The Mayas (pronounced My-yah) were an ancient people of whom little is known. They dwelt on the broad plains of Yucatan and Central America, and built many cities, or governmental centres, for no ruins of private dwellings have yet been found. The groups of buildings resemble in no way our cities of the present day. They consist everywhere of temples and palaces of the reigning princes or caciques, of public buildings scattered about apparently at random, covering a vast area, with cemented roads and gardens intervening. The centres of the towns were occupied by the public squares and temples; around these were the palaces of the priests and lords, and the outskirts were evidently allotted to the lower classes. Religion and government seem to have gone hand in hand among these primitive Mexicans. The Maya civilization had reached a height unexcelled by any people of the western hemisphere prior to the coming of the white man. They were skilled in architecture, in sculpture and in writing. The priests had developed the science of astronomy to a considerable extent. They had studied with some success the solar system. They had developed a calendar system and created a chronology. So far as these chronological accounts have been worked out they run back three thousand years or more. They reckoned time much as we do, from a fixed date, namely, the birth of Christ. The later dates of the Quirigua inscriptions are generally believed to be somewhere about the beginning of the Christian era. The oldest of the ruins of the Maya race is said to be that of Copan, which is situated in Honduras, just across the border from Guatemala. It also seems to have been the southernmost point of their migration, as Tula was the northerly terminus of their wanderings. Then comes Quirigua, in Guatemala, which is one of the most remarkable and inexplicable of all the ruins. Tradition sheds no light whatever on these ruins of Copan or Quirigua. The mysterious silence that surrounds these forms a void in the history of the human race. There are doubtless other ruins awaiting the traveller and explorer in the wilderness around Lake Peten, in the northern part of Guatemala. The founder of the race was Izamat-Ul. “To him were brought,” says an old writer, “the sick, the halt and the dead, and he healed and restored them all to life by the touch of his hand.” Hence he was generally known as the Miraculous Hand, and in inscriptions is frequently represented by a hand only. [Illustration: CRUMBLING RUINS OF THE ANCIENT MEXICAN CIVILIZATION]