tongue with the Spanish alphabet volumes whose contents are very similar to those described by Landa (above, page xxvi).
A number of these are still in existence and offer an interesting field for antiquarian and linguistic study. Although, as I say, they are no longer in the Maya letters, they contain quite a number of ideograms, as the signs of the days and the months, and occasional cartouches and paintings, which show that they were made to resemble the ancient manuscripts as closely as possible.
They also contain not infrequent references to the "writing" of the ancients, and what are alleged to be extracts from the old records, chiefly of a mystic character. The same terms are employed in speaking of the ancient graphic system as of the present one. Thus in one of them, known as "The Book of Chilan Balam of Chumayel," occurs this phrase: Bay dzibanil tumenel Evangelistas yetel profeta Balam—"as it was written by the Evangelists, and also by the prophet Balam," this Balam being one of their own celebrated ancient seers.
Among the predictions preserved from a time anterior to the Conquest, there are occasional references to their books and their contents. I quote, as an example, a short prophecy attributed to Ahkul Chel, "priest of the idols." It is found in several of the oldest Maya manuscripts, and is in all probability authentic, as it contains nothing which would lead us to suppose that it was one of the "pious frauds" of the missi|pl.5onaries.
"Enhi ɔibte katune ytime, maixtan à naaté;
Ualac u talel, mac bin ca ɔabac tu coɔ pop;
Katune yume bin uluc, holom uil tucal ya;
Tali ti xaman, tali ti chikine; ahkinob uil yane yume;
Mac to ahkin, mac to ahbobat, bin alic u than uoohe,
Ychil Bolon Ahau, maixtan à naaté?"
"The lord of the cycle has been written down, but ye will not understand;
He has come, who will give the enrolling of the years;
The lord of the cycle will arrive, he will come on account of his love;
