The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-01-08
MEXICAN WONDERS.
The Great Pyramids of TlascaIa-Hu-
man Saeriflce-The Red Hand.

a wonderful past-half-way between the
shores of the Bay of Campeachy and
the City of Mexico, which in olden
Spain was styled "The Venice of the
Western World" are now to be found
the ruins only of the once powerful re-
public of Tlascala.
Not many leagues away lay the king
dom of the powerful Montezuma.
Thousands of people worshiped and
dreaded him. At the remotest parts of
his kingdom, his subjects we're filed
with awe at accounts of his greatness.
The republic of Tlascala being COM
posed of warlike end valorous people,
it had in early years asserted its indie
pendence, and, though lying in the
heart of the country whose numerous
and petty kings were governed by one
monarch, Montezuma, it had for years
maintained it's right to self government,
and had won the fear and admiration of
all that fierce and warlike people.
Nature had much assisted them in
asserting aud maintaining their own
rights, having given, as she had to
Switzerland, a mountain wall of pro-
lection, which fortified three sides of
their country. Seve-al leagues of the
remaining boundary lay open to the ap-
proach of the much dreaded Aztecs.
Straightway this little nation set to
work, nothing daunted at the prodjg
| Is 81 30 hi
nine feet high and twenty feet thick,
| for distance of two miles-thus COM
pleting the breastworks nature had
thrown up for their benefit.
Seventy-four years ago, at the head
of conquering army, Napoleon cheered
his troops onward to the combat by the
cry of ''Solders of France, forty GEN.
turtles look down upon you =" This was
the battle fought at the foot of the
mighty Egyptian Pyramids, and the
victory was a part of the civilization of
the boyish dreams of the Little Cap
| tain.
Here, on another continent, thousands
of miles away, in the heart of the Tlas-
calan republic, lies another pyramid,
one of the worlds unknown wonders.
Mighty battles have been fought at it's
| base. Terrible massacres have bathed
it's winding stairway in human blood.
Strange and awful professions have
wound around it from base to apex,
worshiping multitude below have knelt
while sacrifices most revolving have
been made on the affairs of its summit
to the Unknown God, the Cause of
Causes"
The great pyramid of Egypt, Cheops,
covers an area of eleven acres, and
rises to height of 486 feet. The Mex
lean pyramids base covers forty,fo four
acres, and its sides rise to the height of
1T feet, while the platform on it's sum-
NIT is more than an acre in extent. Its
walls are composed of layers of brick
and clay.
In olden times, when busy people
thronged this land, this was the great
"Teocalli," or temple. On its summit
affairs were reared, where worship to
the awful Hintzilopotonli was offered.
A stairway roundsthe outside of the
building, leading from it's foot to the
apex; and on the great feast days an
imposing procession of priests, carry
ing in their ranks the prisoners to be
sacrificed in honor of the day, marched
up the pyramids side.
A brilliant spectacle it was, as, clad
in their scarlet robes and bearing gor-
geous banners made Of the feathers of
their tropical birds, they assembled the
stairway in full view of the people,
singing meanwhile chants to the Good
of War" and the "God of Air"
The victims, who for many month
have lived on the best and most fatten-
ing of food the land contained, and
daily been trained for this ordeal, are
brought forth. One by one they are
laid on the altar. A dexterous move
ment makes the keen knife glisten in
the air minute, and then deep cash
in the side is made, the heart is torn
out, reeking with blood and quivering
with life, and the body is quickly borne
away to grace some lordly mansion.
So on and Oh, through the long list
of captives taken in war, or the best
and beautiful of their young men and
maidens, these human butchers slay.
After an attack on the City Of Mexico,
and a defeat terrible for its slaughter
and the prisoners taken, fernando Cor
tez, with handful of followers, resting
on the hills above, looked down upon a
scene like this.
Comrade after comrade was led forth
and slain to appease the bloOd-thirsty,
and their hearts hung in the MONDAY
sun, where they will blacken and die,
until another day of sacrifice chronicles
another dreadful holocaust.
This truth is confessed; that mans worst foe
| is man;
He. he alone No tenant of the wood
Preys on his kind and laps his brothers blood,
| His fellow leads where hidden pitfalls lie,
And drinks with ecstacy his dying sigh.
The remains of the pyramids are
found all through the country of Mexi-
co, and even across the Gulf into Yu-
catan. Most of them are solid through.
out; but in some rooms have been
discovered, though whether they were
intended for tombs, or as the "Holy of
Holes" to the outer temple on their
SUBMITS, no one can tell.
The only voice that comes to us from
their strong depths is that which shows
their kinship with the ruined palaces
that are found in the surrounding coun-
try. This is an impress of a hand laid
fiat against the surface. It is as large
as life, is stained red as blood, and APP
pears on the walls of temple, pyramid
and palace.
Not long ago, on the northern from
tier of Washington territory, the i'm
preston of the same red hand was
found and occasionally, among some
of our Indians, on tents and buffalo
robes, has been some mysterious sign. |
7 IL