rnamented capital letters from the small? Their deciphering may
give a little more trouble.

The Mayas, besides using their alphabet, employed at the same time
a kind of pictorial writing, something not unlike our _rebus_. They
also would record domestic and public life-customs, religious
worship and ceremonies, funeral rites, court receptions, battles,
etc., etc., just as we do in our paintings and engravings,
portraying them with superior art and perfect knowledge of drawing
and colors, which also had their accepted and acknowledged meaning.
These we have already partly deciphered, and now understand.

I have said it was my firm conviction that among the inhabitants of
Peten--nay, perchance, also, of Chan-Santa-Cruz--some one may be
found who is still possessed of the knowledge of reading the
ancient _Pic-huun_. But the Indians are anything but communicative,
and they are at all times unwilling to reveal to the white men
whatever may have been imparted to them by their fathers. To keep
these things a secret they consider a sacred duty. They even refuse
to make known the medicinal properties of certain plants, while
they are willing, provided they feel a liking for you, or are asked
by a person whom they respect or love, to apply these plants,
prepared by them, to heal the bite of a rattlesnake, tarantula, or
any of the many venomous animals that abound in their forests.

During the many years that I have been among the Indians of all
parts of America,--now with the civilized, now amidst those that
inhabit the woods far away from the commerce of people,--strange to
say, reciprocal sympathy and good feeling have always existed
between us; they have invariably ceased to consider me a stranger.
This singular attractive feeling has often caused them to open
their hearts; and to it I owe the knowledge of many curious facts
and traditions that otherwise I should never have known. This
unknown power did not fail me in Espita, a pretty little town in
the eastern part of Yucatan, where I received from a very old
Indian not only the intelligence that forty years ago men still
existed who could read the ancient Maya writing, but also a clue to
decipher the inscriptions on the buildings.

Conversing with some friends in Espita about the ancient remains to