The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-12-09

perch upon thy shoulder and sing to thee
shalt know from the 0 whether thou
hast done the thing that Maya loves
THE CITY OF UxMAL-
Their adventures are. many after the
marriage. For a while the pretense that
the stranger husband is a god is kept up.
but enemies spy upon him and learn his
real ignorance and that his seeming knowl-
edge of the nations affairs is all derived
from his wife. When he is found to be
merely mortal he is not sacrificed to their
gods, but is banished from the capital with
his wife They take up their abode in the
once great city of Uxmal, even then partly
in ruins and deserted. The following is
an account Of their entrance TO the city:
And now they ascended the three ter
races upon which stood the palace or the
king. they walked around this noble eui-
flee and looked into the chambers, swinging
wide the great doors of sapote wood richly
carved. Within were dark rooms built or
solid masonry.
Passing behind the palace and a little
to one side they came upon the house OF
the turtles on the second terrace, with Its
simple white cornice of columns, and Maya
explained that this had once been the
queens dwelling.
Then they went on to the great build
ing which to-day men call the nunnery.
II was composed of four long structures
surrounding a wide courtyard. Entering
this court they saw on each or Its SIDES a
facade of wonderful beauty. On the north
a broad stairway fanked with piles OF
decorated masonry led to a high terrace
upon which stood a palace with thirteen
doorways and over each door a ~angul
turret of richly Sculptured stone. To the
west was a range of buildings deliberately
adorned, where two interlacing serpents
were twined around the square panels, of
the cornice. To the south was another
long structure with many entrances and
over each the sculptured representation OF
q Maya cabin with matched roof and the
image of a man in the doorway.
but the most exquisite of the four build
ings around the courtyard was that upon
the east side. Over a plain wall pierced by
lattice work with a border above and below.
Over the middle door were three grotesque
masks of human faces, one above the other,
while in the lattice above each of the other
doors were eight horizontal bars with a
~serpentS head at each end. These bars
increased in length as they rose from the
door to the top of the cornice, and In relief
against the three upper ones was a human
face with headdress like those on Egyptian
monuments, with rings in the ears and
tongue hanging from the mouth:
Now to Sandoval Ii seemed that or all
the buildings he had ever seen there was
none of more admirable design than this,
and he well deemed that it's unknown archi-
tect had been one of the worlds great
artists"
STRUGGLE TO CIVILIZATION.
All these sights were new to the Spaniard.
and he examined them curiousfy. He no.
ticed a number Of fiat stones on the ter
races, which upon being lifted. opened
the way toward cavities beneath. Some of
these, as Maya told him, were cisterns,
Others were storehouses for grain. and
when the city was abandoned many of
- - 49, -~ - IsJ;or -lonac FOR
things of value.
Zone of these vaults which lay close to
the building where they dwelt was, she
said, a treasure house, and when Sandoval
went down into the chamber, he discovered
q jar OF terra Gotta, curiOuSly ornamented
and within, q number Of valuable objects
ina ges, amulets. gold ornaments, and pre-
cious stones and, s~trangest OF all, an an
cient manuscript made OF q paper or
crushed maguey leaves, upon which was
written in hieratic characters the history
of the Tutul Xius. A strip OF this paper
several yards long and perhaps half a
foot wide, was folded like a screen so
that IL might be read first upon one side,
fold after fold, then upon the other; there
was no back to the volume, but the whole
was bound between two wooden covers
delicately carved, to each Of which an end
Of the paper was firmly attached.
LAS Maya and Sandoval examined the
writing, she explained to him the nature or
liz IL III CAy NbAAo SOaA0
be shown by a picture, the picture was
made, but If the thought was one OF which
no drawing could be given, then an arbi-
trary symbol was used, and in a few cases,
where neither the picture nor the sign were
plain enough, the sound Of the word was
represented as in our own alphabet. Writ
ing Of this sort is hard to understand, but
Maya had been taught the meaning of the
signs, and without difficulty she read TO
Sandoval many chapters from the heroic
periods of her country'S history. Such a
manuscript might seem to us a crude
tumble of bad pictures and unintelligible
signs, and yet to him who understands it 1t
has a deeper meaning than the choicest
engraving of the most delicate ElZevir, for,
like the incomplete arch which shows the
struggle of this people towards higher
creations in architecture, it tells the story
of their efforts to perpetuate their thought
in written form. 1t shows on a single page
the steps by which mankind advanced from
the rough picture-writing of the savage to
the ~alphabetic characters in which are pre-
served the masterpieces of literature and
edge. It is the living evidence of a great
chapter in the history of the struggle of
mankind from ignorance to knowledge,
from darkness into light"
Many descriptive passages tempt to quo
historic and romantic character of the tale.
1t would be unfair to both author and
reader to outline the subsequent happen
ings of the story. 1t is enough to say that
| Mr.. Foulke has made what is at once a
valuable addition to the literature relating
to the ancient Maya race and an entertain
! ing romance.