Evening star., 1923-01-07

form of government and history up to
the conquerors, were well written. But
even these documents have in large
part remained untranslated.
X + :. y
TT transpired that the descendant of a
i noble native family happened to
translate into the new writing a date
b. which the natives had long reckoned
time. It was the unforgotten massacre
of several kings sons who had de-
scended to a neutral we'll for water. 1t
was near the time of a solar eclipse
and with the aid OF astronomers, DR..
William Gates, president of the Maya
Society and foremost student Of this
great American mystery, was able to
announce information which permitted
DR.. Sylvanus Morley of the Carnegie
institution of Washington to coincide
the chronology of the early Mayas with
that of today.
Dr. Morley was enabled to work out
the entire list of Maya dates and system
of numerals, and so that little part of
the veil has been drawn. But the
textual writing, other than the dates,
what of that? Most of our own stone
monuments have dates on them as we'll
as much reading matter. Our monu-
ments would be no moro Ineligible to
inhabitants of Mars than are the
Mayas' to us, even though the Mar
tians could decipher our numerals.
But the line seems to have been
crossed; three whole symbols have been
deciphered that are not date symbols.
but ideographic!
DIR. Gates now believes that he has
found the key to the writings, and that
in a reasonable period the inscriptions
may be fully deciphered. For more than
twenty years he has devoted his time
to this end, has lived among the va
rious tribes, studied their languages
and become thoroughly conversant with
them. In this work he has gone to the
very foundation of language and has
used scientific methods not heretofore
made available, and has applied to his
work the knowledge of full-blooded
Quiche Indian, who was entirely self
taught.
This man, a native of the highlands
of Guatemala, was unlettered and il
literate until he was twenty-five years
of age. He farmed his small patch OF
land independent of the white man and
caring little for him. He was employed
by DR.. Gates in his work in Guatemala,
and gradually evinced desire for e6u-
cation. He taught himself to read and
write Spanish and had full knowledge
of not only his own tongue but of sew
era1 other dialects.
This is the story, of how a near
savage has been instrumental in
shedding light on this mystery:
Last summer Dr. Gates brought
this man (his name is Cipriano Alva-
rado) to his estate near Charlottes-
vile, Va, to aid in the study of the
Mayas DIR. Gates owns the greater
part of the known manuscripts writ
ten in the Indian phonetic Language
both by the natives and by the Span
ish writer's, and, going over them
with Alvarado, the latter within one
month was able not only toyread and
write them, but to point out to the
scientist the many errors in them.
His tongue had become one of the
eye as well as of the ear.
However, so we'll had the Spaniards
done their work for the. most part,
and so thoroughly did the Indian
know his dialects, that it was dis
covered that since the hrst mission
aries wrote their scrolls the language
had suffered little material change
and the grammar and syntax could
be thoroughly worked ont.
Many thousands Of pages of old
manuscript were read TO the Indian,
who. interpreted them and prononncod
fhsm -corre6tiy onn of the uaostzip I