Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-11-28

CdHi p-llTeS lldl DidZeu at nlSnt 10 lllBulei
away possible wild beasts, the sanguinary
dreaded gnats called xin-rins, scorpions.
centipedes, etc.: and the shrieks of the
ladies when big but badly-scared rattle
snake made his hasty exit from under the
bed of freshly-cut boughs upon which their
blankets were spread for the nights repose.
Next morning, while breakfasting upon the
trunk of a fallen tree our attention was
attracted by strong smell of roses, though
not rose was in sight. Was the miracle
of Santa Guadalupe at Tepeyacas about to
be enacted? Diligent search revealed,
under the bark of the log upon which we
sat, several of those sky-blue insects with
scarlet feet, whose name we have forgotten,
but with whose habits naturalists are fami-
liar. They are most common in the sandy
soil of the coast, and are used by the ladies
to perfume their linen, as our grandmothers
used thyme and lavender.
On the evening of the second day we
arrived in good spirits at Papantla, a small
village about six miles from the main pyra-
mid. The instant a stranger shows HIM
self at the wretched little hotel, he is
besieged by guides and mule-owners-it
being taken for granted, and with good
reason, that he can have come for no other
purpose than to explore the neighboring
ruins. Happily, one intelligent Anglo
Saxon lives here-Dr. Aubrey, an American
physician-who is delighted TO give the
tourist allneeded information and to super
intend his preparations for the short but
difficult journey into the wilderness. When
the sun rose upon the ruins the morning
following our arrival at Papantla, it found
four pairs of American eyes, filled with awe
and wonder, gazing upon the
RELICS OF AN UNKNOWN AGE.
For centuries after the Spaniards had
possessed themselves of this country the
Indians jealousy concealed from them all
knowledge of these monuments, and they
were accidentally discovered by party OF
hunters as late as 1850. What manner of
people built them, and lavished the work
of lifetime upon their adornment, none
can say with certainty, since they passed
away in the morning of time and left no
records except in undecipherable hero
glyphics. Numerous volumes have been
written concerning the early peopling
savants, after wrangling over the
point for years, have given it up
as an unguessable conundrum, and
therefore we will not be so presumptuous
as to hazard an opinion. Some wiseacres,
seeking to find the root of the human tree
in the Bible, have ascribed the mighty
monuments scattered all over Mexico and
Central America to the sons of Noah. the
Jews, Egyptians, Canaanites, Phonecians
and Carthagenians; others to the ancient
Greeks, Scythians or Chinese Many
equally good authorities believe the abort
gines of this continent to have been a sep
crate race, not descended from the same
father Adam as the rest of mankind but
created or " evoluted on the spot; while
others are certain that they sprang from
some races which escaped that great mum
dation by which most of the human
family persisted. Able writer's have labored
to prove that the sea and land have changed
places, that the two continents have been
Joined together, and rent aSunder by earth
quakes, and consequently at some remote
period the inhabitants of either could have
passed over dry shod, and that Atlantis
the great island which Plato says was the
ancient seat of civiliZation-has been swal-
lowed up in midocean. Yet after centuries
of speculation and theory the world is no
wiser than before, so far as positive knoyl-
edge is concerned. This
PYRAMID OF PAPANrLA
Is not built of bricks or CLAW mixed with
whinstones, as most of those in Mexico
but of immense blocks Of porphyry, in the
seams OF which mortar may still be dis
tinguished. The base of the pyramid is an
exact square, each side eightv-tvo feet
long, with perpendicular height of sixty
feet. Like all Mexican teocallis. or places
of human sacrifice, it is composed of six
successive stages, great stairway leading to
the truncated summit. Hieroglyphics and
strange fgures-such as serpents, frogs and
crocodiles-Are carved in relief on the
faced stones of each story; while the
square inches, 366 in number, have given
rise to conjecture that they had some re-
hgious connection with the ancient Toltec
calendar. The twelve additional inches in
the stairway toward the east, NAV have
stood for the twelve useless or intercal-
ated days at the end of their cycle.
This ediiice is remarkable, not so much
for size as for perfect symmetry, the polish
OF the stones, and the regularity of their
cut. In his great work ON New Spain
Baron Humboldt refers to the analogy of
the brick monuments of Mexico to the
temple of Belus at Babylon and the pyra-
mlds near Sakhara, in Egypt. He says:
= There are in Anahuac pyramids of sew
eral stages, in the forests of Papantla, at a
small elevation above the sea: and in the
plains of Cholula and Teotihucan. at ele-
rations surprising those of our passes in
the Alps. We are astonisbed to see in re-
gions most remote from one another, and
under climates of the greatest diversity,
man following the same model in his ed
tices. his ornaments, his habits, and even
the form of his political Institutions"
The whole State of Vera Cruz is
RICH IN RUINS,
And doubtless others are still undiscovered
in the depths of unexplored forests. or COW
cred by lakes-like that submerged city of
great antiquity which has recently been
found at the bottom of Laguna del Tamia-
huac. Then there is the great pyramid.
miles westward. near Tusapan:
the wonderful teocallis, called Ell Tain
the extensive ruins near Coyutla, near the
river Tecolutla; crumbling cities hidden in
the hills of Tamiico; the colossal remains
of TaillO; ancient towers and temples on
the Rio Panneo; the pyramid of Misantla,
thirty miles north of Jalapa, and another
Of surprising interest at Mapica
Like dutiful Scrlbes, we climbed the fiItv-
seven high steps that led to the top of Pa
pantla's pyramid, and tried TO fancy the
feelings of the wretched victims who, cen
turtles ago, went up those crumbling stairs
to a horrible death. Being on the spot. it
requires no great stretch of imagina-
ton to hear the beat of the lugu-
brlouS war drum to see ourselves
as u mournful procession of trembling
captiv,s forced TO the sacrifice, and the
priests-those frightful
with flowing locks and scarlet
waiting upon the summit with their
rude knives Of volcanic glass, to tear out
our living hearts as an oblation to their
gods
No pen can do justice to that melancholy
scene, as We stood at nightfall among the
ruins of people long passed away Where
are the hands that wrought, and whittier
in infinite space has this strange religion
carried the souls that worshiped here,
ages ago? The winds. wailing through the
painless forest, seemed full of voices clamor-
ing to answer-but in unknown tongues,
whose legends we could not comprehend
FANNIE B. WARD.
The Grand Aims of Life
Are utilities to the chronic invalid What
io him, ORC tho ro,rorJ- ~ a,,,b;+;1,, A. %