cuartilla, poco mas ó menos. Estas letras y caracteres no las entendian, sino los sacerdotes de los idolos. (que en aquella lengua se llaman ‘ahkines,’) y algun indio principal. Despues las entendieron y supieron léer algunos frailes nuestros y aun las escribien.”—(“Relacion Breve y Verdadera de Algunas Cosas de las Muchas que Sucedieron al Padre Fray Alonso Ponce, Comisario-General en las Provincias de la Nueva España,” page 392). I know no other author who makes the interesting statement that these characters were actually used by the missionaries to impart instruction to the natives; but I have heard that an example of one such manuscript has been discovered, and is now in the hands of a well-known Americanist.
[238]. “Se les quemamos todos,” he writes, “lo qual á maravilla sentian y les dava pena.”—“Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan,” page 316.
[239]. Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, page 160.
[240]. See above, pp. [128] and [172]. The terminal letter in both these words—“chilan,” “balam,”—may be either “n” or “m,” the change being one of dialect and local pronunciation. I have followed the older authorities in writing “Chilan Balam,” the modern preferring “Chilam Balam.” Señor Eligio Ancona, in his recently published Historia de Yucatan, (Vol. i., page 240, note, Merida, 1878), offers the absurd suggestion that the name “balam” was given to the native soothsayers by the early missionaries in ridicule, deriving it from the well-known personage in the Old Testament. It is surprising that Señor Ancona, writing in Merida, had never acquainted himself with the Perez manuscripts, nor with those in possession of Bishop Carrillo. Indeed, the most of his treatment of the ancient history of his country is disappointingly superficial.