interpretation of manuscripts and inscriptions, did we not meet with very serious obstacles in other directions.

One of these is the resolution of the groups referred to by Landa as las partes juntas. In these the rounded "Calculiform" letters are arranged in quadrilateral masses, each representing a phrase, name, or title. We may seek the origin of this arrangement in what philologists call the incorporative, or "polysynthetic" character of the Maya in common with all other American tongues, which tends to the expression of an idea with all its modifications, in one intricate grammatical synthesis. These groups must first be separated in their component parts, and then arranged in proper order. Some of them read from right to left, and alternately from top to bottom and bottom to top; or, to illustrate by a diagram, as if we were to write the word marvelous, thus:—

O    L    M
U    E    A
S    V    R

But the artist had no hesitation in changing this arrangement, if another would allow him to compose a neater group. Especially is this the case on the sculptures, where the love of ornamentations constantly obscures the design and renders the letters almost unrecognisable, precisely as the fashion is at the present day to adorn the walls of our churche with inscriptions in ornamental and Gothic characters, hardly legible to unpracticed eyes.

There is also an obstacle in the very limited number of manuscripts in this character which have been preserved. Of the vast number found among the natives at the conquest, only three or four are known to be in existence. One of these is the "Dresden Manuscript," another the "Manuscript Troano," the third the "Manuscrit Mexican, No. 2," of the Bibliothéque Impériale; and perhaps the "Pesth Manuscript" is in the same shrift. Of these the Dresden Manuscript may be seen in the large collection of Lord Kingsborough on Mexican Antiquities, and the Manuscript Troano was published in fac simile by the French government under the editorship of M. Brasseur de Bourbourg. (Mission Scentifique au Mexique et a l'Amérique Centrale, Linguistique. Paris, 1869. Imprimeire Imperiale.) There is, however, material almost inexhaustible in the inscriptions preserved upon the stone temples, altars, and pillars of Yucatan, which we may with great confidence look to see deciphered before many years.

The only serious difficulty which is at present in the way is our want of knowledge of the ancient Maya language. All the published grammars and vocabularies are extremely deficient and incomplete, and quite inadequate to serve us in interpreting the inscriptions. But even this alarming obstacle is only temporary. There exists in manuscript a most complete and carefully composed dictionary of the Maya, written about 1650, two copies of which are in this country, one in the hands of the Smithsonian Institution, and which we earnestly hope will shortly be published under the efficient superintendence of Dr. Hermann Berendt, the most accomplished Maya scholar living. With it in hand, the deciphering of the inscriptions of Palenque, Uxmal, Itza, and the other ruined cities of Yucatan, and of the manuscripts already mentioned, will become certainly a less serious task than that of translating the cuneiform inscriptions of Ninevah.

Even without other aids than the limited vocabularies already published, some antiquarians have boldly set to work on the Yucatecan writings. Most conspicuous of them is M. Brasseur de Bourbourg, who first published Diego de Landa's work containing the alphabet. (Relation des choses de Yucatan de Diego de Landa. Texte espagnol et traduction francaise en regard, comprenant les signes du calendrier, et de l'Alphabet hiéroglyphique de la langue Maya. Paris, 1864.

His recent edition of the Manuscript Troano is