Fig. 4.—Tablet from Palenque.
BISHOP LANDA'S ALPHABET.
I have given on a preceding page in this chapter, the signs by which the natives of Yucatan expressed the names of their days and months, taken from the work of Bishop Landa. The same author has also preserved a Maya alphabet. On account of Landa's failure to appreciate the importance of the native hieroglyphics, or to comprehend the system, and also very likely on account of his copyist's carelessness—for the original manuscript of Landa's work has not been found—the passage relating to the alphabet is very vague, unsatisfactory, and perhaps fragmentary; but it is of the very highest importance, since the alphabet here given in connection with the calendar signs already spoken of, furnish apparently the only ground for a hope that the veil of mystery which hangs over the Maya inscriptions may one day be lifted. I therefore give Landa's description as nearly as possible in his own words, copying also the original Spanish in a note.
"Of their letters I give here (see alphabet on the next page) an A, B, C, since their heaviness (number and intricacy?) permits no more; because they use one character for all the aspirations of the letters, and another in the pointing of the parts (punctuation), and thus it goes on to infinity, as may be seen in the following example: lé means 'a snare' or to hunt with it; to write it with their characters, we having given them to understand (although we gave, etc.) that they are two letters, they wrote it with three, placing after the aspiration l the vowel e, which it has before it, and in this they do not err, although they make use, if they wish, of their curious method. Example:
e l e lé
Then at the end they attach the adjoined part. Ha which means 'water,' because the haché (sound of the letter h) has a, h, before it, they put it at the beginning with a, at the end in this manner:
