El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-06-11
MEXICO FACES INHERITED
FOE IN THE MAYA INDIANS

; 80 B 3 y y ~
fore history began to be written of the
American continent
A Historical Region.
1t is in this region that the great
temples and the big cities were built;
that wagon roads were constructed be-
fore the use of iron tools came into
being among them. This is the center
of the Maya stronghold for ages; just
how long they have lived there nobody
can tell, and just how long they will
continue to dominate the country no
body knows. Probably the construc-
ton OF railroads will solve the problem
and enable the Mexican government to
control these proud descendants of the
greatest tribe of prehistoric America,
but at present the revolutionists seem
TO have the upper hand
Among the famous cities left by the
ancestors of these warning Indians are
UXmal, Palenque, Chichen and liza The
descendants of the original Mayas in
very few ways resemble their ancest-
ors. In their pride of race and in
their hatred of oppression they are
very much like the race that historians
believe first peopled that country, but
in other ways they are not Many are
said TO be cannibals and they live
very low order of life
Many of them are cave jewellers and
they are all filthy, while, judging from
the ruins of their cities, the original
Mayas were people who lived in splen-
did palaces and evidently had attained
very high order of civilization for
their day and time, judging from their
carvings and the beautiful roads they
built. Historians claim that their con-
tact with the Spaniards degraded them,
but men who have visited the country
often do not credit this. They say there
is very little evidence of the existence
of Spanish blood and believe that the
prosecutions of the Spanish and MeXi-
cans alike have brought about their
degradation.
Magyar History.
Old Spanish records in plenty in the
museum of Mexico City, a very few
Maya books with old picture writing,
several Mss. written by Mayas in Maya,
but with Spanish letters, very soon af-
ter the conquest, and ruined towns and
cities, grave mounds and relics still
found in Campeche and Yucatan, attest
their former conditions. Were they civ
ilized? Morgan understands civilized"
to mean three things: % cultivation Of
land with the help of domestic animals;
90 a written language representing
sounds by characters; 80 a knowledge
Of the smelling of iron. The Mayas had
none of these but they did have books
with covers of wood: the paper from
leaves of vegetable fiber, joined edge
to edge and folded Ike a fan. Over the
whole page were pictures painted in
all sorts of colors, which was their
way of writing. or of the thousands
of books among The Mayas when tie
Spaniards came very few are now left.
Mayas Enemies of Aztecs.
The Mayas and Aztecs were a good
deal alike, except that they were never
friendly, the Aztecs making war at
frequent intervals on their neighbors
to the south. Their religions We're re-
lated;-both adored many of the same
deities- specially. perhaps, the sun.
Both worshipped idols carved from
stone and some of these idols unearthed
in late years are very much alike.
Both sometimes sacrificed human vic
tins. Among the Mayas there may have
been a greater tendency toward a mon
archial government than among the Az
tees, the historians believe; here, an
methods of warfare the two people
were much alike, but the MaYas, though
brave, were not so warlike las the Az
tees and paid more attention to agri-
culture and the arts.
The Mayas lived well, according to
all indications of the present time They
dressed in cotton Of their own raising
and weaving-this hundreds Of years
before the discovery of America, when
the American Indian had not yet be-
come SO far advanced. The Mayas made
many ornaments Of gold and a green
stone very much resembling the tur-
quois, and were expert feather workers
The feather cards that are so often seen
in the euro stores from Mexico are from
Campeche and Yucatan, where the art
is practiced by Indians and Mexicans
alike. The ,Mayas made good pottery,
too. They raised queer little dogs,
which became very fat, which they used
as food. Historians think that it was
from this that the present day Maya
practices cannibalism.
Magyar Habits.
The ancient Mayas paid a great deal
of attention to bees and gathered much
honey. Wild bees still afford to n
large extent a means of existence
among the Mayas. The ancient Mayas
also raised poultry and though not row
ing hunters, like some tribes, they were
skilled in trapping and sharing game
They surpass all prehistoric Ameri-
can tribes in their architecture and their
carving in stone. Though without iron
tools. these people were able to erect
fine buildings of stone, carved with re-
permanency of which is attested by the
wonderful ruins still attracting archaic
ologists from all parts of the world
Cities In Ruins.
In the wild forests of Yucatan and
Central America, in the midst of dense
tropical woods, overgroRn with trees
and tangled vines are the deserted ruins
of upward of 40 of these ancient May
an cities. These different towns were
connected by paved roads of stone, long
ago fallen into disuSe and decay over
which couriers ran, carrying messages,
along which traders bartered and dick
cred, and on which the forces of the
towns marched out to meet those from
the north when the Aztecs went to war
In many cases the buildings were set
upon a great flat topped mound, With
sloping sides and rectangular base and
summit, strikingly like some of the
temple mounds" of the southern states
of the United States. Up one side of these
mounds was a flight of stone steps,
guarding the base of which were fire.
quently a pair of great serpents or
some wild beast carved in stone