The New York herald., 1922-06-04
ToBcnqT 10 America MeNew Worlds Greatest Mystery

ents had absolute power until the age
Of 20. The nobility gave its children the
best possible education, while the poorer
people had to follow the pursuits of their
parents and received little or no teach
ing. This too is pointed out as close
parallel to the Egyptian system under
which the esoteric or secret higher
learning was reserved for the priests and
nobility alone. while the people were kept
In ignorance that they might be the more
easily controlled and governed.
The social laws were rigid and very
strictly enforced. Marriages between
persons of the same gems was absolutely
forbidden and the penalty for such inter
marriages was, utter ostracism. They
were Immediately placed in the lower
class. Marriage with the sister Of de-
ceased wife or with mothers sister
was prohibited. No one could marry out
of his own rank or without the consent
OF his own chief.
The Mayans had very elaborate re-
ligious rites, but forbade human sacrifice.
1t was only after the Aztecs managed to
gain control that the horrible rites of
human sacrifice were introduced, but al.
ways under the protest Of the Mayans.
They were great and prosperous peo-
pie, cultivating the soil and raising corn.
beans. cacao, cotton and bananas. Bee
culture was followed, and the art of fer
menting and distilling liquor from corn,
maguey and honey was well known.
Drunkenness was so common as to go
without remark and was little punished
unless crimes resulted. The men wore a
cotton breech cloth and sleeveless shirt;
the women a skirt, belted at the waist,
and their hair in long plaits. All wore
sandals, and while some tattooed their
faces and bodies all used paint for bodily
decoration. They were very cleanly
people, using both cold and hot baths.
Their weapons were the bow and arrow,
darts and spears, throwing sticks and
wooden swords edged with flints, besides
copper axes and slings and shields of
reeds and protective armor of quilted
cotton.
When they went to war it was rather
to take prisoners for slaves than to slay
their enemies.
They were highly literary people, like
the Egyptians, using paper made from
the maguey plant or parchment and
binding the leaves in wooden covers.
Only four of these books have been thus
far discovered, many having been de-
stroyed during the early Spanish period
ay the works of Satan," but these have
not yet been read, because the key to
the language is still missing, notwith-
standing the existence of the Mayan Ian
guage among the Indians.
The superior artistic power of the
Mayans. according to the best authorities,
was in their architecture and sculpture.
Their success was all the more remark
able as they had no metal tools. Ruins
OF these temples and palaces, always with
magnificent statuary, are found scattered
all through the forests Of Yucatan and
Guatemala. None Is any finer than the
great Sphinx, which is to be brought to
Philadelphia. The prejudices of the ma
lives Will nave TO be overcome and many
physical difficulties surmounted before
the monument may be moved.
1t will be nearly as dificult as the
transportation Of Cleopatra's Needle,
which was successfully accomplished
years ago, and If 1t is done there will be
no monument or exhibit at the exposi-
tion more worthy of study and admira-
tion. In 1t may lie the age long problem.
and through 1t may come the solution, SO
long looked for - whence came the
Mayans, who they were, whether Egyp-
tians, Hindus or some other race long
since extinct.
Perhaps we shall now get that answer
from the' Sphinx itself, which It has SO
long dumbly asked every beholder.