Wichita eagle., 1889-09-22

BUILDING IN UNhAL.
Some persons have a vague idea that be-
fore the white man arrived this great CONT
nent was inhabited only by nude savages
that daubed themselves with paint and stuck
feathers in their hair-a most erroneous be-
lief
That the ancient Americans were mathe-
maticians, astronomers, architects, artists, is
proved by what still remains Of their re-
Inarkable work. Nor are We justified in
asserting that they were ignorant Of sciences
which we Of late years investigate Should
any of our cities be abandoned today. after a
few centuries only parts Of the strongest
structures would remain TO mark that site of
civilization. Archa0logists Of those coming
times might then say; Yes, those people left
big buildings, but they We're Of course, half
savage, and knew nothing about the things
We understand" How mistaken those future
wiseacres would be in their opinion Of US!
How mistaken we may be in judging of those
VINO have preceded Us, History teaches that
nations are Ike individuals, gradually ad-
vancing TO maturity, and then fallinr into
decay.
The people of Central America were M
doubtedIy on their downward course when
the Spaniards commenced war against them
nearly 400 years ago; but in no respect were
they savages, less SO, indeed, in many things
than the ruthless invaders.
Palenque, Quirigua, Guatemala, Mexico
and other places were all once thicllly inhab-
tied by people about whom very little is
known; the ruins of their long deserted cities
are hidden in dense forests. and an army of
earnest workers IS needed to explore and
study them
There IS no richer field of antiquities than
Yucatan, that sunny peninsula whose shores
are caressed by tho warm waves of the Mexi-
can gulf and the Caribbean sea- The Span
ish conquerors found that the people there
had books Of their own In no other part of
America had they found such marked evil
dence of culture, and their astonishment was
great. Nevertheless, the European priests
burned all the volumes they could lay hands
on, maintaining that as they contained moth
ing concerning the holy Catholic religion
they ought to be done away with Such de-
struction Of works containing an account of
historical events and scientific knowledge
as the Spanish historians themselves tel US
they did-waS a terrible and irTeparable loss
Milton has well said: He who kills man.
kills a reasonable creature; but he who de-
stroys a good book, kills reason itself
1t is not known how, or by whom, but four
of those American books were preserved
from the flames and found their way to Eu-
rope; these stil exist, and as Dr.. LIE Plon-
geon has found a key to the hieroglyphs in
which they are written, their contents viii
some day be made known 10 the public
Yucaran was the great center of the Maya
nation, though its people spread Over the face
Of the earth, which is he reason why we find
that word Maya IN al parts of the world,
and always sgnifying power in one form or
another. The peninsula, with an area of
nearly 1900 square miles, is strewn with old
cities At the time of the conquest these
were rs profound a mystery 70 the natives,
whose well appointed villages were under the
shadow of those walls and pyramids, as they
are TO Us now Within some of the doors
they occasionally yentured to beSaech the IA
Yor Of the Deity.
Temple and palaces great public edilices
are tho structures which have withstood the
hand of time They were built in a way that
made them almost indestructible Upon a
rocky soil, into which nothing could possibly
sink, tho architects reared massive piles Of
dry stone, terraces and pyramids, generally
about seventy feet high. faosl with beautl-
fully hewn stones On these most solid
foundations they b1ilt their eiidcas Of white
marble. Most of the walls are three but
some are nine feet thick The facing stones
areso closely fitted that nothing can be intro
duced between; the inner part of each is
hewn in pyranidal form, and the filling Of
the wall is exceedingly hard concrete The
ornamental stones were skllIfuIly carved. Gov
cred with stucco and painted IN bright colors,
red predominating and sigalfying power
Pictures alone can convey a correct idea of
the iutricste sculptures. The height Of the
rooms is generally twenty feet