Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-03-02
ANCIENT MYSTERY IN
GUATEMALA JUNGLE
Discovery Of Ruins of a Temple
Bearing Many Puzziing
Ciphers.
Ruth LAuxhiin Barker in Christian

Ruth L~ushlin BArkAr in Christian
Herald.
who were you? What do your In
scriptions mean? Are you all that In
loft of American civilization These
are the questions one asks of the
giant stones which loom through tho
soIitndee of the Guatemalan Jungle.
why were you?" one asks again.
"Quien sabe," mock tho parrots In
the high trees overhead.
Fffty-seven miles inland. on the At
lantic coast Of Guatemala. tangled in
the mass of tropical vegation. these
monuments of the long forgotten
Mayans have been discovered. Vague
ly We know that the Maynns were
conqucrorr OF Central America 1000.
perhaps 1000, years before the first
Spaniards carried their flag into this
area in 154i.
They may be classed with their
neixhbors, the Aztecs. Just north of
them in Mexico. and the Incas to the
south in Peru. in their culture and
arts. but of their history We know
even lesa than OF these other ancient
American civilizations.
The monuments rival the best Egyp-
tian sculpture by their deep carvings,
but unlike the Egyptian hieroglyphs.
which tell the story of each Sphinx.
the meaning of the Mayan symbols is
still mostly a riddle.
Men gigantic In their proportions
and ornaments. are carved upon the
two wider sides Of tho sandstone pill
lars The narrower sidea are covered
with Inscriptions the stone chap
ters OF Mayan history. which are u"
more communicative than the stone
itself Hundreds of hieroglyphs. but
no key TO their meaning The serial
story Of the first American heroes, but
no one to explain the romance
The conquering Spaniards burned
every manuscript they could hnd. call
ing them books Of the devil. one or
two escaped this bonfire. having he"n
taken into Mexico. and by puzzllnR over
these archaeoiogists have pieCed out
the date symbols. giving an approx
mate date, for instance. to this tallest
monument Of the year 500 A ID.
Rescuing these cities lost in the juu-
gle has been undertaken by the school
Research. II has been a game between
the brains and tools az man and the
never-cessins growth Of the jungle.
which. like n giant octopus. has sent
out Its multitude Of creeping arms 70
cover every bare inch Of earth or stone
or bark with its green mcshes Ther"
are two seasons In the jungle the wet
and the very wet.
/; was only possible for man TO work
during February. March and Arril. hut
the Jungle works l2 months nlins with
green the trenches which have been dug
TO find the buried marbl, walls.
When the first expedition reached the
cncc busy city square Of Quirigua. they
saw only a vast forest as high as a lo-
story building. with monkeys chattcring
in the highest branches and tigers
sinking away through the shadows.
The monuments stood out like enor-
nous thumbs and handaged in lchen
foot thick. The temples We're green
mounds with mahogany trees growing
upon their roofs Turning these trcoS
and excavating in this tropical growth
was hazardous 3ob for the scarlet
circled snakes resented having then
homes disturbed
The faces continued their Sphinx-llke
smile even after man had scraped away
their green masks. for the story Of their
lives was still lot ked behind stone lips
There are - Of these figured nonu-
ments at ouirigua ali but one of them
representing men. Were they kings.
priests or prophets?
Their dignity and stoical calm i'm
press one with the spirit of peace. The
feathers OF the queszal. the sacred bird
of the M2yans. two grotesque masks
and q skull form the high headdrv =.
which is not symbolical Of a battle hei-
met. nor does the rnanikin wand. which
is the insignia Of office. typify the war
lord Evidently these august person
ages were priest who dominated
their subjects as religious rulers
Temple bounded thc ceCtr"l plaza nn
four sides They We're buit upon earfI4-
dlled pyramids with 25 steps leading
up 10 the temple portco. around who's
cornicsr ran d frieZe ornamer'ad with
human and grotesque faces as Well as
a long series of hieroglyphs Portrait
neads n white sandstone were fasten
ed 20 the inner walls. looking Ike Graz
cd prisoners who had been trying 10
free themselves from their stone stocks
for centuries.
In one temple cell was found a long
coffin like box containing terra Gotta
vase, with human heads in high relief,
and gold flgurnes. half human and half
animal. Whether these temples and