Note 240 — PART III. GRAPHIC SYSTEMS AND LITERATURE.

See above, pp. 128 and 172. The terminal letter in both these words—“chilan,” “balam,”—may be either “n” or “m,” the change being one of dialect and local pronunciation. I have followed the older authorities in writing “Chilan Balam,” the modern preferring “Chilam Balam.” Señor Eligio Ancona, in his recently published Historia de Yucatan, (Vol. i., page 240, note, Merida, 1878), offers the absurd suggestion that the name “balam” was given to the native soothsayers by the early missionaries in ridicule, deriving it from the well-known personage in the Old Testament. It is surprising that Señor Ancona, writing in Merida, had never acquainted himself with the Perez manuscripts, nor with those in possession of Bishop Carrillo. Indeed, the most of his treatment of the ancient history of his country is disappointingly superficial.