Part 11

_British Honduras_.--The antiquities of British Honduras have been but little investigated. In the scanty literature relating to them a few accounts of ruined places are to be found. In style these buildings closely resemble those of the neighbouring Yucatan. The ruins in the colony New Boston, mentioned by Froebel (_Central America_, p. 167), are of this kind. F. de P. Castells (see _American Antiquarian_, Chicago, 1904, vol. xxvi. pp. 32-37) describes the ruins, in the north of the colony, of "Ixim chech," supposed to be the Indian form of the English name "Indian Church." They are on the road to the Lake of Yaxha (green water), where further ruins are to be found. Thomas Gann gives detailed accounts of numerous mounds also in the northern part of British Honduras (see _19th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Washington, 1900, part i. pp. 661-692, with plates). The most interesting ruins are those which have been discovered in Santa Rita, at the mouth of the New River, near the town of Corosal. Here wonderful wall paintings in stucco came to light, which unfortunately Gann could only save in part. The remainder were destroyed by Indians. It should be remarked that a number of the mounds in Santa Rita were erected over ruins of buildings which must therefore be of older date than the mounds.

_Salvador_.--Pedro de Alvarado in his expedition of 1524 calls this whole district _Cuscatan_ (Mex. _Cozcatlan_), that is, "Land of precious stones, of treasures, of abundance." A further description of the land is given by Palacio (l.c.) in 1576. Although there are numerous relics of Mayan civilization buried in the earth; few ruins are to be seen on the surface. Karl Sapper has described three large ruins: Cuzcatlan near the capital, Tehuacan near S. Vicente, and Zacualpa on the Lake of Güija in the extreme north-west of the country. The ruins show a distinct affinity in style to those of the Mayan buildings in Guatemala, but they are less fine and artistically perfect. Probably the central and western districts of San Salvador were originally peopled by the same race of Mayas, and these tracts of country were later settled by the Mexican-speaking Pipiles.

A characteristic feature of the extensive ruins of Zacualpa is that the pyramids and ramparts have perpendicular steps which are higher than they are broad, and this peculiarity may be attributed to the influence of the Maya tribes, who are related to the Mams of Guatemala.

_Decipherment of the Mayan Hieroglyphs._--The key to the decipherment, so far as this has progressed at present, was furnished by the _Historia de las Cosas de Yucatan_, a work written by Diego de Landa, the first bishop of the country. This professed to give, with much other more or less doubtful information, the full account of a calendar system analogous to that of the Mexicans, which was said to have been used by the Mayas (see MEXICO). The signs for each of the 20 days and for the 18 weeks of 20 days are figured by Landa. The first step was to compare these with the hieroglyphic characters contained in the few Mayan picture manuscripts (Codex Troano, Cortesianus, Peresianus, Dresden Codex) which have survived the destructive fanaticism of the Spanish missionaries. Förstemann's acute analysis detected that the bars and dots which occur along the margin and in the body of the pictorial scenes represented numerals, dots standing for each integer up to five, while for five a bar was used. Next, it was found that the order in which these numeral-signs are placed is regular, and that there are never more than five in a group. It was established that the first sign in such a group is that for the numeral 1 (_Kin_), the next that for 20 (_Uinal_), the third for 18×20 (_Tun_), the fourth for 18×20×20 (_Katun_), and the fifth for 18×20×20×20, that is to say, a cycle.

