Probably no race in the world’s history presented more contradictory, paradoxical and mysterious features than the Mayas. How or why did the race develop the most perfect arithmetical system the world has ever known, invent and perfect a calendar by means of which any date could be definitely fixed within a space of more than five million years, and devise a written language, perhaps the most remarkable in the world, and yet fail utterly to discover the most elemental facts of chemistry, mechanics and other sciences? The Mayas of Mictolan had of course gone a great deal farther. They had learned to use the radium ores; Nohul Voh had created a marvelous miniature solar system; they--or their priest rather--had, as I had reason to believe, learned the secret of that amazing Bridge of Light, and Nohul Voh could either read one’s thoughts or could actually look into the past and future. But, as far as I could see, not one of these strange and truly marvelous things was of the least practical value to the people. They still tilled their field with crooked sticks and stone-tipped implements, they still wove their cotton on crude hand looms, they still performed all labor by hand and, aside from the nobles, the priests and the favored few, not a man nor woman in the valley could either write or read their races’ characters. But I intended--provided I was forced to remain long enough in Mictolan--to change all this. I would erect windmills, would make water-wheels, would manage to build simple machinery and would see what happened. And in doing this, I would enlist the cooperation of Nohul Voh and of Azcopil. I tried to explain my ideas to the old sorcerer, and I was amazed to find how quickly he grasped the matter. Once the mechanical side of his brain was aroused, he was as apt a pupil as one could wish. He might have puzzled his brains for years before he discovered how the windmill worked, but it didn’t take him three minutes to master the principle once I explained it to him. And he was an excellent mechanic, as was Azcopil. Indeed, like most Indians, the Mayas of Mictolan were born artizans and most painstaking workers. Moreover they could perform wonders and produce miracles with their crude, inefficient, primitive tools. Very rapidly a six-foot windmill grew into being under my guidance, and while a vast amount of patience and perseverance was needed before I succeeded in getting the rods, cranks and other portions of its mechanism made from copper, silver and even gold, yet the final result was beyond my expectations.