The Press. — London, England, 1853-07-30 00:00:00

other we are told to witness the living evidence of an ex tinct civilisation. In the bird-like face of the diminutive Aztec we are called upon to see the living lineaments of a race whose existence is only &satirely hinted at in the sculptured monuments of buried Eastern cities ; iu his at titude, as he crouches upon the carpet in the Hanover square Rooms, we are told to behold the immutable pose of the ancient Mexican gods. Brother Jonathan has found something in the New World older than the oldest in the Old one, and we are called upon to pay our silver and to be lieve. The story told of the antecedents of these children is indeed calculated to awaken curiosity tend to excite in quiry. Two Americans and a Spaniard, having heard of a certain mysterious city in Central America, supposed to be the last remnant of ancient Mexican civilisation—a city with gilded domes and minarets—a sort of little .Japan, holding no intercourse with anybody, and preserving its secrecy so strictly " that the very cocks were kept underground for fear that their crowing should lead to a discovery," de 'ermined to explore it. The two Americans paid for their temerity with their lives; but, if we are to believe the picto rial advert/elements put forth by the proprietors, the Spaniard VeLueques escaped, Bolls-like, with these two children in his arms, stolen, as it is represented, from the sacred altars where they were placed as objects of worship. Of this wonderful tale we wish to say nothing ; and of the children little more than that they are clearly half-bred imbeciles, curious from their dimunitive stature (only thirty-eight inches) and extraordinary appearance, but of no interest in an ethnological point of view, as they most certainly are the type of no race, as their guardians wish to prove, but simple aberrations from the human form. Professor Owen says very justly that their peculiarity consists in an arrested development of the brain-ease ; indeed, the heads of both male and female are fu'tal, not measuring five inches in dia meter, although one is about twelve and the other sixteen years of age at least, as nearly as can 1w judged by the dental proof. The facial single of these children, as w e have before observed, is the facial angle of a bird rather than that of a human being. We should rather say facial angles, for the chin retreats as much as the forehead, proving that they are as deficient in the animal as in the intellectual qualities ; and how any sane person could sup pose that individuals with such configurations of cranium could maintain their own existence, much less that they are types of a race, passes my comprehension. The press in noticing these children seem to have overlooked the fact that they are evidently not of the same parentage. The boy has long curly black air, and is very probably the offspring of a Spaniard and an Indian woman ; the girl, with the same singular expression of features, has woolly hair, derived doubtless from a negro father. We hear much of the intelligence of these children, but I confess I looked for it in vain. Eternal restlessness they have, it is true :so has the monkey. How comes it, I would ask, if they possess such intelligence, that they neither speak nor appear to understand a word of English or any other language, although they have been two years in the United States? Are we to look for this singular muteness in an idiotic chaos or in an " educated silence" ? If these children have been trained so as never to appear to understand anything that is said to them, 1 give up all the rest, and admit a wonder beyond that even of their supposed lineage; but with such skulls their ignorance is capable of a much easier solution. Front these little monstrosities we turn with no small pleasure to the Earthmen, now exhibiting at 71, Quadrant. These two children, a boy of fourteen and a girl of sixteen, are specimens of a diminutive , race to be found in South Africa, in the Orange , River district. They are called earthmen because they build no habitations, but seek shelter in caves and holes in the earth. These little creatures, however, seem not of the earth, earthy. I suddenly opened a door and found myself in a drawing•room, and a very Puck with his Titania, in the blessed livery of nature, barring a few foxes' tails round their waists, were playing at ball, not crouched, like the Aztecs, in a well-studied mystic posture, nor tottering as they do when attempting to walk, as though they were affected with rachitis ; but bounding. leaping, and running, the very pictures of fairy grace, neither of them being more than thirty-nine inches in height. Matinee, the boy, is much more beautiful in figure than his sister Flora ; more exquisitely-formed limbs of the purest brown-bronze colour I never beheld. These children, although so young, have not the half-developed forms of Europeans of the same size ; on the contrary, they seem set and matured in limb, and graceful and assured in action like men and women. Their faces are pleasing rather than otherwise ; the forehead is high, iz t 'Zri t aidithe lips not too thick. The chief peculiarity is the A 745 -1* * 144 . - f i . rt bbest. entire absence of the nasal bones, and the great ~.., i % / k ..,.., „ :..r - :"-- /I . , .... beattteoe:notitel:ehiesyee:gerl,teatnietramanibnleert,owll:;lotuattftel47. cr\---", • ..... i . ; ... . . •,, . . . -/: , , ; ... ...