Had the available material for study been confined to the manuscripts, little more progress would have been made beyond establishing subsidiary details in the actual calendar. But when a similar analysis was applied to the numerous monuments discovered and figured by Maudslay and others, some important results of a general bearing were obtained. It was found that many of the hieroglyphs of various forms upon the stones were also of numeral value, and, what was of great importance, that they all referred back to a single starting-point. This starting-point or zero is no doubt the mythological date at which, according to Mayan cosmology, the world was created. It is placed at nine or ten cycles before the time when Copan and Quirigua were erected and the picture manuscripts made. And it is by reference to it in the inscriptions that such students as Seler, Goodman and others have been enabled, as already stated, to obtain a record of the relative chronology of the most famous monuments, to confine the period of their erection within the space of a few centuries, and approximately to fix even their absolute antiquity. Though much yet remains to be done, these are substantial results which have already been won from the study of the hieroglyphs.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The _Antiquités mexicaines_ of Dupaix (Paris, 1834), the _Voyage pittoresque et archéologique dans la province d'Yucatan_ of F. de Waldeck (Paris, 1838), and the _Monuments anciens du Mexique_ of Brasseur de Bourbourg and Waldeck (Paris, 1866) are quite out of date and superseded. Stephen's _Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan_ (New York, 1841 and 1867), and B.M. Norman's _Rambles in Yucatan_ (New York, 1843), are still of value, the first-mentioned especially for the drawings by Catherwood. Among the earlier writers may also be mentioned Charnay, _Les Anciennes Villes du Nouveau Monde_ (Paris, 1885) and _Cités et ruines américaines_ (Paris, 1863), the latter written in collaboration with Viollet-le-Duc. Those, however, who are not primarily bibliophiles will be content to study the following:--Maudslay (in Godman and Salvin's _Biologia Centrali-Americana_, sect. _Archaeology_, London, 1889, &c.), a pioneer work containing the admirably presented results of scientific exploration. Maler, in _Memoirs of the Peabody Museum_, vol. ii. 1, 2 (Cambridge, U.S.A., 1901 and 1903); Holmes, _Archaeological Studies among the Ancient Mexicans_ (Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, 1895); E. Seler, _Die alten Ansiedelungen von Chacula_ (Berlin, 1901), _Wandmalereien von Mitla_ (Berlin, 1895), _Ges. Abhandlungen_, vol. i. (Berlin, 1902) and vol. ii. (1904), _Fuhrer von Mitla_ (Berlin, 1906). E. Förstemann has contributed many valuable essays to _Globus_ and the _Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie_ (Berlin); especially important are his commentaries to the _Dresden Codex_ (Dresden, 1901), to the _Codex Tro-Cortesianus Madrilensis_ (Danzig, 1902), and to the _Codex Peresianus_ (Danzig, 1903). See also "The Archaic Maya Inscriptions," by F.T. Goodman (in _Biologia Centrali-Americana_, section _Archaeology_, viii., 1897), and _Report of an Archaeological Tour in Mexico in 1881_, by A.F. Bandelier (Boston, 1884). Valuable bibliographies have been made by Bandelier (_Notes on the Bibliography of Yucatan and Central America_, Worcester, U.S.A., 1881) and by K. Häbler ("Die Maya Literatur und der Maya Apparat zu Dresden," in the _Zentralblatt fur Bibliothekwesen_, xii., 1895). The Mayan picture MSS. have been published in facsimile as follows:--the _Dresden Codex_ by Förstemann (Leipzig, 1880, and Dresden, 1892), and the _Codex Tro_ by Brasseur de Bourbourg--_Manuscrit Troano, étude sur le système graphique et la langue des Mayas_ (Paris, 1869-1870), the _Codex Cortesianus_ by Léon de Rosny (Paris, 1883) and by F. de Dios de la Rada y Delgado and F.L. de Ayala y del Hierro (Madrid, 1893), the _Codex Peresianus_ by Duruy and Brasseur de Bourbourg (Paris, 1864) and by L. de Rosny (Paris, 1887). The following relate especially to the ruins in Salvador:--_La Universidad_, by D. Gonzalez, vol. ii. ser. 3, No. 6, p. 283 (San Salvador, 1892-1893); _Le Salvador pré-Colombien, études archéologiques_, by F. de Montcasus de Ballore (Paris, 1891), 25 plates; Karl Sapper in _Arch. fur Ethnologie_, 9, p. 3 ff. (1896). (W. L.*)

CENTRAL FALLS, a city of Providence county, Rhode Island, U.S.A., on the Blackstone river, about 5 m. N. of Providence. Pop. (1900) 18,167; (1905, state census) 19,446, of whom 8792 were foreign-born, 4164 being French-Canadian, 1587 being English, and 1292 being Irish; (1910) 22,754. It is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway. The Blackstone furnishes good water-power, and the chief industry of the city is the manufacture of cotton goods; other important industries are the refining of copper and the manufacture of woollens, silks and hair-cloth. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $5,090,984, being 12.9% more than in 1900. A settlement was established here about 1763 and was first a part of Smithfield, and then, after 1871, of Lincoln. About 1780 a chocolate mill was erected, and from then until 1827 the settlement was known as Chocolateville. It was incorporated as the Central Falls Fire District of Smithfield in 1847, and in 1895 was chartered as a city.

