It is strange that nowhere in North America was any measure of weight known to the natives. Their lineal measures were drawn chiefly from the proportions of the human body. They are investigated in (31).
Under the names _Chontalli_ and _Popoluca_, both Nahuatl words indicating "foreigners," ethnographers have included tribes of wholly diverse lineage. In (32) I have shown that some are Tzentals, others Tequistlatecas, Ulvas, Mixes, Zapotecs, Nahuas, Lencas and Cakchiquels, thus doing away with the confusion introduced by these inappropriate ethnic terms.
No. (33) is an article for the use of students of the Nahuatl language, mentioning the principal grammars, dictionaries and text-books which are available.
The numbers (34), (35), (36), (37), (38), (39), (40) and (41), are devoted to the methods of writing invented by the cultured natives of Mexico and Central America in order to preserve their literature, such as it was. The methods are various, that of the Nahuas not being identical with that of the Mayas. The former is largely phonetic, but in a peculiar manner, for which I have proposed the term of "ikonomatic," the principle being that of the rebus. That this method can be successfully applied to the decipherment of inscriptions I demonstrated in the translation of one which is quite celebrated, the "Stone of the Giants" at Orizaba, Mexico (41). The translation I proposed has been fully accepted.[16-1]
The "Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphics" (39) was intended as a summary of what had been achieved 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 Abbé E. C. Brasseur (de Bourbourg).