gems, jade, Guatemala, Mesoamerica, Maya, Mayan culture, Mexico, Chiapas

We have in Yucatan and the country to the southward an unusual opportunity to study side by side a people, one part of whom has been under the full influence of the Spanish civilization since the earliest days of the Conquest, and the other part which has never felt any outside influence strong enough to show any appreciable effect upon their language, their customs or their religion. Under the first category come the Mayas of Yucatan and under the second the Lacandones living along the head waters of the Usumacinta River in northern Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico. The Maya language as spoken in Yucatan stands out as one of the surprising evidences of the force of perpetuation of a native language in contact for centuries with a Latin tongue.