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ally and faithfully as lie could into the Spanish language, otherwise his text would have been more fluent and finished. The abruptness of expression, and the frequent ellipses in the construction of its sentences, show that the Maya idiom has been faithfully rendered. Such a course increases the interest, and at the same time it creates confidence in the correctness of the translation. Dr. Berendt, the profound scholar of the Maya language, wrote us as follows on March 14, 1873: "I have several times undertaken to translate this manuscript myself, but have always given up the task. The manifold doubts which the original text leaves open seem to me correctly solved by Señor Perez, and it always appeared to me that I might indeed make another but not a better translation. The small changes in the text of Stephens, of which you speak, I do not believe were introduced merely from a love of his own expressions. I believe that he first came to an understanding with Perez, and sought only to assist the better comprehension of the manuscript for the benefit of the public at large,"
It is to be hoped that the differences of translation of the manuscript spoken of above, and to which Señor Eligio Ancona[1] draws attention, will be critically investigated and finally decided by the coming generation of scholars in Yucatan. The sons of the country should be the born judges of the language and the spirit of the literary relics of the indigenous race. Recent investigations have shown that this language was split into sixteen dialects, which were spoken by as many tribes, whose territories extended far beyond the present area of the Yucatecan peninsula.[2] Like all languages, these Maya idioms have undergone changes during the last three or four centuries. To understand and
