---- 1902-1908. Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur amerikanischen Sprach- und Alterthumskunde. 3 vols. Berlin. _See also_ BULLETIN 28. SPINDEN, H. J. 1913. A study of Maya art, its subject-matter and historical development. _Memoirs Peabody Mus._, VI, pp. 1-285, Cambridge. STEPHENS, J. L. 1841. Incidents of travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. 2 vols. New York. ---- 1843. Incidents of travel in Yucatan. 2 vols. New York. THOMAS, CYRUS. 1893. Are the Maya hieroglyphs phonetic? _Amer. Anthr._, VI, No. 3, pp. 241-270, Washington. VILLAGUTIERRE, SOTOMAYOR J. 1701. Historia de la conquista de la provinzia de el Itza, reduccion, y progressos de la de el Lacandon y otras naciones de el reyno de Guatimala, a las provincias de Yucatan, en la America septentrional. Madrid. * * * * * [Illustration: THE MAYA TERRITORY, SHOWING LOCATIONS OF PRINCIPAL CITIES] * * * * * {1} AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE MAYA HIEROGLYPHS BY SYLVANUS GRISWOLD MORLEY * * * * * CHAPTER I. THE MAYA HABITAT Broadly speaking, the Maya were a lowland people, inhabiting the Atlantic coast plains of southern Mexico and northern Central America. (See pl. 1.) The southern part of this region is abundantly watered by a network of streams, many of which have their rise in the Cordillera, while the northern part, comprising the peninsula of Yucatan, is entirely lacking in water courses and, were it not for natural wells (_cenotes_) here and there, would be uninhabitable. This condition in the north is due to the geologic formation of the peninsula, a vast plain underlaid by limestone through which water quickly percolates to subterranean channels. In the south the country is densely forested, though occasional savannas break the monotony of the tropical jungles. The rolling surface is traversed in places by ranges of hills, the most important of which are the Cockscomb Mountains of British Honduras; these attain an elevation of 3,700 feet. In Yucatan the nature of the soil and the water-supply not being favorable to the growth of a luxuriant vegetation, this region is covered with a smaller forest growth and a sparser bush than the area farther southward. The climate of the region occupied by the Maya is tropical; there are two seasons, the rainy and the dry. The former lasts from May or June until January or February, there being considerable local variation not only in the length of this season but also in the time of its beginning. Deer, tapirs, peccaries, jaguars, and game of many other kinds abound throughout the entire region, and doubtless formed a large part of the food supply in ancient times, though formerly corn was the staple, as it is now.