Mr. Gordon, in an article in the Century Magazine, describes these books as follows:—
“Four only have come down to us—priceless relics that in some unknown manner found their way into European libraries, where they lay hidden until unearthed by scholars of recent years. The books of the Mayas consisted of long strips of paper made from maguey fibre, and folded after the manner of a screen so as to form pages about nine by five inches; these were covered with hieroglyphic characters, very neatly drawn by hand, in brilliant colours. Boards were fastened on the outside pages, and the completed book looked like a neat volume of large octavo size. The characters in which they are written are the same as those found upon the stone tablets and monuments in the ruined cities of Palenque and Copan. This system of writing, which is entirely distinct from the picture writing of the Aztecs, was the exclusive possession of the Mayas. It was a highly developed system, and as investigations have shown, embraced a number of phonetic elements. In this respect, as in many others, the Mayas were far in advance of any other American people.”
A flood of light might be let in upon prehistoric America if these books and the inscriptions on the many columns which have been found, and which are very similar, could ever be deciphered. It is known that many of the hieroglyphics record dates, but the significance of most of them is unknown. They are evidently of a peaceful character as there is nothing to indicate that they are memorials of strife or anything of a warlike nature. These people possessed a well-developed system of numeration whose chief application seemed to be in their time-reckoning. Their year was divided into eighteen months of twenty days each, the year beginning on the day of transit of the sun by the zenith. As the months only gave a period of three hundred and sixty days, the remaining five days were arbitrarily added to make the complete cycle.
Among the most remarkable and inexplicable ruins of these people are those of Quirigua which are not far from Port Izabal. These ruins are completely hidden in a thick tropical forest a few miles from a village of the same name. They consist of several square and oblong mounds and terraces, varying from six to forty feet on each side, which were ascended by flights of stone steps. The principal interest, however, centres in several large, carved monoliths of light-coloured, coarse-grained sandstone, thirteen in number, arranged irregularly around what were probably the most important plazas. There are numerous hieroglyphic inscriptions on these monoliths which have Egyptian characteristics. The natives seem to have no traditions respecting the ruins, and they simply call them idoles, that is, idols. Several of the stones are from three to four feet square and from fourteen to twenty-five feet high above the ground.
The entire surface, except top and bottom, is covered with inscriptions. On the front and back are full length human figures standing in stiff and conventional attitude. Tiger heads carved above these figures probably indicate high rank, or chiefs, and a skull denotes death. The mysterious symbols of the Greek cross which is also found on these stones has been the cause of much speculation among scholars. If the human figures are portraits of persons, who were they? Where did they live? and what did they do that they should be thus immortalized?
ONE OF THE COLUMNS AT QUIRIGUA.
Various theories have been propounded concerning all these ruins of Mexico and Central America, and it would be presumptuous for anyone not a member of a dozen or more learned societies and bearing several scientific degrees to venture an opinion. A few writers ascribe them to descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, to the Phœnicians, and to the Egyptians. Some ascribe to them great antiquity and others assert that they are of comparatively recent construction. The well-known traveller, J. L. Stephens, says: “They are the work of the same race who inhabited the country at the time of the Spanish conquest, or of some not very distant progenitors.” The great argument against this view is, however, that there were no traditions among the people found by the Spaniards that shed any light as to their origin, as would certainly have been the case if he is correct. The people who built them seem to have had a distinct, independent and separate existence.
Professor Marshall H. Saville, of the Department of Anthropology, in Columbia University, and also one of the curators in the American Museum of Natural History, is one of the best versed authorities on the ruins of Spanish-America, as he has visited many of them in connection with scientific expeditions. Through his courtesy I am enabled to give the following description written by him of the ruins at Quirigua:—
Of all the ancient cities in Central America, the forest covered ruins of Quirigua are perhaps the least known. They are situated in the valley of the Motagua, or Montagua River, about half a league from the left bank, and about sixty miles from the mouth where it empties into the Caribbean Sea. Entirely overspread with the densest tropical vegetation found anywhere in Central America, they have remained unexplored and their extent unknown. Now, however, the transcontinental railway from Puerto Barrios to the City of Guatemala passes through the valley at a distance of not more than a mile from this wonderful group of remains, and they are thus brought within easy reach of the traveller.