The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-09
American Antiquities.

American Antiquities.
WHILE lately engaged in looking over the
pages of some French illustrated papers, our
attention was arrested by series of views OF
the great Pacific Railroad, road about
passing through a country Of which scarce
path for man was known up to within very
few years. Our thoughts reverted to the times
when not only the section of country about to
be traversed by the great iron road, but the
entire continent was occupied by numerous
races, some Of which have entirely disap
peared, others remaining only in fragments,
while whole tribes have been exterminated.
There are problems connected with the early
history of this country which ethnographers,
naturalists, and arcbeoogists have attempted
in vain to solve. One of the most interesting
we think, is the resemblance between some of
the practices of Central America and some
parts of the East, which engaged the attention
of the great Humboldt when he visited this
country. Since then the researches of Messrs.
Stevens, Catherwood, Squire, and others have
shown some Of the resemblances to have been
most remarkable. A late ingenious writer,
in going over M. de Waldeck's Illustrated
Monuments of Ancient Mexico, has pointed
out the great likeness existing between the
great temple of Palenqu6, and the equally
great temple Of B6ro-B6do in the province of
KedG in the Island of Java, in such manner
as to place beyond all reasonable debate the
common purpose and origin of both. We
cannot enter into the details as reCounted by
this writer, but will give some Of the
most striking. Both are elevated on a series
of graduated platforms or terraces, and are
reached by successive flights of steps facing
the cardinal points; the chambers of both are
disproportionately small, with no apertures
excepting the doorways for the admission of
air and light; their curved ceilings, formed of
stones overlapping each other triangular
wise, and constituting what is known as the
Cycl0pean arch, are precisely alike; the walls
of both are adorned with mytho- -hieroglyphi-
cal tablets, in which the head of the Asiatic
elephant is conspicuous, the meaning of which
has yet to be deciphered; in the sanotuaries Of
both B'huda is represented in colossal dignity
seated oross-legged upon couch or throne,
sustained by crouching leopards, and be-
nignly receiving an Offering of fruit and
flowers from priestess who is kneeling be-
fore him.
Among other matters of interest the won
derful decrease of the population north of the
confines of ancient Mexico is not the least.
Two centuries ago the population amounted
to seventeen millions of souls. 1t is now less
than two millions. Alcoholic liquors, cpl
demical diseases, and forced emigration have
aggravated this frightful mortality.
From the appearance of the mounds and
other remains, coupled with the legendary
history related by the Indians, according to
these traditions, an entire nation, both ply
sically and morally distinguished from the
redskins; race of white men who had been
settled in the country from time immemorial,
were Unexpectedly assailed and overwhelmed
by their enemies. The manifest incompletion
of several of the monuments in the valley of
the Ohio, betokens a sudden cessation of labor
on the part of their constructors, and this
would seem to confirm the terrible reality OF
the Indian legends. Still, they are conjectures.
All that patient investigation can do is being
done, and we must patiently await future dis
closures, if any will be forthcoming, which
may be of a nature to change or add to the
information which we already possess. OF the
material progress of this country, or rather
what that will be on the completion of this
great chain between the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans, our readers need not be told.