Arizona weekly citizen., 1882-03-12
SUPERSTTTIOys OF THE MINES.
Tsild stories Of The Supernatural Tod AElocs tho Mexican and milan M.nsrs O; Tho Far Wss-.
INs~ YorkworldI

Mexican and milan M.nsrs of Tho Far Tss--
 iNs's York World
 As class, there are no more super
 stitiOus men than miners, nor have any
 class more ssrauSe and eerIe conceptions.
 To the miners ~e owe some of the most
 beautiful as well as some of the most
 grotesque and horrible of the many
 strange beliefs which have existed among
 the uueducafed. The men m the far
 North invented the Trolls. odd little be
 lngs supposed to act Gs guardians over
 the treasures of rbc earth These in
 Germany and the HaTtz Mountains be-
 came the Nixles, the name being chan e
 ed while the Oe.nss remained the same.
 In the Hartz tLe terrible Demons or
 Spirits were supposed tIlive, beings whO
 seemed to unite m themselves all uf tn.
 cruelty and the malevclence the mnd of l man could conceive. Farther south. in ! Spain, they sGbtly imagined Diahli,as
 peeped out Of every glObule of guIcksi-
 yer at Almaden. We have to-day m the | divining-rOd. SD firmly believed in by the [ Cornish miners, a relic, and one of the
 few that remain to us, of the days of the 1
 alehemists, of the search for the philos.
 pher's stone, and the belief in the subtle
 aud, one might almost say, spiritual sf- ' tiuities of the metals. ! The miners of the West represent a strange cOEA Alomoiat.o.i Us men. The ! English, Welsh and Germans brought all 1 | 1f the Old World superstitions with | | them, and found themselves among a | \ class of men ID the Mexican camps who I [ could equal and Tn some cases surpass 1 | theirs. The Mexicaus drew their tales | ! gr,v,, -f. | fOrefgthers, and the AZtecs and Toltecs. | | found ln the country when their fore ! ! fathers conquered it. Strange are the | ! beliefs and stories that have grown cut | | Of the union of these superstitious elc- | rnents. Things are lucky or unlueky | | because possibly some worker in the | | Hartz said SD 5OO years ago. or some old | IOltec had it of nightmare at an | | equally remote period. One of the most ! | commonly believed tales Is that of the I ! "Step Devil The men tell you that l l m some Of the oldest mines there IS an | evil spirit which takes the form of a de- | ! formed dwarf. 4 pecularity about him | l IS that he has immensely long arms, | arms so long that he can take of his | sandals without stepping. This dwarf, when there IS any danger in the mine,
 such as cave, goes up the ladders, lift I ing himself by his arms. with his leg
 hanging free. As he passes oach ruug he kicks or stamps t out Of the siGe pieces, so that the men when they at- tempt to fly find that all the means o' climbing out are destroyed In the very old mines, which were worked D, | the Indians, there were no ladders bU In their place trunks of trees iB whici nOtches had been cut. and the Iudiau-
 I.a.N tvsr r. Al [ nOtches. When the Indians tell yOu ui | the "Step Devil they say that he has or
 each big toe sn enormous nail and a,
 he climbs the tree trunk he uses this to gouch ont the notch by splitting of the
 part on which the toe rests. The story ! Is evidently an Indian one, although altered by the Nexicaus to suit the
 means of going up au down tLe shaft.
 THE NADEE D'oRo
 A story about which there IS a fascira- tion which it is impossible to resist whei. you hear men tell 1t Is that of the "Hom5 of the Gold" Somewhere in SOutl.-
 western New MeIlco. in the Sierra Ma dre. 1t Is said there is wonderful valley | Small, incl0sed by high, rocky walls, and accessible only through a secre
 passage, which k known tO but few. i> this extraordinary place. IL IS about ten acres m extent. has running through it a stream which waters 1t thoroughly ant makes 1t perfect paradise. with it's ey- quisite flowers and beautiful trees. IT. it are thousand nf h--de 0f 4i,a -e4.s brilliant piumage Running across It i~ ledge uf pure gold gb1ut thirty fee, ! wide, which glistens in the sunlight lib, a great golden belt. The stream crosse this ledge, and as 1t turns. murmur- l around block Of yellow metal as Othei streams do among the pebbles This ledge of gold IS supposed to be soliu gold and to run down into the centre ! of the earth. The legend is of Indian l origin, and around it clusters a nun | Der of Indian stories in which the l name of the iil-fsted MonteHuma occur, frequent. The descendants of the Az tees believe firmly that the day will come when MOntezuma return and free them fr, m the dOuinatiOu of the ConquistO- dOres- They believe that the mOney necessary for thls work will be taken | from the Madre q Gro. The secret O. the entrance into the valley k supposed tO be carefully guarded by a tribe Of h. di;ns living near it, and among them it Is only communicated to the oldest mel amid the solemn ceremonies of the med icIHe lodge. Having such a story {, work upon, q ere Is wonder that the viv l i'd imagination of the Mexicans should have built upon 1t tales of men who have ! found this wonderful place. One is thai ! a certain Jose Alvarez, who, wandering through the mountains Tn search Of game I saw the valley from the top of one of tn, | walls. Finding that he could not hope | to enter 1t by climbing down, he took uI his abode with the Indians who guar,i l the canyon leading into 1t. The daughter of the chief fell in love with him and be- trayed the secret to hin. Exactly how | she found it out they do not tell. Hav 2 ing been shown the entrance Jose wen in and would possibly have got ava, . with some Of the gold hal he not lef weight, d down (, such an extent tha he could not get Up the deciivIty at tht , lower end of tbe passage He was di- covered and tine Indians sacrificed him , on the golden ledge with an of the ter rible ceremonies of the old Aztec Telie Ion. The gisi m despair al losing him. threw herself from the high walls into th, valley beIow. Hundreds Df prospectors have spent months of toil trying tO find t the Madre dOrO, but 1t is scarcely necessary to say, with no result.
 Miners m .tEe quartz mines beiev, that tine rats-there are thousands O. . them in mines that are being worked ? can tell when an earthquake or cave iu s the walls of the mine IS coming. The, claim that before anything of the kiuu l occurs the rats will be seen trying {, 6 crowd into the cages or buckets as th, . case may be, in which the ore is hoistei to the surface. There is a similar belief . about the cOckroachas, which are said to crawl up the shaft before an accident - happens. d
 It sometimes happens that in the clay q "casings," or seams Of clay between the le lge pal the rock on each side of 1t. punches of wire silver are found. In northwestern Arizona this IS frequentis the case. These punches consist of pure silver m the form Of wire curiously mat ted together. The MeGicans and Indians $ account for them by saying the silver dis likes the rock m which 1t finds itself and tries to get out. Reaching the clay II finds that there k more rock beyond and SD m despair stavs where 1t is more | fanciful explanation which is sometimes given IS that the matted punches Ofsilyer ~ wne were orig nflly little suakes turned II into metal and placed in there as pun for having offended tie Great a Snake God. q
 BEvITCHED AKEAsTRAs.
 One of the oldest superstitions is that O