The strange title of these books is derived from that of the priests or shamans, who were believed to have divine powers. They date from 1595. The Maya books at present known are three, one in two parts, with these titles: 1. _Codex Tro_ or _Troano_, 70 pages, found by the Abbé Brasseur at Madrid; 2. _Codex Cortesianus_,[73] so named because of a belief that it was brought to Europe by Cortes, also at Madrid, and believed to be a part of the Troano; 3. _Dresden Codex_, 74 pages, in the Royal Library, Dresden; 4. _Codex Peresianus_, 22 pages, the one discovered in the Paris Bibliothèque National by De Rosny, and given its title from the name “Perez,” written on the outer wrapper. Besides these it has been supposed that there are several in private hands. The Quiches, of Mayan stock, had a sacred book called the _Popol Vuh_,[74] and the allied Cakchiquels had their _Records of Tecpan Atitlan_. Other tribes or stocks of the Mexican region undoubtedly had books and records also, but in the present state of knowledge nothing definite can be said about them. But there was a general high development of all, or at least, the majority, of the stocks occupying Mexico and Central America in the fifteenth century and before, so that it is entirely reasonable to expect a considerable corresponding development in the line of picture-writing, hieroglyphs or alphabets. These, in some cases, will come to our knowledge, just as the new hieroglyph attributed to the Zapotecs recently rewarded the investigations of Saville.