CENTRALIA, a city of Marion county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the S. part of the state, about 62 m. E. of St Louis. Pop. (1890) 4763; (1900) 6721 (571 foreign-born); (1910) 9680. The city is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Illinois Central, the Illinois Southern, and the Southern railways; the first two have repair shops here. Centralia is situated in the central part of southern Illinois, popularly known as "Egypt." Among its manufactures are window glass, envelopes, cigars, concrete blocks and flour. In and near the city coal is mined, and apples, strawberries and other fruits are raised, and the city is a shipping point for coal and fruit. Centralia was first settled in 1853, and was first chartered as a city in 1859.

CENTRAL INDIA, a collection of native states in India forming a separate agency, which must not be confounded with the Central Provinces. The Central India agency was formed in 1854, when Sir R. Hamilton was appointed agent to the governor-general. It lies between 21° 24' and 26° 52' N. and between 74° 0' and 83° 0' E., and may be said to consist of two large detached tracts of country which, with Jhansi as a pivot, spread outwards east and west into the peninsula, reaching northward to within some 30 m. of Agra, and southward to the valley of the Nerbudda and the Vindhya and Satpura ranges. The total area is 78,772 sq. m. It is bounded on the N. and N.E. by the United Provinces, on the W. and S.W. by Rajputana, some native states of the Bombay presidency, and Khandesh. The Central Provinces and the Bengal district of Chota Nagpur enclose it on the S. and E., while the Jhansi district of the United Provinces separates the two tracts.

Central India may be divided into three great natural divisions: the highlands of the Malwa plateau, with a mean elevation of some 1500 ft. above sea-level; the low-lying country some 600 ft. above sea-level, comprising the greater part of the eastern section of the agency; and the hilly tracts, which lie mostly to the south. The Malwa plateau consists of great undulating plains, separated by flat-topped hills, whose sides are boldly terraced, with here and there a scarp rising above the general level; it is covered with long grass, stunted trees and scrub, which owing to the presence of deciduous plants is of a uniform straw colour, except in the rains. The foundation of this plateau is a bed of sandstone and shales belonging to the Vindhyan series. This bed, which stretches east and west from Sasseram to Neemuch, and north and south from Agra to Hoshangabad, comprises the whole of the agency except the northern part of Bundelkhand. On the plateau itself the sandstone is generally overlaid by the Deccan trap, a blackish-coloured basaltic rock of volcanic origin, the high level tableland having been formed by a succession of lava flows, the valleys of Central India being merely "denudation hollows" carved out by the action of rain and rivers. It is apparently the northern limit of what was once a vast basaltic plain stretching from Goona to Belgaum, "one of the most gigantic outpourings of volcanic matter in the world." The sandstone bed on which it rests is visible at a point just north of Goona, and in a small area round Bhilsa and Bhopal, as it is in those places freed from the layer of trap. The low-lying land includes roughly that part of the agency which lies to the east of the plateau and comprises the greater part of the political divisions of Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand and the country round Gwalior. The formation save in north Bundelkhand is sandstone of the Vindhyan series, free as a rule from "trap." In the north of Bundelkhand the prevailing rock is gneiss and quartz. The quartz takes the shape of long serrated ridges, which are in many places a characteristic feature of the landscape. Trap appears here and there in intrusive dykes. The hilly tracts lie chiefly to the south of the agency, where the Vindhya, Satpura and Kaimur ranges are met with. The country is rough forest and jungle land little used for cultivation. The greater part of Central India is covered with the well-known "black cotton soil," produced by the disintegration of the trap rock. It is a very rich loamy earth, possessing great fertility and an unusual power of retaining moisture, which makes artificial irrigation little needed. Opium and millet are the principal crops grown upon it. The ordinary "red soil" covers a large part of northern Bundelkhand, and as it requires much irrigation, tanks are a special feature in this country. Ethnologically as well as climatically the differences between the plateau and the eastern part of the agency are distinct and the languages markedly so. The plateau is inhabited by pure-blooded Rajput races, whose ancestry can be traced back for centuries, with all their numerous offshoots. The inhabitants of the low-lying country are also Rajputs, but their descent is mixed and as a rule the families of the plateau will have no marriage connexion with them. The races of the hilly tracts are semi-civilized tribes, who often flee at the mere sight of a white man, and have as yet been but little affected by the Hindu religion of their Rajput rulers. Of the climate of the plateau, Abul Fazl, the author of the _Ain-i-Akbari_, says: "The climate is so temperate that in the winter there is no occasion for warm clothing, nor is it necessary in summer to cool the water with saltpetre. But in the four rainy months the night here is cold enough to render a quilt necessary." The rains of the south-east monsoon reach Central India as a rule about the 12th of July, and last until the end of September.

