Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/241

* MAY. 213 MAYAN STOCK. This leanioJ and impartial wurk is supplement- ary to llallam's. He also puljlished Dcmucracy in Europe: .1 fjislortj (1S77). and contributed to the Efliiihiirfih Review, to the Laic .l/i/f/r/riHr, and to other [leriodioals. He was president of the .Statute Law Kevision Committee, 18ti-84. He resigned the clerkship of the House of Commons in April, 1880, was created Baron Farnborough, and died at Westminster Palace, May 17, 1886. MAYA, ma'ya (Skt., artifice, illusion, un- reality I. in the I'uranic nivtliulog}' of the Hin- dus, the personified will or energ}' of the supreme bein;;. who thereby created the universe. As, in this later doctrine, the world is unreal or illusory. Maya assumes the character of illusion personified. Maya is the cause of all the phe- nomena of the world; it makes the unreal uni- verse seem as if it really existed or was distinct from the one Supreme Spirit. In this sense, Maya also occurs in the later Vedanta philosophy and in some of the sectarian philosophies of India. According to the modern Hindu view Maya represents the linntations of time, space, and causation by which the absolute becomes the universe. It is then almost a synonym for the' phenomenal world. The modern Hindu views on the subject will be found in Tripathi. fiketch of the Vedanta Philosophy (Bombay, 1901), and Mvekanaiida. Leetures on Vedanta Philosophy (Xew York, 1902). MAYA. The civilized native race of the pen- insula of Yucatan. Mexico, the most important of the ciij^nate jieoples constituting the JIayan stock ( q.v. ). In l.")! 1 the first landing was effected by the Siiaiiianls on the coast of Yucatan, at the sacred island of Cozumel. In 1.526, Mexico hav- ing already fallen, the first attempt was made upon the peninsula. In 1539 the Spanish com- mander. .Montejo. entered Chichenltza. and a year or two later the Spanish Government was declared established, the capital being fi.xed at the new city of Merida in 1542. The country was mapped out into tribute districts; missionaries began to Christianize the natives, and in their zeal destroyed as heathen abominatiims the na- tive temples and records wherever found. Resist- ance was crushed out by wholesale massacres and the Maya sovereignty was at an end. The war- like Itza ((j.v. ), who had previously retired be- J'ond the Ouat<'mala border, maintained their in- dependence until 1097. In 1848 occirred a gen- eral rising throughout the peninsula, the Indians seizing the opportunity afl'orded by internal troubles in Mexico. Massing their forces in fliousands, they took one city after another, burn- ing and destroying everything and consigning to indiscriminate massacre whole garrisons and populations. The entire strength of the Mexican Government was invoked to jiut down the reliel- lion. The ilaya of the northern and central area were finally subdued, while the more deter- mined warriors retired to the difficiilt region along the southern coast, where they continued to defy the Jlexican armies for more th.Tn half a century, while maintaining friendly relations with the Enalish of Belize, from whom they obtained their firearms and ammunition. The end came in May. 1901. when by means of a combined land and naval approfich the Mexican army drove the independent Mava. about 15.000 in number, from their last citadel of Chan-Santa Cruz, opening up to the now civilization a region never before traversed by wliite men. The present number of those speaking the Maya language is about 'MH),- 000, about one-third of whom are mixed bloods, or persons of European descent who have adopted the language as their own. For general cliar- aeteristics, see Jl.iV.vN StocIv. MAYAGUEZ, ma-ya'gwas. The capital of the Department of JIayaguez, and the third largest city in Porto Kico, situated near the western coast on the Mayaguez Kiver, which is crossed by several bridges (Map: I'orto Kico, A 2). Its harbor consists of an extensive and well-sheltered, but shallow roadstead, in which heavier vessels have to anchor a mile from shore. The industries of the city are insignificant, but it is an important centre of the coffee trade of the island, and it exports, besides coffee, consider- able quantities of sugar and oranges, chietiy to the United States. Population, in 1899, 15,187. MAYAN (mii'yan) STOCK. A group of cog- nate tribes or nations occupying the States of Vera Cruz, Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas, in Mexico, with the greater part of Guatemala and a small portion of Salvador, and exhibiting in their ancient native culture the highest aboriginal development found upon the American continent. The stock includes six lan- guages, with nearly thirt}- dialects, the princi- pal nations being the Huastec of northern "S'era Cruz; the Maya proper of Y'ucatan peninsula, with the Itzd and Lacandon, speaking the same language, across the Guatemala frontier; the Tzcntal, in Tabasco and Chiapas; the Pokom, in the Vera Pas district, central Guatemala ; the Mam, on the Chiapas-Guatemala frontier; and the Quiche and Cakchiquel, speaking dialects of one language, in southern and western Guatemal.a and northern Salvador. Their combined popula- tion is probably not far short of two million. According to all historical and traditional evi- dence, the Mayan tribes emigrated from the far north at a very early period, probably not far from the beginning of the Christian Kra. As they advanced along the shore of the Mexican Gulf they left the Huastec as a detached colony at the north of the Panuco River on the northern fron- tier of the present State of Vera Cruz, while the rest proceeded southward into Chia]ias and Y'uca- tan, and thence still southward into fiuatemala. The date of their arrival in Y'ucatan seems to have been as early as the middle of the fifth century. Guatemala was probably occupied not long afterwards, as the Quiche chronicles are said to go back more than eight hundred years before the Conquest, or to aI>out 700 a.d. The great ruined cities of Uxmal and Chichen-Itzfl date back from twelve to fourteen centuries, while Palenque antedates all American historical records. Physically the Mayan peoples are dark, short, broad-headed, and muscular. In pre-Columbian times they had attempted a high grade of civil- ization. Agriculture was their main depend- ence, corn being the principal crop, to which were added beans, peppers, and cacao, the last, together with pieces of copper, being used among the Maya proper as the ordinary standard of value. Bees were domesticated for their honey and wax. Cotton was spun for clothing and dyed and woven into fabrics which rivaled silk in delicacy. The lands were held in common by each village and were parceled out by the