brilliant plumage in great variety, jaguar, peccary, deer and alligator; the deer and the turkey being the most important from the economic point of view of the early native.
Practically the whole of the population of this area, with the exception.of an enclave of Nahua-speakers in southern Guatemala, spoke dialects of the language known as Maya in the broadest sense, to which the tongues of the Huaxtec and Totonac also belonged. The distribution of the various tribes is best seen from the accompanying map, after Thomas (Fig. 45), but it is hardly necessary to discuss them in detail, since their present positions cannot be taken necessarily as affording any indication of their positions in pre-Spanish times, and from only a very few have legends been collected which shed any light upon their former history. The dialect spoken in Yucatan is known as Maya in the narrower sense, and seems to bear a nearer relation to that which prevailed among the nations of the older culture, since the Yucatec at the conquest were using a script which corresponded closely with that found upon the monuments. Their dialect extends to the Rio de la Pasion and the western and southern Usumacinta, where it 1s spoken by the so-called Lacandons who have preserved certain of the ancient customs and beliefs. The Lacandons to the west speak the Chol dialect, though there are indications that both divisions of this people originally spoke Maya, that is to say the dialect of Yucatan. Besides the Yucatec, practically the only tribes of historical importance are grouped around lake Atitlan; the Quiché occupying the largest area to the north, south and west of the lake, extending from the Pacific to central Guatemala, the Kakchiquel to the west and south of the lake, also extending to the Pacific, and the Tzutuhil wedged in between them on the southern shore of Atitlan. South-east of the Kakchiquel are the Pipil, a Nahua-speaking tribe, and Nahua dialects are
