in imitation of printed letters. The characters of Parra are adopted for the five peculiar sounds. Unfortunately the copy is incomplete, ending with the word vendible. As it is exclusively Spanish and Cakchiquel, it complements the Cakchiquel and Spanish Calepino of Varea.

It should be observed that the letter C is wrongly bound so that the latter part of it comes first, and several other letters do not seem to have been finished. This copy appears to date from early in the last century and is unique so far as I know. Coto was a native of Guatemala and lived in the latter part of the 17th century. Mr. Squier gives under his name only one title; "Thesaurus Verborum; 6 Frases y Elegancias de la Lengua de Guatemala ;" which probably is the same work as the above. It is peculiarly valuable not only for the linguistic material it contains, but for the light it throws on numerous customs of the natives, on the botany and zoology of the country, and for its quotations of manuscript works in Cakchiquel. Coto's principal authorities are Father Francisco Maldonado's sermons in that tongue, those of Father Antonio Saz (de san Joachim, de la visitacion, de la asuncion, de la concepcion, manual en la lengua and others, none of them mentioned by Mr. Squier or Pimentel,) Father Domingo Vico, bishop of Chiapas, and the "calepino" of Varea.

Under many words quite a description is given of this or that usage. For instance, under the word baile, native dance, which I choose having in mind the remarks on it made by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg in his introduction to the Quiche drama of Rabinal Achi, he remarks that they are of many kinds; that for instance which represents Noah coming out of the ark is called avatal; that in which they whirl a stick with their feet, vugh; that only engaged in by lovers xgul; that in which they played on their flutes of hollow reeds, lotz tun; this latter, he adds, was prohibited by Bishop Uguarte on the representations of Antonio Prieto de Villegas, commissary of the holy office, a learned man, thoroughly versed in Quiché, and for twenty years incumbent of the benefice of Matzate. nango; it was also prohibited by the diocesan constitution in 1690; several other bailes are also described.

Under the word luna he mentions that these Central American nations partook of a singular belief which we find very widely spread on the American continent. It was that an eclipse was caused by some animal eating the moon, and to drive it away accordingly they broke their jars, shouted, whipped their dogs, and made all the noise possible. They likewise attributed to this orb a malignant influence and supposed

* Collection de Documents dans les Langues Indigénes, vol. II.

her to be the cause of disease, a belief extremely common among the illiterate everywhere.

The fourth manuscript is a large folio of 77 leaves not numbered, written in Cakchiquel in ordinary characters. On the recto of the second leaf is the following title,—

Arte pronunciacion y ortographia de la lengua en el mismo ydioma Cakchiquel.

On the fourth line of the verso of the same leaf,

RAMILLETE, Manual para los Yndios sobre || la Doctrina Christiana por fray francisco Maldonado minorita, || Sub Censura sante Romane eclesie Dialogo primo.

This "nosegay" or anthology consists of twelve dialogues on the confession, creed, sacraments, good works, etc., between a priest and his catechumen. After the twelfth dialogue there is an addition of nine leaves in Cakchiquel with the following title,

Esta explicacion de la Doctrina Christiana || va con el mesmo testo de la cartilla inpresa el Año de mill y quinientas y çinquenta y seys por explicar los || terminos que los Yndios Saben mal entendidos, por tuvien | do el mismo authorre fformado la dicha Cartilla por man || dado de ill.mo Señor Don fray juan çapata y Sanctoval obispo de guatemala, se puso aqui en la misma for ma que la Conrregie para que sirva de brevi,ssa exposicion A la antigua sub cenSura Sanct || te Romane eccle || ssie.

At the close is a table of contents followed by this colophon in Cakchiquel :

Chupam 6 de Julio huna 1748 año mixgizvi vugibaxic vae vutz libro Ramillete Manual tihobal quichin Yndios chupam vutzilz Dios Doctrina Christiana yn Seuastian lopez tzarin vae ueva vochSancta Maria Asumpçion tecpanatitan de tzolala.

Then follow two leaves in Cakchiquel headed:

A la emperatrix a la vergen Maria Señora Nra su humilde es clavo.

From this evidence we learn that this is a copy made in 1748 by Sebastian Lopez at Solola on Lake Atitan of two works, the older printed in 1556, author not given, the other by Francisco Maldonado. The former must be the "Doctrina Cristiana en Lengua Utlateca" or Quiche, published at Mexico in that year, whose author, Fray Francisco Marroquin died in 1563. It is true that this was said to be in Quiche, and that Zapata y Sandoval was not a bishop until 1613.+† But as I have

Fr. Pedro de Betanzos who died in 1570, published a "Doctrina en Lengua de Guatemala" also at Mexico, year unknown. If this should prove to have appeared in 1563 also, one of the difficulties would be surmounted.

Squier, Monograph, p. 52.

never seen a copy of Marroquin's Doctrina, I am unable to reconcile these discrepancies.

The Dialogos is a work hitherto unknown of Maldonado, one of the most learned of the Franciscan missionaries. He lived in the latter half of the 17th century. The only one of his productions given by Mr. Squier is "Sermones y Panegiricos en Lengua Cakchiquelche," which is that also chiefly referred to by Father Coto in his dictionary.

The next work is a small quarto of 109 leaves. Unfortunately the first leaf, with the general title, is missing. The top of the second leaf commences in the midst of a sentence in a Doctrina Christiana in Cakchiquel. This covers ten leaves, and is followed by two leaves of" Preguntas de la Doctrina,' all in Cakchiquel. Next comes a "Confessionario breve en lengua Cakchiquel." The Spanish translation of each question and answer is also given.

