A LEGACY OF LAUGHTER

Of the ancient cultures that arose in Mexico long before the time of Columbus, the Maya is the most renowned. But in the last decade, scholars have become increasingly entranced by the people who once lived around the village of Remojadas near the modern seaport of Veracruz. In speaking of these people, archaeologists use the phrase "the smiling-face complex." for almost every clay figure that is unearthed adds to a growing gallery of grins, chuckles, chortles and belly laughs. A new book called More Human Than Divine, published in both Spanish and English by the National University of Mexico, tells in print about the laughing people of Remojadas for the first time. Its author: William Philip Spratling. 59, the New York-born architect who settled in Taxco in 1929, opened a silversmith shop, in time became a sort of legend as the man who revived in Taxco the proud craftsmanship of the past.

The people Spratling writes about flourished in their amiable fashion between 200 B.C. and the 7th century. Like their neighbors, they worshiped the great god Quetzalcoatl, "Precious Serpent," the lord of wind and sky. And they created in red clay their share of legendary jaguars, frogs, bats and monsters, as well as an array of dolls, whistles and little animals on wheels. But legends and gods, or even toys, were never their primary concern. No people have ever seemed quite so determined to record themselves in the joyful act of just being alive.

They had their vanities: rarely does a headdress, the embroidery on a skirt, or the design of an arm band appear more than once. The small figures gather at carnivals, dance through the night. Even a venerable magistrate, his robes of office wrapped about him, cannot suppress his mirth. A housewife tilts back her head and breaks into a toothy grin. A girl smiles with obvious pleasure, perhaps because of a new and unusual spit curl. A boy swings wide his arms in innocent merriment, while another brings a tiny hand to his lips as if trying to hush his own irrepressible giggles.

With the slow decline of the great Mayan Empire, the lesser kingdoms of ancient Mexico were free to begin fighting in earnest among themselves. What happened to the people of Remojadas--whether they were conquered or became tribute payers to a succession of aggressors--no one knows. All that is known is that gradually the laughter ceased.

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