Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1870-11-17
Sslest 8eadiu0.
STRANGE SORT CEMErEaY.

Travellers in South America have made
many strange discoveries there, strange
indeed as those occasionally reported in
the tabled and ever Interesting East.
One of the latest is described as sort of
cemetery above ground. 1t is in the
desert Of Atacama, plateau in the won
derful Andes, at an elevation of about
four thousand feet above the level Of the
sea. The on ly evidence that men ever
existed there, is that human bodies, as
we'll as those Of mules and horses, are
scattered about upon the waste, shriveled
and dried to mumles by the parching
atmosphere. A recent traveller in that
region gives graphic account of what
re saw. from which he selected hiss de-
scription Of the cemetery without graves.
'.tTwo day journey from Calama, over
the dazzling sand and through the sitting
dust, brings the traveller to Chin Chin, an
ancient Peruvian burying place still with
in the bounds Of Atacama
"And here in reserve for him is
spectacle which one might affirm has not
its like upon the face of the earth. 1t is
called cemetery, by which we under
stand place for the interment of the
dead. But here the dead are not buried
Seated in large cemicircle one beside
another are the mumied remains of an
assemblage Of human beings--men, wo-
men and children-to the number Of five
or six hundred, all apparently in the
places and attitudes which they first &C.
cupie5, and which they have Kept for
ages. They sit in the sand immovablc,
as in solemn council, gazing vac,ntly
with sunken eyeballs into the arid waste
before them. Nearly all are in the same
position, though some have fallen down,
and apparently covered with sand. The
hot, dry air has preserved them as imper-
ishable as the en- balming arts has the bod.
les of Egypt. e. q.
what is the explanation of so strange
a scene? Who are these who now
constitute this CHASTITY company :?
Where, and how, and why did they first
take their places in this vast cemicircle
"A thousand questions may be asked,
but few answered. The inhabitants of
the country who live nearest the spot
have no knowledge on the subject. Some
th ink that the bodies were brought hither
and placed in that position after death.
aud that such deposit was to serve the
purpose of burial But where could the
people have lived who brough. their dead
to this spot? There is no habitable re-
gion at any convenient distance, and no
place of Similar design is known to exist,
to prove that it was a custom common to
the aboriginal population.
Others believe that this may have been
the remnant OF native tribe, hunted and
pursued by enemies, and driven to des-
perate choice between two evils: to die by
their act or by the weapons of their foes.
There are mothers with infants i'll their
arms, among the mumies, and it IS even
thought that the dried and shrunken
rotain sufficient expression
to indicate that some grievous calamity
had overtaken or was about to befall
them 1t may be their fancy, but tray
elers aver that grief and despair may be
traced Upon these shriveled features, and
they are ready to believe that the posses
sors might have been rssresting before
the conqueror of their country (perhaps
from Pizarro himselD and that sooner
than submit tamoly to the rapacious and
cruel invaders, they preferred to HIDE I
in this dreary and inaccessi-
be spot, and to suffer the agony of vol
untary death, sustained by such comforts
and hopes as their simple faith could af-
ford. We cannot tell but there is
spot on the border Of this desert called
Tecuman, which in tho Indian language
means All is lost Perhaps the name
.-.h = 80 -.