After the Confessionario are three leaves, unnumbered and blank, except that on the recto of the second is a Latin Prayer to the Virgin, difficult to decipher.

On the recto of the next leaf is the following,

Arte de la lengua cak || chiquel.

It is written in a clear small hand, covers fifty-four pages with 30 lines on an average to the page, sometimes with one column, sometimes with two, and closes with this colophon,

Martes à 24 de Junio de 1692 años dia del Nacimiento de S. Juan Baptista se acavo el traslado de oraçiones y Arte en Kakchiquel.

From the close of this to the 96th leaf there is another series of doctrinal questions headed,

Vae Kutubal Khabal ti || Kut ubex richin Christianos || cakchiquel Khabal ri || chin cakchiquel vinak.

(I designate the peculiar modification of the consonants by italics.)

Another "Confessionario breve en lengua castellana y cakchiquel" then follows, twelve pages in length, differing considerably from the previous one. The rest of the volume is taken up with "Platicas," short discourses on religious subjects. One of them is an incident from the life of Saint Vincent Ferrer, related for the purpose of "terrifying the natives, and dispelling the shame they usually have about confessing." There is an index to the book, and on the verso of the last leaf this note in regard to the binding,-"Este quaderno es de Fr. Alberto Miguez;" said "quaderno" being in dark calf, without boards, and with strings. The characters of Parra are

employed in all the divisions of the work, and the writing is mostly quite legible.

There is no hint throughout where this was written, nor by whom. The colophon above quoted seems to show that it is the original, at least of the Arte and the prayers. From the mention of Saint Vincent Ferrer, a Dominican, and from the known rivalry of the two orders at that time in Central America, I am inclined to attribute it to a Dominican rather than a Franciscan. None of the bibliographical authorities already quoted mention any writer of either order who prepared works of this kind in Cakchiquel at or very near 1692. The manuscript proceedings of the Philosophical Society for Sept. 1836, when the books were received, throw no light on the matter.

The linguistic value of the Arte is considerable. Only two grammatical notices of the language seem to have been published, one about 1560 in Mexico, another in 1753, in Guatemala. Both of them are excessively rare, and indeed it is doubtful if any copy of the first is in existence. The Cakchiquel is peculiarly important in the comparative study of this group of languages, and with the rich materials here at hand to illustrate all its constructions, a publication of this short manuscript with notes would be most welcome to American linguists.

In concluding this brief notice of these interesting documents I wish to express my acknowledgments to Prof. J. P. Lesley, librarian, and Mr. Eli K. Price, member of the Philosophical Society, for facilities afforded me in examining its library.

ART. XVIII.-Notices of New Meteoric Irons in the United States; by CHARLES UPHAM SHEPARD.

1. Meteoric Iron from Auburn, Macon county, Alabama. IN October last, Prof. J. Darby, of the East Alabama College, forwarded to me by mail at Amherst, about twenty grains of what he suspected to be meteoric iron, with the desire that I would subject it to examination. He stated in his letter that the fragments had been detached from a mass weighing about eight pounds that had been ploughed up in his neighborhood many years since, but which until lately had been overlooked in his collection. He described the mass as consisting of agglutinated irregularly shaped concretions, presenting the appearance of having from a previous state of separation, been suddenly compressed together into a single rounded mass.

A partial examination induced me to believe the fragments sent to be of meteoric origin; and led to a correspondence with Prof. Darby, which resulted in his placing one half the mass, weighing four pounds, at my disposal, accompanied with the following more complete history of the discovery:

"The man who brought the mass to me (and who was its discoverer) had taken it, without my knowledge, to a blacksmith's shop, where in the cold state it was broken in two upon an anvil, by means of a sledge hammer. Originally, it must have been nearly globular in form. The surfaces produced by the separation had, when I received the specimen, a metallic luster. The finder made known to me the exact spot where he had ploughed it up. It was on what is known as the Daniel plantation, about three-quarters of a mile west of our college building, and near the eastern edge of a field, just across a branch (small stream). I have searched in the region for other specimens without effect, but have instructed the negroes to bring to me any thing unusual they may hereafter discover. The name of the man who found the mass and his present residence are unknown."

On receiving the half of the mass I was at once struck with Prof. Darby's first description of its appearance. The surface of fracture, or separation, is coarsely granular, exhibiting large irregularly shaped concretions, which show only obscurely, traces of octahedral cleavage. The former metallic luster is now replaced by a rusty brown film; while numerous cracks or chinks are observable, not merely separating the concretions but often traversing the mass of each individual. Indeed the entire specimen is thus cracked up and subdivided by these open veins, as if it had been shattered by striking when in a semi-fused state, against a rock, at the time of its fall. So imperfect is the cohesion at present that it would not be very difficult to break it into pieces, (from the size of a large pea up to that of an almond) by vigorous blows from a sledge-hammer. Some of these concretions are partially stalactitic, tuberose or sub-mammillary, as if a secondary softening or fusion of the iron had taken place at the time of its descent. This structure is altogether peculiar for a meteoric iron, though not unknown in native copper and silver.

The larger concretions have a slight tendency to separate into smaller ones of the size of peas, whose figure, however, is that of the granular individuals of magnetite and pyrites, except perhaps in having a tendency to an elongation in the concretion which occasionally passes into the sub-columnar structure. One single globule of troilite (sulphid of iron), half an inch in diameter is visible upon the fractured surface of the mass. It is compact in structure, and yellowish-brown in color.