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 MAYAS alphabet and a literature, cultivating the soil, manufacturing, having sailing vessels, carrying on trade, using a medium of exchange, and erecting temples and other edifices of stone, which, from their size and profuse ornamenta- tion in carved and colored figures and bassi rilievi, are, even in their ruined state (at Pa- lenque, Uxmal, Chichen Itza, &c.), the most remarkable architectural relics in the western hemisphere. Orozco y Berra, Morelet, and oth- er travellers and archaeologists, contend that the Toltecs alone could have been the builders of these edifices and cities ; and Morelet strongly maintains this theory, which he bases upon the " indisputable analogy existing between these MAYENKE 299 a a a b b c k 1 m n o o p pp ma Maya Alphabet. ruins and the ancient monuments of Tula and Mitla, and the geographical position of the former, which spread over the line of Toltec emigration." Be this as it may, it is certain that the Maya language bears no relation to the Toltec, but is the principal branch of the Huaxteco-Maya-Quiche" family. Possibly the language of the immigrants from the "West Indies prevailed to the exclusion of the Toltec, as the Maya has successfully resisted the influ- ence of the Spanish tongue since the conquest. The Maya writing was of two kinds, one repre- senting the letters of the alphabet, which lacks the Spanish d, /, g, q, r, and, the other ex- pressing syllables by characters. Landa gives the first alphabet, some samples of the second, and the signs of the months, with their system of numerals, with the help of which scholars have been enabled to decipher some of the ancient Maya manuscripts still preserved in Europe, as the Troano, Dresden manuscript, &c. They are written on long strips of prepared inner bark, folded in book form, the lines reading from right to left or from bottom to top. The Maya abounds in monosyllables, elisions, and syn- copes ; different meanings are given to the same word by tones. The plural is generally formed by adding ob, comparison by il. The first grammars were drawn up by Villalpando and Landa; an Arte del idioma Maya, by Gabriel de San Buenaventura, was printed at Mexico in 1560, and others followed. That of Pedro Beltran de Santa Rosa Maria (Mexico, 1746) contained the first dictionary. In recent times many works upon the Maya have been issued by the abbe 1 Brasseur de Bourbourg, including Oramdtica de la lengua Quiche, drawn chiefly from the Tesoro de las lenguas Quiche, Calcchi- quel y Tzutuhil of Francisco Ximenez (Paris, 1862), and Dictionnaire, grammaire et clires- tomathie de la langue Maya, precedes d'une etude eur le systeme graphique des indigenes du Yucutan (Mexique) (Paris, 1872). His the- ories are not as readily accepted as the histor- ical material he presents. A Maya dictionary by Dr. .Behrend is now in press (1875). The Mayas flattened the head of their infants, paint- ed the face and body, and tattooed their persons; the women filed their teeth, and wore pieces of amber in the cartilage of the nose; both sexes wore ear rings. They bathed frequent- ly for religious purposes, and always washed their hands and mouth after eating ; but they used a drink like mead, rendered intoxicating by the infusion of a root, and both sexes drank to excess. They had drums and wind instru- ments, and though some of their dances were obscene, the women were chaste and modest. As money they used shells, pieces of copper, or cacao beans. Their religion, as administered by the cheles or priests, was a terrible system, the victims being slain with arrows, or cut open and flayed after the heart was extracted. Oth- ers were thrown down the sacred pit of Chi- chen Itza. In war they used arrows tipped with obsidian or teeth of fish, flint-headed spears, and copper hatchets. They had bucklers and defensive armor made of quilted cotton with salt inside. Their year was of 18 months, each with 20 days, and 5 days 6 hours over. They had a bissextile year. MAY BFG. See COCKCHAFER. MAYENCE. See MENTZ. MAYENNE, a N. W. department of France, formed from the old province of Maine, bor- dering on La Manche, Orne, Sarthe, Maine- et-Loire, and Ille-et-Vilaine ; area, 1,996 sq. m. ; pop. in 1872, 350,637. The surface is rug- ged and diversified. Iron, coal, and slate are