Landa says that "the sciences which they taught were—to read and write with their books and characters with which they wrote, and with the figures which signified (explained, or took the place of?) writings. They wrote their books on a large leaf, doubled in folds, and inclosed between two boards which they made very fine (decorated); and they wrote on both sides in columns, according to the folds; the paper they made of the roots of a tree, and gave it a white varnish on which one could write well; these sciences were known by certain men of high rank (only), who were therefore more esteemed although they did not use the art in public." "These people also used certain characters or letters with which they wrote in their books their antiquities and their sciences; and by means of these and of figures and of certain signs in their figures they understood their things, and made them understood, and taught them. We found among them a great number of books of these letters of theirs, and because they had nothing in which there were not superstitions and falsities of the devil, we burned them all, at which they were exceedingly sorrowful and troubled."[1108] According to Cogolludo, "in the time of their infidelity the Indians of Yucatan had books, made of the bark of trees, with a white and durable varnish, ten or twelve yards long, which by folding were reduced to a span. In these they painted with colors the account of their years, wars, floods, hurricanes, famines, and other events." "The son of the only god, of whose existence, as I have said, they were aware, and whom they called Ytzamná, was the man, as I believe, who first invented the characters which served the Indians as letters, because they called the latter also Ytzamná."[1109] The Itzas, as Villagutierre tells us, had "characters and figures painted on the bark of trees, each leaf, or tablet, being about a span long, as thick as a real de à ocho (a coin), folded both ways like a screen, which they called analtees."[1110] Mendieta states that the Mexicans had no letters, "although in the land of Champoton it is said that such were found, and that they understood each other by means of them, as we do by means of ours."[1111] Acosta says that in Yucatan "there were books of leaves, bound or folded after their manner, in which the learned Indians had their division of their time, knowledge of plants and animals and other natural objects, and their antiquities; a thing of great curiosity and diligence."[1112] The Maya priests "were occupied in teaching their sciences and in writing books upon them."[1113] In Guatemala, according to Benzoni, "the thing of all others at which the Indians have been most surprised has been our reading and writing.... Nor could they imagine among themselves in what way white paper painted with black, could speak."[1114] Peter Martyr gives quite a long description of the native wood-bound books, which he does not refer particularly to Yucatan, although Brasseur, apparently with much reason, believes they were the Maya analtés rather than the regular Aztec picture writings. The description is as follows in the quaint English of the translator. "They make not their books square leafe by leafe, but extend the matter and substance thereof into many cubites. They reduce them into square peeces, not loose, but with binding, and flexible Bitumen so conioyned, that being compact of wooden table bookes, they may seeme to haue passed the hands of some curious workman that ioyned them together. Which way soeuer the book bee opened, two written sides offer themselues to the view, two pages appeare and as many lye vnder, vnlesse you stretch them in length: for there are many leaues ioyned together vnder one leafe. The Characters are very vnlike ours, written after our manner, lyne after lyne, with characters like small dice, fishookes, snares, files, starres, & other such like formes and shapes. Wherein they immitate almost the Egyptian manner of writing, and betweene the lines they paint the shapes of men, & beasts, especially of their kings & nobles.... They make the former wooden table bookes also with art to content and delight the beholder. Being shut, they seeme to differ nothing from our bookes, in these they set downe in writing the rites, and the customes of their laws, sacrifices, ceremonies, their computations, etc."[1115]
MAYA HIEROGLYPHIC SYSTEM.
Respecting hieroglyphic records in Chiapas and Guatemala, we have the statement of Ordoñez that "Votan wrote a work upon the origin of the Indians," and that he, Ordoñez, had a copy of the book in his possession; a complaint in the Quiché annals known as the Popol Vuh, that the 'national book' containing the ancient records of their people had been lost; and finally the reported discovery and destruction in Soconusco of archives on stone by Nuñez de la Vega in 1691. All this amounts to little save as indicating the ancient use of hieroglyphics by the followers of Votan, a fact sufficiently proven, as we shall see, by the engraved tablets of Palenque and Copan.[1116] The Nicaraguans at the time of the conquest had records painted in colors upon skin and paper, undoubtedly identical in their figures with those of the Nahuas, to whom the civilized people of Nicaragua were nearly related in blood and language. No specimens of these southern hieroglyphics have, however, been preserved. Oviedo and Herrera slightly describe the paintings and later writers have followed them.[1117]
MAYA MANUSCRIPTS.
Of the aboriginal Maya manuscripts three specimens only, so far as I know, have been preserved. These are the Mexican Manuscript, No. 2, of the Imperial Library at Paris; the Dresden Codex; and the Manuscript Troano. Concerning the first we only know of its existence and the similarity of its characters to those of the other two and of the sculptured tablets. The document was photographed in 1864 by order of the French government, but I am not aware that the photographs have ever been given to the public. The Dresden Codex is preserved in the Royal Library of Dresden. A complete copy was published in Lord Kingsborough's collection of Mexican antiquities, and fragments were also reproduced by Humboldt. It was purchased in Vienna by the librarian Götz in 1739, but beyond this nothing whatever is known of its history and origin. It was published by Kingsborough as an Aztec picture-writing, although its characters present little if any resemblance to those of its companion documents in the collection. Its form was also different from all the rest, since it is written on both sides of five leaves of maguey-paper. At the time of its publication, however, the existence of any but Aztec hieroglyphics in America was unknown. Mr Stephens in his antiquarian exploration of Central America, at once noticed the similarity of its figures to those of the sculptured hieroglyphics found there, but he used this similarity to prove the identity of the northern and southern nations, since it did not occur to him that the Aztec origin of the Dresden document was a mere supposition. Mr Brantz Mayer, fully aware of the differences between this and other reputed Mexican picture-writings, went so far as to pronounce it the only genuine Aztec document that he had seen. There can be no reasonable doubt, however, at this day, that the Maya and Nahua (or Maya and Aztec, since some authors will not agree with my use of the term Nahua) hieroglyphic systems were practically distinct, although it would be hardly wise to decide that they are absolutely without affinities in some of their details. The accompanying cut from Stephens' work shows a small fragment of the Dresden Codex.[1118]
Fragment of the Dresden Codex.
THE MANUSCRIPT TROANO.
The Manuscript Troano was found about the year 1865 in Madrid by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, and was reproduced in fac-simile by a chromo-lithographic process by the Commission Scientifique du Mexique, under the auspices of the French Government. Its name comes from that of its possessor in Madrid, Sr Tro y Ortolano, and nothing whatever is known of its origin; two or three other old American manuscripts are reported to have been brought to light in Spain since the publication of this. The original is written on a strip of maguey-paper about fourteen feet long and nine inches wide, the surface of which is covered with a whitish varnish, on which the figures are painted in black, red, blue, and brown. It is folded fan-like into thirty-five folds, presenting when shut much the appearance of a modern large octavo volume. The hieroglyphics cover both sides of the paper, and the writing is consequently divided into seventy pages, each about five by nine inches, having been apparently executed after the paper was folded, so that the folding does not interfere with the written matter. One of the pages as a specimen is shown in the following plate, an exact copy, save in size and color, of the original.
The regular lines of written characters are uniformly in black, while the pictorial portions, or what may perhaps be considered representative signs, are in red and brown, chiefly the former, and the blue appears for the most part as a background in some of the pages. A few of the pages are slightly damaged, and all the imperfections are, as it is claimed, faithfully reproduced in the published copy, which with the editor's comments fills two quarto volumes in the series published by the Commission mentioned.[1119]