• ': (a • - ' * . i'. .• ‘ - 1. tle4s,.._ THE PRESS. ing that he would soon be at the top form in any of our public schools. Although these children have only come from the interior of Africa sixteen months, they speak English not at all badly; indeed, I beard Martiues call his sister " a muff," because she could not catch the ball. The girl plays little tunes on the piano, and the boy sings nigger songs with a capital notion of time and tune. They are, in fact, getting quite civilised, although a touch now and then of old habits and recollections appears in a very odd manner. "Do you like worms ?" said he, looking into the astonished eyes of a pretty young lady that was nursing him. " 1 do; nice long red ones," remembering with evident delight a favourite dish at home. Our con tenqxwariea, iu speaking of the Earthmen, confound them with the Bushmen, a distinct race : these latter, a most vindictive get of people, poison► the cattle of the Boers, and main► those they cannot manage to lift. The con sequence is, that they are shot down like vermin, by both Calfrea and Dutch colonists, as Gordon Cumming, in his exeiting work, has shown. Very probably the savage Caffre, and the scarcely less savage !Intel' settler, do not care to make the distinction when they are out sport ing, as they never neglect "to bag" these poor little un offending beings when they come across them. The con sequence is that the race is very nearly extinct. The parents of these children were swept off in this manner. It is the intention of their guardians to raise a fund for their support and education. The Ethnological Society intend to take bronze casts of the Earthmen for the gallery illustrative of different races in the Crystal Palace. We trust the society will not fail to add to this collection by taking similar copies of any other undoubted specimens of race which may from time to time appear in Lon don. After speaking of so many foreign celebrities, we must not omit to notice home productions, in the form of the Suffolk prodigies now exhibiting at the Cremorne Gardens. Ilere, too, we have a pair of chil dren, the girl three years old, the boy five years : the latter weighs 1401ba., and is worthy of a place at the next cattle show ; the girl is coming on nicely. My own impression is that they have been stall-fed on oil cake to order, and the only legitimate curiosity that any person can have about them is to know into how many of candles they would melt down. THE AZTECS. TO THE EDITOR OF "Lo THE PRESS." ndon, July 25, 185:1. Sir,—l went last week to visit the so-called Aztec children, whose supposed origin has been made the subject of so much criticism. What I saw fully con firmed my preconceived impression, that the show is an ingeniously got-up trick, probably the work of Barnum or some less distinguished performer in the same line. The children are unlike other children, no doubt. They are almost, I should say quite, idiotic—express themselves by signs and noises like those of an intelligent animal, take little notice of by standers, and appear indifferent even to their keeper. It would be impossible to guess their age or sex. The peculiarity in their organisation which instantly attracts attention is the size and shape of the heads. These are disproportionately small, smaller than that of a new-born baby : the forehead recedes to an ex traordinary degree, and there seems to be hardly any brain. The face protrudes like that of a negro or monkey, more so indeed than that of any African I have ever seen : the lips are large and pouting, the nose prominent, and not flattened as in the ease of negroes, while the chin retreats as sharply as the forehead It would be difficult, if the face and head were seen alone, to conjecture whether they belonged to a human being or to some new species of baboon. The hair is coarse, not woolly, resembling that of a quadroon or half-mulatto; the complexion dark, muddy, and in no way distinguishable from that of Central American Indians generally. Altogether their appearance was to me very disgusting; notwith standing which I saw them kissed and fondled by several well-dressed women—l suppose they would have done the same to an orang-outang. The children are fancifully dressed, and allowed to run about the stage or platform, like a large billiard-table, so as to be completely en eridence from head to foot. I watched them for nearly an hour, and you may, there fore, rely on my description being accurate. They stoop in their gait, which makes it difficult to judge of their height, and there is no spring or elasticity in their movements. You of course know the story that is told about them. A veracious pamphlet, professedly translated from the Spanish, asserts that two American tra vellers, one from Baltimore, the other from Canada, incited by Stephens's well-known description of an un discovered Indian city (of which he. Stephens, had only heard by report). set out in 18-18 to seek it. In Central America they got