refer, has been issued by the much esteemed Nestor of Maya investigations,
Herr Geheimrath Dr. Foerstemann. My attention has also been drawn by the
best versed of American students of the Maya Codices, Mr. Charles P.
Bowditch, to the fact that Mr. Maudslay now recognizes the general
recurrence of an eighth sign in combination with the septenary group,
causing this to consist of an initial glyph, followed by seven instead of
six signs. Referring the reader to pp. 221 and 222, I point out that the
employment of an initial glyph, representing the synopsis of a whole,
followed by seven signs, appears even more strongly to corroborate my view
that the inhabitants of Copan were acquainted with the septenary, cosmical
division I have traced.

My fellow archaeologists will understand the disadvantage of issuing an
investigation partly written a few years previously, and will realize
that, had I, at the outset, been in possession of all the facts I have
since learned, the present work would have been very differently planned
and executed. On the other hand, as it partakes somewhat of the nature of
a log-book, the reader is able to follow closely my blundering course, and
will recognize and appreciate some of its perils and difficulties. It
being, unfortunately, impossible to re-write the book. I shall have to be
resigned to incur some criticism and blame for omissions, which could have
been averted. I shall, however, be content if my prolonged study of
ancient Mexican archaeology and the present research open out new lines of
investigation, and conclusively prove that primitive cross-symbols and the
swastika are universally accompanied by vestiges of a certain set of
cosmical conceptions and schemes of organization, which can be traced back
to an original pole-star worship. I can but think that the material I have
collected will also lead to a recognition that the role of the Phoenicians,
as intermediaries of ancient civilization, was greater than has been
supposed, and that it is imperative that future research be devoted to a
fresh study and examination of those indications which appear to show that
America must have been intermittently colonized by the intermediation of
Mediterranean seafarers.

To me the most interesting result of the present investigation is the fact
that, having once started on an unpremeditated course of study, I found an
unsuspected wealth of material and finally attained one main, totally
undreamed-of c