PREFACE
I am fully aware that this paper bears the marks of haste and gives evidence of the fact that a number of the more important points are not worked out as thoroughly and completely as they might have been had more time been devoted to them. But the growing interest in the public mind in reference to all that relates to the past history of our continent has induced me to present it in its present incomplete form rather than defer its publication to an indefinite period in the future. It is therefore offered to the public more as a tentative work than with the expectation that all my conclusions will stand the test of criticism.
I have endeavored, as will be seen by an examination of its contents, to confine my studies as strictly as possible to the Manuscript itself, without being influenced in my conclusions by the conclusions of others—using Landa's "Relacion," Perez's "Cronologia," Brasseur's works, and the Dresden Codex as my chief aids; not intending by any means to ignore the valuable work done by others in the same field, but that I might remain as free as possible to work out results in my own line of thought.
I may also add that at the time the main portion of the paper was written I was in the West, out of reach of any extensive library containing works relating to the history, antiquities, &, of Mexico and Central America. This fact I mention as an apology for the comparatively few works referred to in the paper.
I have studied the Manuscript somewhat in the same way the child undertakes to solve an illustrated rebus, assuming as a standpoint the status of the semi-civilized Indian, and endeavoring, as far as possible, to proceed upon the same plane of thought. In other words, I have not proceeded upon the assumption that the pre-Columbian Indians of Yucatan were learned phi-
