Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/126

 three, or four compartments, as paragraphs. Some of the pages are illustrated by colored sketches, others are composed entirely of text. The titlepage occupies the place of the last page in our books; the seventieth plate being what we call the first page. The text is written sometimes in horizontal lines, sometimes in vertical columns; these columns commencing at the top or bottom, according to the fancy of the writer; the Mayas in this, as in many other things, resembling the Egyptians. The page must be read from right to left; if the sentences are all in vertical columns, the column on the right must be read first.

In the Troano Manuscript the direction of all sentences is indicated by a faint red line beneath, or, if in columns, at their side. These lines seem to have been entirely overlooked by the few scholars who have hitherto attempted the task of translating the book; the result may be better imagined than described.

Dr. Le Plongeon has translated part of the Manuscript. He finds that it is a work on geology and ethnology, containing also an account of some principal events in the early history of the Maya nation. For example, part of the history of the Can family, is recorded in the second part,