The priesthood included within its ranks women as well as men. The duties were highly specialized and there were many different ranks and grades in the hierarchy. The _chilan_ was one of the most important. This priest was carried upon the shoulders of the people when he appeared in public. He taught their sciences, appointed the holy days, healed the sick, offered sacrifices, and most important of all, gave the responses of the gods to petitioners. The _ahuai chac_ was a priest who brought the rains on which the prosperity of the country was wholly dependent. The _ah macik_ conjured the winds; the _ahpul_ caused sickness and induced sleep; the _ahuai xibalba_ communed with the dead. At the bottom of the ladder seems to have stood the _nacon_, whose duty it was to open the breasts of the sacrificed victims. An important elective office in each community was that held by the _chac_, or priest's assistant. These officials, of which there {21} were four, were elected from the _nucteelob_, or village wise men. They served for a term of one year and could never be reelected. They aided the priest in the various ceremonies of the year, officiating in minor capacities. Their duties seem to have been not unlike those of the sacristan in the Roman Catholic Church of to-day. In closing this introduction nothing could be more appropriate than to call attention once more to the supreme importance of religion in the life of the ancient Maya. Religion was indeed the very fountain-head of their civilization, and on its rites and observances they lavished a devotion rarely equaled in the annals of man. To its great uplifting force was due the conception and evolution of the hieroglyphic writing and calendar, alike the invention and the exclusive property of the priesthood. To its need for sanctuary may be attributed the origin of Maya architecture; to its desire for expression, the rise of Maya sculpture. All activities reflected its powerful influence and all were more or less dominated by its needs and teachings. In short, religion was the foundation upon which the structure of the Maya civilization was reared. {22} CHAPTER II. THE MAYA HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING The inscriptions herein described are found throughout the region formerly occupied by the Maya people (pl. 1), though by far the greater number have been discovered at the southern, or older, sites. This is due in part, at least, to the minor role played by sculpture as an independent art among the northern Maya, for in the north architecture gradually absorbed in its decoration the sculptural activity of the people which in the south had been applied in the making of the hieroglyphic monuments. [Illustration: FIG. 9. Outlines of the glyphs: _a_, _b_, In the codices; _c_, in the inscriptions.]