Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-03-16
Geographic News
Bulletins By the
National Geographic Society
CHEWING GUM

| 81#h~bs|f a-s-
Who were the Mayas?
How the chewing gum habit
stimulated the finding of important
Maya ruins is a bizarre chapter in
| their story.
Expeditions to md more about
F! this pre- Columbian people arouse
keener interest in them. They are
credited with the foremost intel
lsctual achievement of ancient
America" and they have been called
t'the Greeks of the new world"
Most Brilliant of Ancient American
Sylyanus Grisweld Morley, writing
to the National Geographic Society,
says of the Mayas:
"During the First millennium be-
fore Christ, while yet our own fore
bears of northern Europe were
plunged in the depths of barbarism,
there developed somewhere in mid
ole America, probably on the gulf
coast of southern Mexico, a great
aboriginal civilization called the
Maya, which was destined to become
the most brilliant expression of the
ancient American mind.
Their priests and astronomers
were gathering from the stars the
secrets of time and it's accurate
measure, the revolutions of the
moon and planets.
"Their mathematicians and chron-
ologsts devised calendar and
chronology which was without peer
On this continent and excelled by
none in the old world at that time.
Their builders developed an ar
chitecture at once unique, dignified
and beautiful.
"Their sculptors carved the most
elaborate compositions and designs
in stone.
lens of social and governmental or
ganization and administered the
state adequately and well. In short,
a great national life was quickening
to its fullest expression.
Developed Writing SYSTEM
'The zenith of their civilization,
however-indeed the intellectual
climax Of all eiviiizations-was the
which, moreover, was the emily sys-
tenn of writing in the new werld
worthy of comparison with the ear
lier graphic systems of the old
world, such as those of Egypt, of
Babylonia, and of China, for ex-
ample.
Buried in the vast tropical for
ests of northern Central America,
and especially in the state of Guate-
mala, these splendid memorials OF
4 forgotten people are slowly coming
to light.
Year after year expeditions sent
out by American scientific institu-
tions are penetrating deeper and
deeper into these virgin Businesses
and are discovering new ruined
cities.
The Lure of Chicle
"The only other business which
brings man into these tropical for
csts of nerthern Guatemala is one of
our most important American in
dustries, what might be termed, per-
haps, our national spoFt-eheWing
gum.
"The principal ingredient of chew
| ing gum is 'ehicle,' which is OBJ
| tained from a tree called the Chico
| sapote, growing in these forests. In
| deed, the archaeologist is deeply in
| debted to the chicle business for
| bringing him first news of new cities
| found in the bush from time to
time by the chiele=hunters.
"The writer has a standing re-
ward offered to all ehicleres for in
| formation leading to the capture,
| dead or alive of any new group of
| monuments. and already this expedi=
|
! Iseveral important cities.
st is the ehisle operators who
keep the trails open; who locate the
water-hoies for camping=plaees; who
maintain mule-trains, the only
means of transportation possible in
the region; whose activities bring
! labor into the bush. In short, in this
| field, at least, the archae olegist
could scarcely pursue his profession
were 1t not for our popular pastime
of chewing gum. But to return to
cur subject.
"The peculiar Importance of Maya
hieroglyphic writing lies in the fact
| that it represents a stage in the
science of expressing thoughts by
graphic symbols not exemp1if1ed by
the writing of any other people,
ancient or modern. 1t stands at that
| momenteus point in the Develop
nent of the human race where
graphic symbols representing sounds
were just beginning to replace
symbols representing ideas"