hieved up to that time (1895) by students in this
branch. It endeavored, moreover, to render to each student the credit of
his independent work; and as, unfortunately, some, notably in Germany,
had put forward as their own what belonged to others of earlier date,
the book naturally was not very well treated by such reviewers. Its aim,
however, to present a concise and fair statement of what had been
accomplished in its field up to the date of its publication was
generally conceded to have been attained.

Much of the considerable manuscript material which I have accumulated on
the languages of this section of the continent was obtained from the
collections of the late Dr. Carl Hermann Berendt and the Abbe E. C.
Brasseur (de Bourbourg).

When in Spain, in 1888, I found in the Royal Library the MS. of the
earlier portion of Sahagun's "History of New Spain" in Nahuatl. I
described it in (42).

The term "Anahuac" has long been applied to the territory of Mexico. Dr.
E. Seler, of Berlin, published an article asserting that this was an
error, and devoid of native authority. In (43) I pointed out that in
this he was wrong, as early Nahuatl records use it in this sense.

The Alaguilac language of Guatemala, long a puzzle to linguistics, is
shown in (44) to be an isolated dialect of the Nahuatl.

Nos. (45), (46), (47), (49) and (54), have been already mentioned.

The term _Chilan balam_, which may be freely rendered "the inspired
speaker," was the title of certain priests of the native Mayas. Many
records in the Maya tongue, written after the conquests, go by the name
of "the Books of Chilan Balam." They have never been published, but
copies of them, made by Dr. Berendt, are in my possession. Their purpose
and contents were described in (50).

There are reasons for believing that previous to the arrival of the
Cakchiquels in Guatemala its area was largely peopled by Xincas. Of this
little-known stock I present in (58) three extended vocabularies, from
unpublished sources, with comments on the "culture-words."

Some apparent but no decisive affinities between the Otomi of Mexico
and the Tinne or Athapascan dialects are shown in (55); and in (59) the
ancient Guetares of Costa Rica are proved, on linguistic evidence, to
have been members of the Talamancan linguistic stock.

The Matagalpan is an interesting family, first defined in _The American
Race_, and in (60) more fully discussed, as they survive in San
Salvador.

In