language, and, of course, they have a positive historical value.

It is related in the Proceedings of the Municipal Council of Guatemala
that, in 1692, the Captain Antonio de Fuentes y Guzman laid before the
Council seven petitions, written in the native language, on the bark of
trees.[45] Whatever of interest they contained was, no doubt, extracted
by that laborious but imaginative writer, and included in his
_History_, which has never been published, though several
manuscript copies of it are in existence.

It will be seen that some of the so-called historical literature I have
mentioned rests uncertain on the border line between fact and fancy.
These old stories may be vague memories of past deeds, set in a frame of
mythical details; or they may be ancient myths, solar or meteorological,
which came to receive credence as actual occurrences. The task remains
for special students of such matters to sift and analyze them, and
settle this debateable point.

There is another class of narrations, about which there can be no doubt
as to their purely imaginative origin. These are the animal myths, the
fairy stories, the fireside tales of giants and magicians, with which
the hours of leisure are whiled away. Several collections of these have
been made, the words and phrases taken down precisely as the native
story-teller delivered them, and thus they come strictly within the
lines of aboriginal literature. They are the spontaneous outgrowth of
the native mind, and are faithful examples of native speech.

Over a hundred such tales have been collected by Dr.
Couto de Magalhaes, as narrated by the Tupis of Brazil, and
many of them have been published with all desirable fidelity,