The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1870-09-01
A Strange Sort Of Cemetery.

Travellers io South America have made
many strange discoveries there-as strange
indred, as those occasionally reported in the
fabled and ever interesting East. One of the
latest is describedof sort of cemetery above
ground. 1t is in the desert of Atacama, a
plateau 10 tho wonde rful Andes, at an eleva-
tion Of about four thousand feet above the
sea. The only evidence that men ever ex-
isted there is that human bodies, as well as
those Of mules aud horses, are scattered about
upon the waste, dried and shriVelled 70
mummies by the parching atmosphere. A
recent traveller in that region gives IA graph
ic account of hat he saw, from which we
select his description of the cemetery with
out graves:
Two days journey from Calama. over the
dazzling sand and through the sitting dust
brings the traveller to Chin Chin. an ancient
Peruvian burying place still within the
bounds Of Atacaua.
And here in reserve for him is a specta
Gle which one might safely affirm has not its
like upon :he face Of the earth, 1t is called
cemetery, by which we understand place
for the intermert of the dead. But here the
dead are not buried. Seated in large seai-
circle one beside another are the mummied
remains of an assembIage of human beings
men, women and chidrcn-to the number
of five OF six bundI ed, all apparently in the
places and attitudes which they first occu
pied. and which they kept perhaps for ages.
They sit III the sand, immovable, as in sol
emn council, gazing yacantly, with sunken
and dried eyeballs, into the arid waste be-
fore them. Nearly all are in the same posi-
tiOn, though some have fallen down, and are
partly covered with sand. The hot dry air
has prese rived them as imperishably as the
embamiug art has the bodies of Egypt
"What is tie explanation of SO strange
scene2 Who are these that now constitute
this PhastIy company? Where. and how,
and why did they first take their places in
this vast semicircle2
"a thousand questions may be asked, but
few answered. The Inhabitants Of the coun-
try who live nearest the spot have no knowl-
edge on the subject. Some think that the
bodies were brought hither and placed in
that position after death, and that sach de-
posit was toserv the purpose of burial
But where could the people have lived who
brought their dead to this sput2 There is
no hebltable region at any convenient dis
tance, and no place of similar design is
known 20 exist, TO prove that it was Gus
tom common II the aboriginal population
''Others believe that this may have been
the remnant of a native tribe, hunted and
pursued by enemies and driven TO deSper-
ate choice between two impending evils t.
die by their act or by the weapon of their
foes. There are mothers with infants in
their arms among the mummies, and il is
even thought that the dried and shrunken
countenances retain sufficient expression 10
indicate that some grievous calamity had
ov0rtaken or was about to befall them 1t
may be their fancy. bnt travellers aver that
grief and despair may be traced upon these
shrivelled features, and they arc ready to be-
lieve that their possessors might have been
retreating before the couqueror of their
country (perhaps from Pizarro himself) and
that sooner than submit tamely 10 the rapa>
cious and cruel invaders, they preferred to
hide themselves in this dreary and inaccessi-
BILE spot. and to suffer the agony of a volun-
tary death. sustained by such comforts and
hopes as their own simple faith could afford.
We cannot tell but there is spot on the
border Of this desert called Tucuman, which
in the lndian language means "All is lost +"
Perhaps the name cOmmemorates the heroic
resolution Of those united people as they
sought the desert for selfimnoiation.
''lt is said. too. by those who have studied
the religious ideas Of the ancient Peruyians,
that they believed in selfsacrifice fer their
country; that thus dying they would be
speedily removed to better land toward
the west"