Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-12-12
The Outline of History-By H. G. Wells

and harvest, but while in the old world these
primary social ideas were mitigated and over
laid by many Others in America they were
developed to an extraordinary degree of in
tensity. The serpent was the predominant
symbol in religious decoration. These Amer
lean civilizations ~eem to have been essen
TALLY priest-ridden countries; their war
chiefs and peace leaders were under a rigor-
Gus rule Of law and Interpreted omen.
A Genius for Astronomy
TheiT priests carried astronomical science
to very high level of accuracy. They knew
their year far better than did the Baby
lonidns. The Yucatan civilization developed
kind of writing, the Maya writing, Of the
most elaborate character. So far as we
have been able to decipher it, it was used for
keeping the complex and accurate calenders
upon which the priests expended their in
tellectual energy. !
The art of the Maya civilization was par
ticularly we'll developed Some of the sim
pier sculpture of Peru is suggestive Of Sum-
merriam work, but tie Maya stuff Is like
nothing the old world has ever produced, and
it rises to a very high level of beauty, in
ded. The nearest reSem blanceS, and they are
not very near, are to be found in some south
| Indian carvings. 1t astonishes by it's great
plastic power and its perfection of design,
but it perplexes by grotesqueness, a sort
of insane intricacy and \conventionality
Many Maya inscriptions resemble a certain
sort of elaborate drawing made by 1unatics
in European asylums more than they do any
other old world production. 1t is as if the
Maya mind, developed along a different line
from that of the old world mind, had acquir-
ed different twist to it's ideas, was not in
deed by old world standards, strictly ra-
tional mind at all.
The Obsession of Blood
This linking of these aberrant American
civilizations to the idea of general mental
alteration finds support in their obesssion
by the thought to shedding human blood.
The Aztec (MeXican) civilization in particu-
lar ran blood; it offered thousands of human
1.ctims yearly. The cutting open of living
victims, the tearing out Of the still beating
heart, was an act that dominated the minds
and lives of these strange priesthoods. The
public life, the seasonal festivities, all turned
on this Enthusiastically horrible fixed idea.
The Maya writing was not only carven on
stone, but painted and written upon skins.
these manuscripts are painted brightly, and
have an odd resemblance to the cheap col
ored papers which are sold to children in
America and Europe today. There is the
same repetition of figures with variations, as
if story was being told.
Records Aept with String
In Peru the beginnings or writing were
superseded by curious and complicated
method of keeping records by means of knots
tied upon strings of various colors and
shapes 1t is said that even laws and orders
could be conveyed by this code. These string
bundles were called quipus, but though quip-
us are still to be found in collections, the
art of reading them is altogether lost The
Chinese histories, Mr.. L. Y. Chen informs US,
state that a similar method of record by knots
was used in China before the invention of
writing there. The Peruvians also got to
making maps and the use of counting frames.
When the Spaniards came to America, the
Mexicans knew nothing of the PeruVlans nor
the Peruvians of the Mexicans. Whatever
links had ever existed were lost and forgot2
ten The Me&icans had never heard of pota-
to, which was principal article of Peruvian
diet In 5000 B G. the Sumerians and Egyp-
tians probably knew as little of one another.
America Jagged, in fact, 5000 years behind
the old world
Copyright, 1920