The weekly Arizona miner., 1872-08-17
ABORIGINAL THEOLOGY.

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 of all Indians is the same, or nearly the same, SO that if a man meets another belongin9 'o different tribe, he is able to converse with him bv means of signs. much in the same manner that deaf ard dumb people converse with one another. Some of the gestures used by them on these occasions are exceedingly graceful. An aborigine from the far North is able to ask all questions he wishes to from an Indian who has been reared m the far South. and he. in turn, is able to give all the information desired and all this without word having been spoken on either side. 1t is as silent as the movements Of the Indians themselves, and all who have lived among them know how noislessly they move about, and how suddenly they appear, like aspectre at one's side It seems that this language has existed from the highest antiquity, and originated in the necessities of men who were obliged to earn living by hunting, which requires the greatest silence and caution in order to approach the wild beasts of the forests The children are trained in this school of silence, and taught the language of signs from their earliest infancy.
 In order to show that what has been said regarding the idioms of the Indians having sprung from one tongue is bourne out by facts, the following examples are given: In the Re- publc of Mexico there is a state named Mich oacan. which is almost like our own state of Michigan; Cheriqui, in Central America, IS pronounced exactly like our Indian word Cherokee; Yuma, a river in Santo Domingo, is the same as Yuma, in California; Eutah, in South Carolina, is the same as Utah, m the West, though spelled differently; and the name of the Pi-Ute Chief, Winnemucca, in Nevada, is nearly the same as the name of the Pottowatomie Chief, Winnemac, who lived in Indiana, and died three years ago; and there are towns in each of these states named after them respectively. The Chief of the Bannacks is named Tyghee, which IS the same as the Chinook Tyee-a name given to all head men or chiefs. There Is no such thing as chance about this matter; the Ind lans at some time, all spoke the same lang uage and there is ample proof of it at the present day. The list given above could be greatly extended were it necessary to do so, but enough examples have been given to prove to any unpredjudiced mind that the whole of America, North and South, was at one time inhabited by tribe of Indians who spoke tongue which has left its traces on earth after ages of time.
 Whether the origin of the Indian tribes will ever be satisfactorily traced, it is difficult tO COIleCLuTc, uul hhO"h oh "hiNh to commence operations.
 The Indians were never civilized or even half civilized; and their condition in Mexico at the time it was invaded by Cortez, and, as it is given by Prescott, is the merest fable. They had no great cities; had no great build ings; and their numbers have been over-esti mated in the most outrageous manner. It was to the interest of Cortez to make the King of Spain and the Spanish people believe that he had conquered a civilized people and a numerous one The fact is, he did nothing of the kind. He took the town which is now occupied as the site of the City of Mexico, and found therein, considerable amount of gold. but he found no imposing edfices--no house which has stood to the present day and a people so few in numbers that the handful of Spaniards and the Tlascalans, who followed him, killed them all out of hand, and destroyed their town utterly. It is con ceded that the Tlascalans were next in power to the Aztecs. They had, 1t is said, large town. and it is not claimed that their town was ever destroyed. What has become of it9 There they live to this day, improved greatly, it is true, by their contact with the whites; few in numbers; by no means rich; with no traces of an imposing city, and no signs that there ever was one. l believe the pyramid of Cholula is a natural hill, and l have been on it and all over it. That it WAS used as place of sepulture, believe is true; but it was on a natural hill, on which the Indians built square building made of small white bricks, the size of a mans hand. It Is time that we should begin to take common sense view of matters. Whoever saw the buildings which Stephens says he saw in Cen tral America, except himself and his compan- ions No one. His imagination ran away with him, aud he exaggerated every thing lf the Indians had made such stately buildings as some travellers would have us believe, 1t Is A little singular that such buildings should he so inaccessible, and there should be so few of them left. The renowned halls of the Montezumas were nothing more than series of mud built houses, such as are now called adobe, poorly constructed and without furni- ture. The conquerors wished to have their countrymen believe they had overpowered a race of kings, as 1t was fashionable Tn those days to worship kings and potentates. But the ancient Mexican kings were squalid race and scarcely deserving the name. The cruel ty which the Spaniards manifested towards them, the wholesale robbery of them, the carrying them off as slaves and the total ab- sence of all principle in the treatment of the halfarmed and almost totally helpless Indians form picture not pleasant to contemplate.
 4 pleasing fiction of some honest and up right Western men is what is known as the operations of the "mound builders"
 A few rude traces of some old earth works arc found in Ohio. which are looked upon as something wonderful. In fact, they are not wonderful at all, and scarcely worthy of mo- tice. This want of a definite history of America before its discovery by Columbus has given rise to some curious works, and, among the rest, the Mormon Bible, written by the Rev. Solomon Spaulding. Mir. Spaulding said he would write a book which people hereafter would believe was the true account of the history of the tribes of America, or at least of their passage across the Atlantic Ocean: and the Norman Bible is nothing more or less than an account of said passage. It is quite an interesting work, and no doubt future generations of men will believe th's book as being full account of the peopiing Of this continent by one of the wandering tribqt of Asia.
 Whom this country was discovered, 1t was very sparsely populated; and it is probable