Because of their isolation the Indians had to work out by
themselves many arts, inventions, and discoveries. They spoke over a thousand
languages and dialects; and not one has yet been traced outside of America.
Their implements consisted of polished stone, occasionally of unsmelted copper,
and in Mexico and Peru, of bronze. They cultivated Indian corn, or maize, but
lacked the other great cereals. They domesticated the dog and the llama of the
Andes. They lived in clans and tribes, ruled by headmen or chiefs. Their
religion probably did not involve a belief in a "Great Spirit," as is
so often said, but rather recognized in all nature the abode of spiritual
powers, mysterious and wonderful, whom man ought to conciliate by prayers and
sacrifices. In short, most of the American Indians were not savages, but
barbarians well advanced in culture.
THE MAYAS
Indian culture attained its highest development in Mexico
and Central America, especially among the Mayas of Yucatan, Guatemala, and
Honduras. The remains of their cities—the Ninevehs and Babylons of the New
World-- lie buried in the tropical jungle, where Europeans first saw them, four
hundred years ago. The temples, shrines, altars, and statues in these ancient
cities show that the Mayas had made much progress in the fine arts. They knew
enough astronomy to frame a solar calendar of three hundred and sixty-five
days, and enough mathematics to employ numbers exceeding a million. The writing
of the Mayas had reached the rebus stage and promised to become
alphabetic. When their hieroglyphics have been completely deciphered, we shall
learn much more about this gifted people.
