In order to make more widely known and more easily accessible to American students the results of important researches on the Maya hieroglyphs, printed in the German language, the Peabody Museum Committee on Central American Research proposes to publish translations of certain papers which are not too lengthy or too extensively illustrated. The present paper by one of the most distinguished scholars in this field is the first of the series. F. W. Putnam. Harvard University September, 1904....

Since the first edition of this pamphlet appeared in the year 1897, investigation in this department of science has made such marked progress, notwithstanding the slight amount of material, that a revision has now become desirable. It can be readily understood, that a new science, an investigation on virgin soil, such as the Maya study is, makes more rapid progress and develops more quickly than one pertaining to some old, much explored territory. In addition to numerous separate treatises, spec

The three manuscripts which we possess of the ancient Maya peoples of Central America, the Dresden (Dr.), the Madrid (Tro.-Cort.) and the Paris (Per.) manuscripts, all contain a series of pictorial representations of human figures, which, beyond question, should be regarded as figures of gods. Together with these are a number of animal figures, some with human bodies, dress and armor, which likewise have a mythologic significance. The contents of the three manuscripts, which undoubtedly pertain

A. The Death-God. God A is represented as a figure with an exposed, bony spine, truncated nose and grinning teeth. 10-1 It is plainly to be seen that the head of this god represents a skull and that the spine is that of a skeleton. The pictures of the death-god are so characteristic in the Maya manuscripts that the deity is always easily recognized. He is almost always distinguished by the skeleton face and the bony spine. Several times in the Dresden manuscript the death-god is pictured with la

1. THE MOAN BIRD. This bird 41-1 belongs to the death-god as his symbol and attendant. Its hieroglyph ( Fig. 56 ) contains the numeral 13; other forms are Figs. 57-59 . It is pictured in Dr. 7 c , 10 a , 11 a , 16 c , 18 b , and its hieroglyph without the picture is seen in Dr. 8 b . A realistic representation of the whole figure of the moan as a bird, occurs on the head of the woman in 16 c (1st figure) and 18 b . God B sits on the head of the moan in Dr. 38 c ; the third hieroglyph of the acco

An enumeration of the most important deities in the manuscripts gives the following results, in connection with which it is to be noted that, of course, the numbers cannot be absolutely correct, because one or another of the pictures occasionally remains doubtful. As far as possible, however, only the positively determined representations have been considered. The deity occurring most frequently in the Dresden manuscript is god B, who is pictured there 141 times. Following him in point of number