acquainted with a rich na tive, named Velasquez, whom they persuaded to join their party. The three, travelling together. found the padre, Stephens's host and informant, and obtained guides for their journey of exploration. They crossed SATURDAY, the mountains, saw the city, descended into its neigh. bourhood, were attacked by and defeated a party of Indians, finally obtained leave to enter, resided there some months, watched but unmolested, awl finally escaped, taking with them these children, whom they represent as objects of worship, together with the priest who guarded and tended them. It is singular that the two Americans are described as having died, one in the city, the other during his homeward journey ; so that the whole tale hangs on the un supported evidence of Velasquez, a native of the country, of whom nobody has since heard. The es caped priest has likewise disappeared. I have seen this narrative gravely discussed, else it would scarcely be worth criticism. There is a total deficiency, in the first place, of proof; and the story itself is in the last degree improballe. How can a city, three or four miles round, subsist without commerce, and unknown to the rest of mankind? If warlike, its inhabitants must have sallied out to plunder; if industrious, they must have become traders; if timid and retiring, they could not have kept their frontiers inviolate. Then the incidents and description are all evidently modelled on earlier writers ; and there are some blunders of detail (such as con;using the Mexican with the Egyptian style of architecture) which look very suspicious. Stephens, though a traveller, was a man of truth, and his story I believe. There are plenty of Indian villages scattered among the h ills and woods, whose inhabitants neither pay taxes nor obey laws ; some of these, more remote and difficult of access than others, may never have seen the face of a white man. That this is not only possible, but likely, every traveller who knows Spanish America must acknowledge ; and this conceded, it is only necessary to suppose that the good padre from whom Stephens got his information magnified a little the size and importance of some such village which had been pointed out to him from a height. Neither he nor his reporter makes any mention of palaces and temples, priesthoods and human sacrifices, though the latter, by the way, may be real enough. The Bheels of India practised them until lately ; and some tribes of Hindostan do so still in secret. In a word, until some better wit ness is brought forward for this tale than any we have yet heard, I shall rank Velasquez and the Aztecs, like hat-moving and table -turning, among the many attempts at imposture on the public which have not imposed upon A TRAVELLER. PARLIAMENTARY BORES. Dear Mr. Press,—The letters of one of my bro therhood will prove to you that if we do not spsak it is not from ignorance ; and the number of us whose names are to be found in every division will prove that it is not from indifference we are " silent members." I think this will be acknowledged. Then why should the loquacious propensities of those who have no idea—or, at least, no prospect—either of elucidating a subject or converting their opponents, be encouraged at our expense, and at the sacrifice of the time of the country ? For my part I should not grudge my time while I listened to the speech of any member who introduced a measure ; and I should be equally willing to listen to the member who opposed or moved an amend ment to the original proposition. I should even be so generous as to accord my attention to a second speaker on each side, if I only were relieved from the dreary squeaking, interrupted by harsh cries of Divide, divide !"—from "pigs without teats." Divide ! I wish we could divide the teats so as to satisfy a greater number of pigs. But, while I would stop their squeaking, I would not deprive these embryo bores (boars) of all opportunity of enlightening the country. Let them write their notions, and let these treatises be printed by the house, and distributed to the members with the parliamentary papers every morning. We could then, if we chose, read what any clever man had to say on the subject—but allow the pork.butcher to appropriate the productions of his victims. We might then allow Mr. Drummond to enjoy the country in summer, and yet not work ourselves so much in the winter as to lose the com pany of our hunting members. I am at least disinte:ested in my proposal, as I should then cease to exist ; for, with such arrange ments, there could scarcely be such an anomaly as your obedient servant, A July 26, 1853. W EARY MEMBER. Several of the omnibus proprietors have, daring the last week, raised the threepenny fares to fourpence ; since which it has been determined by them generally to make the whole of the rates fottrpence, instead of threepence, as formerly. The hey. W. H. Anderdon, lately vicar of St. Margaret's , Leicester, who left the Church of England some months since, was ordained a deacon on Sunday by Cardinal Wise man, at his eminence's private residence. Mr. S alis Swabe, one of the leading merchants of Man chester, died somewhat suddenly and unexpectedly on Saturday morning last. i d 1