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A SERIES OF PUBLICATIONS RELATING TO THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES
SANTIAGO MENDEZ, ANTONIO GARCÍA Y CUBAS, PEDRO SANCHEZ DE AGUILAR,
MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN HEYE FOUNDATION
This series of INDIAN NOTES AND MONOGRAPHS is devoted primarily to the publication of the results of studies by members of the staff of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, and is uniform with HISPANIC NOTES AND MONOGRAPHS, published by the Hispanic Society of America, with which organization this Museum is in cordial coöperation.
Only the first ten volumes of INDIAN NOTES AND MONOGRAPHS are numbered. The unnumbered parts may readily be determined by consulting the List of Publications issued as one of the series.
SANTIAGO MENDEZ ANTONIO GARCÍA Y CUBAS, PEDRO SANCHEZ DE AGUILAR
PAGE Preface 139 THE MAYA INDIANS OF YUCATAN IN 1861, by Santiago Mendez 143 Customs 143 Women 177 Dress 190 Language 192 Stature, Physiognomy, Color 192 Savage Tribes 194 Note by Antonio García y Cubas 196 NOTES ON THE SUPERSTITIONS OF THE INDIANS OF YUCATAN (1639), by Pedro Sanchez de Aguilar 202 OF THE RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF THE INDIANS OF YUCATAN IN 1545. Report of Francisco Hernandez 209 Glossary 216 Bibliography 221 Notes 223
So little has been written in regard to the ethnology of the Maya Indians of Yucatan, and especially concerning their beliefs, which persist to the present time, that we publish here a translation of an important and practically unknown account of this subject. This report was printed in Mexico in 1870, but it is buried in a study by Antonio García y Cubas entitled "Materiales para formar la Estadistica General de la Republica Mexicana," in _Boletin de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografia y Estadistica_, segunda epoca, tomo II, pp. 352-388. It is on pages 374-387, bears the date Mérida, October 24, 1861, and was written by Santiago Mendez, who states that he was governor of Yucatan during the years 1841-42. In connection with a study of this report, so far as it relates to the beliefs of the Maya, it will be profitable to consult the paper by Dr Daniel G. Brinton on The Folk-lore of Yucatan, printed in the _Folk-Lore Journal_, London, vol. I, part viii, 13 pp., August, 1883.