of any found on the American continent. Copan, Uxmal and
Palenque are names which at once evoke the most earnest interest in the
mind of every one who has ever been attracted to the subject of the
archaeology of the New World. This race, moreover, possessed an abundant
literature, preserved in written books, in characters which were in some
degree phonetic. Enough of these remain to whet, though not to satisfy,
the curiosity of the student.

The total number of Indians of pure blood speaking the Maya proper may
be estimated as nearly or quite 200,000, most of them in the political
limits of the department of Yucatan; to these should be added nearly
100,000 of mixed blood, or of European descent, who use the tongue in
daily life.[19-1] For it forms one of the rare examples of American
languages possessing vitality enough not only to maintain its own
ground, but actually to force itself on European settlers and supplant
their native speech. It is no uncommon occurrence in Yucatan, says Dr.
Berendt, to find whole families of pure white blood who do not know one
word of Spanish, using the Maya exclusively. It has even intruded on
literature, and one finds it interlarded in books published in Merida,
very much as lady novelists drop into French in their imaginative
effusions.[20-1]

The number speaking the different dialects of the stock are roughly
estimated at half a million, which is probably below the mark.

Sec. 3. _Origin of the Maya Tribes._

The Mayas did not claim to be autochthones. Their legends referred to
their arrival by the sea from the East, in remote times, under the
leadership of Itzamna, their hero-god, and also to a less numerous,
immigration from the west, from Mexico, which was connected with the
history of another hero-god, Kukul Can.

The first of these appears to be wholly mythical, and but a repetition
of the story found among so many American tribes, that their ancestors
came from the distant Orient. I have elsewhere explained this to be but
a solar or light myth.[20-2]

The second tradition deserves more attention from the historian, as it
is supported by some of their chronicles and by the testimony of several
of the most intelligent natives of the period of the conquest, which I
present on a later page of this volume.

It cannot be denied that the Mayas, the Kiches and the Cakchiquels, in
their most venerable traditions, claimed to have migrated from the north
or west, from some part o