_Administrative Divisions._--The Central India agency is divided for administrative purposes into eight units, two classed as residencies and six as agencies. These are the residencies of Gwalior and Indore, and the agencies of Baghelkhand, Bhopal, Bhopawar, Bundelkhand, Indore and Malwa. But these divisions are purely an artificial grouping for the purposes of the British government, the original native divisions consisting of 16 states and 98 minor states and estates. The 15 large states are Gwalior, Indore, Rewa, Bhopal, Dhar, Barwani, Datia, Orchha, Charkhari, Chhattarpur, Panna, Dewas (senior branch), Dewas (junior branch), Jaora and Ratlam. At the close of the Pindari War in 1818 the whole country that is now under the Central India agency was in great confusion and disorder, having suffered heavily from the extortions of the Mahratta armies and from predatory bands. It had been the policy of the great Mahratta chiefs, Holkar and Sindhia, to trample down into complete subjection all the petty Rajput princes, whose lands they seized and from whom they levied heavy contributions of money. Many of these minor chiefs had been expelled from their possessions, had taken refuge in the hills and forest, and retaliated upon the Mahratta usurpers by wasting the lands which they had lost, until the Mahrattas compounded for peace by payment of blackmail. In this state of affairs all parties agreed to accept the interposition of the British government for the restoration of order, and under Lord Hastings the work of pacification was effected. The policy pursued was to declare the permanency of the rights existing at the time of the British interposition, conditionally upon the maintenance of order; to adjust and guarantee the relations of subordinate and tributary chiefs to their superiors so as to prevent all further disputes or encroachments; and to settle the claims of the ousted landholders, who had resorted to pillage or blackmail, by fixing grants of land to be made to them, or settling the money allowances to be paid to them. The general result was to place all the privileges, rights and possessions of these inferior chiefs under the guarantee or protection of the British government, to whom all disputes between the superior and inferior states must be referred, and whose decision is final upon all questions of succession to hereditary rights or rulership. The states have no general ethnological affinity, such as exists in Rajputana. Their territories are in many cases neither compact nor continuous, consisting of a number of villages here and there, with a nucleus of more or less importance round the chief town. Their relations to the government of India and to each other present many variations. Ten of them are under direct treaty with the government of India; others are held under _sanads_ and deeds of fealty and obedience; while a third class, known as the mediatized states, are held under agreements mediated by the British government between them and their superior chiefs.

_Population._--The total population of the Central India agency in 1901 was 8,628,781, showing a decrease during the decade of 16.4%. Considerable losses were caused by the famines of 1897-1898 and 1899-1900, which were severely felt, especially in Bhopal and Malwa. The greater part of the population of Central India is of the Hindu religion, but a few Mahommedan groups still exist, either traces of the days when the Mogul emperors extended their sway from the Punjab to the Deccan, or else the descendants of those northern adventurers who hired out their services to the great Mahratta generals. Of the first Bhopal is the only example, while Jaora is the only notable instance of the other. Roughly there are four great sections of the population: the Mahratta section, who belong to the ruling circles; the Rajputs, who are also hereditary noblemen; the trading classes, consisting chiefly of Marwaris and Gujaratis; and lastly, the jungle tribes of Dravidian stock. The Mahrattas are foreigners, and, though rulers of the greater part of Central India, have no true connexion with the soil and are little met with outside cities, the vicinity of courts, and administrative centres. The Rajputs with all their endless ramifications form a large portion of the population. Originally invaders, they have so long held a stake in the soil that they have become almost part of the indigenous population. The Marwaris hold practically all the trade of Central India, with the exception of the Bora class of Mahommedans. They are either Vaishnavite Hindus or else Jains. Their advent into Central India dates, except in the case of one or two families, from the time of the Mahratta invasion only. The Jain portion of this community is very wealthy. The last section, that of the jungle tribes, is mostly of Dravidian or mixed Aryo-Dravidian origin, these tribes being the modern representatives of the former rulers and inhabitants of this country.

