Tayasal. Since the conquest, Tayasal has been a mere
Spanish provincial village with nothing to distinguish it from scores
of others. In the first half of the nineteenth century serious
insurrections took place in the region. At about the same period the
name Tayasal was taken away and Flores was substituted, in honor of one
Cyrilo Flores, a local patriot. It is a pity that the old, unusual, and
euphonious name was not kept. At present Flores (Pl. III) is the
capital of the Department of Peten, Guatemala.

APPENDIX I

THE QUESTION OF ORTHOGRAPHY

Possibly the reader has noted in these pages a tendency toward
inconsistency in the matter of spelling proper names. I do not deny
that I have failed to avoid such inconsistency, but at the outset,
after due thought on the matter, I decided that it is most difficult to
try and lay down any hard and fast rule for the spelling of the proper
names used in this book. In many cases it is utterly impossible to say
"This is the correct spelling of this name." To show just the nature of
the sort of orthographical variations encountered in this work I give
here most of the variants of the name Itza.

Itza usual modern form
Itzae Maler, 1910, p. 168
Itzaob Brasseur de Bourbourg, 1858, vol. ii, p. 13
Itzaex Villagutierre
Ytza Cogolludo and Avendano
Ytzaex Cogolludo and Avendano
Ytzalana Cogolludo and Avendano
Yiza On some church bells at Los Dolores (Morley)
Ahiza Cano
Ahizaes Cano
Taiza Cortes, Lizana, 1893, p. 120
Taitza Brinton, 1882, p. 25
Tayca Gomara, 1826, vol. ii, p. 138 ff.
Ahitzaes Jose Sanches de Leon, p. 146
Ayasal Garcia de Palacio (Gates-Bowditch photographed MS.)
Ayajal Garcia de Palacio, 1860 (Squier), p. 96
Yzues Ottens Atlas, 1740; Sanson d'Abbeville, 1656
Tavasal M. Bonne M. de Mathem, 1771
Tayasal Maler; Bellin, 1764; Charnay, etc.
Iguastal Abbe Mongez, 1779
Laguastal Popples' map, about 1740

Many of the other proper names have variations just as confusing as
these.

APPENDIX II

THE DIALECT OF PETEN

This Appendix it a translation of a MS. written by Dr. Berendt at
Sacluk in 1866-1867. The original is i