Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/436

* MEXICAN ARCHEOLOGY. 400 MEXICAN LITERATURE. degree of cuUiire at the tiiiio uf the Spanish Conquest that led to the recordinj; of events, not only on stone bas-reliefs and seiilptures, but on material of a more perishable nature. These codices were on strips of deerskin, the surface of which wa's covered with a thin coating of stucco. They were folded screen-fashion, and the paintings were on both sides. The Mexicans had furthermore invented a kind of paper. In Mexico proper, in addition to bark-paper, a paper was made from the leaves of the maguey jilant. Agave Americana ; this paper they also sized with a coating of lime. One of the things which impressed Corti-s, when he first came in contact with the mes- sengers sent out by ^Montezuma, was that some of them were busily employed in making paint- ings of the ."Spaniards: their costumes, arms, and dill'erent objects of interest, giving to each its appropriate color. These were to convey to .Montezuma an idea of the conquerors in picture writing, and is the first notice we have of its existence in ancient America. In symbolic and picture writing the Mayas approached very close- ly to phoneticism, and recent progress has been made in an interpretation of the codices of the Xahua and Jlixtec group, as well- as signal suc- cess in the decipherment of the hieroglyphics of the Mayas, preserved in codices, tablets, and stcUe. Of the latter class of inscriptions certain dates and methods of counting have been worked out, and in some instances about 40 jier cent, of the inscriptions have been successfully deciphered. Besides the two known sj-stems of i)ietogra]ihie and hieroglyphic writing, explorations in Oaxaca have recently revealed a third and distinct form of inscription among the Zapotecs. The complex calendar system of the Taras- cos, Nahvias, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Totonaes, and Mayas is the same, and is a remarkable evidence of the high culture which they had attained, but the Mayas had more extended measures for the computation of time than the Xahuas. Recent investigation of the Maya calendar revealed vari- ous periods and elaborate computations and a knowledge of the movements of certain planets. The general scheme of the calendar proper was the division of the year into two unequal parts, three hundred and sixty days being the year, di- vided into eighteen months of twenty days each; at the end of the last month five days were added to roun<l out the true solar year: and each of the twenty-day periods had its own name and symbol, blit the days were not numbered from one to twenty, but from one to thirteen. By this 7nethod of nvuneration the day bearing the same name and number did not recur initil the thirteen months had elapsed; this made a pe- riod of two hundred and sixty days, which, among the .Vztees, was called Tonalamall ; it was a year within a year, and was used for divina- tory or religious purposes. There were. also, many other intricacies in the Mexican calendar, some of which have not yet Iioen explaineil. In studying Mexican artifacts, we are some- what handicapped by the immense number of clever frauds which have been made during re- cent years, and which have found their way into all collections and nniseums. We are just be- ginning to study in a systematic way the areha-- olipgy of this region, and further resenreh will unquestionably prove that the early aeenunls of the Mexican civilization, handed down to u-^ in the writings of the eye-witnesses of the Spanish Conquest, and the histories of the early mis- sionaries, as Sahagun, Duran, De Landa, and others. were not very greatly exaggerated. MEXICAN HAIRLESS DOG. See II.ib- LESS Dog. MEXICAN JUMPING BEAN. See Jump- ing Bea.n. MEXICAN LITERATURE. Jlodern Mexi- co, despite the surprising advance of the past quarter-century, has been .so far outstripped in the material elements of civilization that the people of more progressive nations are apt to for- get the time when its capital was the intellectual and artistic centre of the New World. The in- tellectual life of Mexico, therefore, is not of mod- ern creation, but dates back to the third decade of the sixteenth century, whiih the early cuihjiiid- Uiduns marked by the introduction of the first printing press, to be followed shortly by the establishment of the first university upon the American continent. That neither of the.se establishments was a matter of mere formal enactment is shown by the creditable list of the writers of that century, who were connected as teachers or pupils with the early educational institutions, and whose works bear the imprint of the native Mexican press, whose list of extant works, printed before IGOO, embraces some llti titles. Any study of Mexican literature naturally be- gins with the few survivals of primitive picture writing. These hieroglyphs so far approached writing as to give clearly names, places, and the date of events — some of which are accurate — as far as the twelfth century, while more vague traditions extend several centuries further l)ack.
 * Most of these records belong to that al)original

branch of Xahua stock known as the Toltecs. but the famous Poitul-Viih. of Quiche origin, al.so mentions names and jilaces of Jlcxican legendary history. The meagre details of these records were supplemented, within a century after the Spanish Conquest, by so-called "histories.' written by educated natives from the above sources, aided by oral tradition. These works consist of songs, ordinances, memoirs of the native kings, and accounts of the Spanish conquerors. Without them it would now be impossible to read the few extant sources; and if some of the early Church fathers are to be blamed for their fanaticism in destroying hieroglyphs, others deserve equal credit for their care in preserving the remain- ing few, and in training natives who could still unravel their meaning. Jfost writers of the early colonial period were natives of the Old World, whom matters of Church or State called to the Xi'W. .iiiong those works of the sixteenth century which relate to early native history we may mention Motolinfa's Hisloria de los Viuliofi de la Mcrn Expniia ( l.)41 ) ; Sahagdn's Uinloria de Ins rosns nntiiliias de los Indios (l.iOni ; and Molina's Vorabiilario n.">.').'.). a Castilian-Mexican work of 240 pages, one of the products of .Tuan Pablo's first print- ing press. The work of these men was largely utilized by Torquemada in his Mn)inrqw<t In- difinn (irii.5). a work for which .lamrin bestows upon him the title 'the Livy of Xew Spain.' .bove the names of the adopted European chron- iclers stand those of Tezozomoe, son of the last Mexican Emperor, Cuitlahuae, whose Cr6nira