The Washington times., 1922-05-14
fected Culture.

ways excepting the Troano MS.
Now. hypothesis for hypothesis.
why can we not say with equal
plausibility: "The Mayax were not
the ancestors Of other nations, for
their ancestors were the Atlantians
for tho paradoxical reason that the
Mayax left traces Of their soJourn
on earth and Of comparatively
modern date. while the Atlantians
were ensulfed in the ocean as the
descendants of Neptune. for his
torians say the brother Of Jupiter
was the first king of Atlantis.-
AN ANCIENT POEM.
II Is not surprising. perhaps.
that DR.. Ballou dares to impose
upon his own credulity, since less
astounding affirmations might fail
to allure an apathetic people like
Americans to read more than the
headlines on an article Of that kind
in their feverish haste to read OF
the latest scandals and society
news.
But II Is Incredible. TO carry Or.
Ballou's story further. that DR.. Le
Plongeon should have SO little re-
gard for his learning as to credit
the Greek alphabet with signif1ca-
ton in the Mayax language. Ac-
cording to this archaeologist the
Greek alphabet Is an ancient
poem describing the submersion Of
the lost Atlantis. This he expects
US to believe. Like the juniper Of
the "Sun Temple" It discredits his
whole disquisition, for theories
based upon false suppositions can
not stand.
II Is very easy to prove that the
Greek alphabet does not signify
anything in the Mayax language
as IL is to prove that the Greek
alphabet means something IN any
ancient or modern language To
begin with. the Greek alphabet Is
not pronounced in Greece as he
pronounces Il; consequently on
phonetic principles the true Greek
alphabet does not mean all the
good things the MayaI tongue
lends to It. Let US examine the
genesis of mans chirography.
Bernard Shaw does not tell US
II the serpent sent written poetry
to Eve to decide her to eat the
famous apple. but we do know that
man at a given time, certainly
within the recollection Of DR.. Bal
lou, invented signs to express his
sentiments, and they are thus
classified:
First. Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Second, Chinese hieroglyphics.
Third, Assyrian cuneiform writ
ing.
Fourth. Mexican hierogiyphics.
Fifth, Calculiform writing of the
mdydH III Il uCdldH.
with these signs writing was
Geographic. Natural progress
caused the reproduction of ideas to
those Of sound from ideographism
to phonetism. The first step in
the path was the use OF images
primitively ideographio to repre-
sent homophonous words, but hav-
ing a different Specification. This
is what Mr.. Lenormant calls ''retat
de rebus," in which the writing Of
the Aztecs OF Mexico remained.
REPRESENTED BY A SIGN.
In a language of monosyllables
as the Chinese. the use Of sign
language must have necessarily
brought with 1t the discovery OF
syllable writing where each sylla-
BILE is represented by a sign, ard
II Is there that the development
Of writing in the Celestial En-
pire stopped. The Egyptians were
the only ones who, pushing analy-
sis further. reached the dividing
Of sylables into letters, and this
constitutes alphabetism; but their
system was still imperfect and
very complicated.
1t is generally agreed that II
was the Phoenicians who formed
the alphabet. the original Of which
is traceable to the hieratic writing
of the ancient Egyptians, which
was a step further toward cur
slve system and from which, at a
later period, the demotic or cur
sive form was developed.
The first derivation Of the
Phoentcian alphabet is the Cad
mean from Cadmus, the Phoeni.
clan king Of Thebes in Greece) or
so-called ancient Greek. OF the 20
letters that compose It. II are al.
most identical as regards form
with the corresponding letters OF
the Phoenician alphabet. The
Greek alphabets derived from tie
ancient Greek or Csdmean are:
1st. The Solo-Dorian. with 20
letters.
End. The Attic. with 81 letters.