The British agent to the governor-general resides at Indore, and there are British cantonments at Mhow, Neemuch and Nowgong. The whole country is fairly provided with railways, largely at the expense of Sindhia.

CENTRAL PROVINCES AND BERAR, a province of British India, which was formed in October 1903 by the amalgamation of the Central Provinces and the Hyderabad Assigned Districts. The total area of the provinces is 113,281 sq. m., and the population on that area in 1901 was 10,847,325. As is shown by its name the province is situated in the centre of the Indian peninsula, comprising a large proportion of the broad belt of hill and plateau country which separates the plains of Hindustan from the Deccan. It is bounded on the N. and N.E. by the Central India states, and along a small strip of the Saugor district by the United Provinces; on the W. by Bhopal, Indore and the Khandesh district of Bombay; on the S. by Hyderabad and the large _zamindari_ estates of the Madras presidency; and on the E. by these latter estates and the tributary states of Bengal. In October 1905 most of Sambalpur and five Oriya-speaking hill-states were transferred from the Central Provinces to Bengal, while the Hindi-speaking states of Chota Nagpur were transferred from Bengal to the Central Provinces. The province, therefore, now consists of the five British divisions of Jubbulpore, Nerbudda, Nagpur, Chhattisgarh and Berar, which are divided into the twenty-two districts of Saugor, Damoh, Jubbulpore, Mandla, Seoni, Narsinghpur, Hoshangabad, Nimar, Betul, Chhindwara, Wardha, Nagpur, Chanda, Bhandara, Balaghat, Raipur, Bilaspur, Amraoti, Akola, Ellichpur, Buldana and Wun; and the fifteen tributary states of Makrai, Bastar, Kanker, Nandgaon, Kairagarh, Chhuikhadan, Kawardha, Sakti, Raigarh, Sarangarh, Chang Bhakar, Korea, Sirguja, Udaipur and Jashpur.

Central Provinces.

The Central Provinces are divided into two parts by the Satpura range of hills (q.v.), which runs south of the Nerbudda river from east to west; so that, speaking generally, it consists of districts north of the Satpuras, districts on the Satpura plateau, and districts south of the Satpuras. North of the Satpuras is the rich valley of the Nerbudda, which may be said to begin towards the north of the Jubbulpore district and to extend westward through the district of Narsinghpur as far as the western limit of Hoshangabad, a distance of nearly 300 m. The elevation of the valley above the sea varies from 1400 ft. at Jubbulpore to 1120 at Hoshangabad. In breadth it is about 30 m., extending between the Satpuras and the southern scarp of the Vindhyas. This great plain, 10,613 sq. m. in extent, contains for the most part land of extreme fertility. The continuation of the valley west of Hoshangabad forms the northern portion of the district of Nimar, the farther limit of which touches the Khandesh district of the Bombay presidency. Towards the river, though rich in parts, this tract of country is generally wild and desolate, but nearer the base of the hill range there is a large natural basin of fertile land which is highly cultivated. South of the Satpuras lies the great plain of Chhattisgarh at a mean elevation above the sea of 1000 ft.; it has an area of 23,000 sq. m., and forms the upper basin of the Mahanadi. Farther to the west and again divided off by hills is the great plain of Nagpur, extending over 24,000 sq. m. Its general surface inclines towards the south from 1000 ft. above the sea at Nagpur to 750 ft. at Chanda. To the south the province is shut in by the wide mountainous tract which stretches from the Bay of Bengal through Bastar to the Godavari, and west of that river is continued onward to the rocky ridges and plateaus of Khandesh by a succession of ranges that enclose the plain of Berar along its southern border.

Berar.