CHARNAY

charnay, (claude joseph) desire (1828- ), french traveller and archaeologist, was born in fleurie (rhone), on the 2nd of may 1828. he studied at the lycee charlemagne, in 1850 became a teacher in new orleans, louisiana, and there became acquainted with john lloyd stephens's books of travel in yucatan. he travelled in mexico, under a commission from the french ministry of education, in 1857-1861; in madagascar in 1863; in south america, particularly chile and argentina, in 1875; and in java and australia in 1878. in 1880-1883 he again visited the ruined cities of mexico. pierre lorillard of new york contributed to defray the expense of this expedition, and charnay named a great ruined city near the guatemalan boundary line ville lorillard in his honour. charnay went to yucatan in 1886. the more important of his publications are _le mexique, souvenirs et impressions de voyage_ (1863), being his personal report on the expedition of 1857-61, of which the official report is to be found in viollet-le-duc's _cites et ruines americaines: mitla, palenque, izamal, chichen-itza, uxmal_ (1863), vol. 19 of _recueil des voyages et des documents; les anciennes villes du nouveau monde_ (1885; english translation, _the ancient cities of the new world_, 1887, by mmes. gonino and conant); a romance, _une princesse indienne avant la conquete_ (1888); _a travers les forets vierges_ (1890); and _manuscrit ramirez: histoire de i'origine des indiens qui habitent la nouvelle espagne selon leurs traditions_ (1903). he translated cortez's letters into french, under the title _lettres de fernand cortes a charles-quint sur la decouverte et la conquete du mexique_ (1896). he elaborated a theory of toltec migrations and considered the prehistoric mexican to be of asiatic origin, because of observed similarities to japanese architecture, chinese decoration, malaysian language and cambodian dress, &c. charnel house (med. lat. _carnarium_), a place for depositing the bones which might be thrown up in digging graves. sometimes, as at gloucester, hythe and ripon, it was a portion of the crypt; sometimes, as at old st paul's and worcester (both now destroyed), it was a separate building in the churchyard; sometimes chantry chapels were attached to these buildings. viollet-le-duc has given two very curious examples of such _ossuaires_ (as the french call them)--one from fleurance (gers), the other from faouet (finistere).