Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-12-26
MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY.
A NIGHT AMONG GODS AND
GODDESSES.
Religious Superstitions of the An
cient Aztecs, and Traditions Con-
nected with Teotihuacan.

cient Aztecs, and Traditions Con-
| nected with Teotihuacan.
especial correspondence of the RECORD UNION. /
MEXICO, December 10, 1885.
Having spent long, summer-like day
though really late in December-hunting
for idols and arrow-heads at San Juan Teo-
tihuacan, among the Pyramids of the Sun
and the Moon and the little burial mounds
/ dedicated to the stars, and having eaten a
dinner decidedly al tresco in the Path of the
Dead, Betsy and 1 discovered to our con-
sternation, that we had fingered so long in
the mysteries of the past that there was no
way OF getting back that night to the CITY
OF Mexico. Though most things wait for
women in this happy country, time and
TIDE and the Mexican railway tarry for no.
! body; and there was nothing for it but to
/ camp out" without even a blanket
among the idols and spooks of the Pyra.
mids, or to walk 10 the modern San Juan.
four miles away. Perhaps we might have
| preferred the former, for the romance of
! LIZ hLAAis1i liid II uOL Dtcll lOr the half
| dozen urchins who had followed US all day.
| and who would be sure to make our where
abouts known in the village, which might
prove too strong temptation for midnight
marauderS, did any folk of that illz exist in
Acadia. Therefore-being never UMPIRE
pared for adventures, as becometh the tray-
eler-we turned our Sunburned noses cheer
| fully toward the distant hamlet, with the
spirit OF Don Quixote strong upon us. |
wish l could make you see this funny
LITTLE TOWN OF TEoTIHUAcAN!
Its streets, all radiating from the central
plaza (Which is nothing but bare patch of
| sand with a few adobe seats in the middle).
are hedged by organ" cactus, tower;n.,
from ten to twenty feet in height. Its
| adobe cottages, all of them precisely alike
and looking like ulns,' surround and
appear to depend upon the equally dirty
and dilapidated adobe church; and the cit
liens seem largely composed of adobe also,
from the sun-dried dirt upon their clothes
and compilations, as they stared curiouslv
at las America,os, with their little satcheis
siung on their shoulders, and topped by the
er-before- beheld phenomenon of bon
nets. Of course there is no hotel in the
| town, nor any sort of inn for the entertain
ment of man or beast, neither being ex-
pected IN this out-ot-the-way locality; but
the people are kind-hearted and hospitable,
like all their race, and we are at once
taken in and done for" at the first house
where application is made Like all its
neighbors, the casa, which had been de-
clared by its mistress at our disposal has
only mother earth for floor. At one
! side of its one room q stationary
table, around which puncheln benches
were ranged; straw mats for seats (Which
later served as beds; an adobe shelf
across one corner, which answered the pur-
pose of range and cupboard, and an indie
| scrlbable conglomeration of kitchen truck
hung all over the walls. We are allowed
to consult our own sweet will as to whether
we would sit on the floor or on one of the
backless benches surrounding the festive
board,while our hostess prepared the even
ing meal. The adobe-colored urchins who
had followed in our wake all day did not
| desert us, and their number was augmented
by score of others of. assorted sizes, each
with an apron full of goods to sell. One
of them had a wonderful stone deity nearly
! two feet high with flat nose and enormous
ears, which he importuned me to buy for
un peso-a dollar. Having had a surfeit of
divinities for one day, and caring for moth
ing but supper, | impatiently rendered him
a nlddeO (siX cents, hoping by this means
| to get rid of him and the plan was effect
ual, for he closed with my offer in twink
ling and left me the astonished possessor
OF an image too large for my satchel and
too cumbersome TO carry. | begged the
small boy to trade back, or to take both
idol and madeo, for really didn't require
| the deity, and perhaps should never want
to worship it in.the world but he declined.
and was left with regular white ele-
| plant on my hands. If the natives here
abouts make these idols which for twenty
lrtar lnGsa ct, ~. i
are either remarkably generous, or else 20
to extraordinary trouble to fool travellers.
for no two of them have ever been found
precisely alike and they sell for next to
nothing.
AN EVENING WITH THE NATIVES.
Presently our smiling hostess, covered
with single garment latter the fashion of
the town., announced that the feast was
spread Over the details of that meal it
will be well to draw the veil, for the sake
| OF our own gastronomic reputation merely
remarking that ii the gentle reader had
breakfasted before day light and hunted di-
| whites till dark, he too might have found
appetite for vianGs coEcerffiug whose in
gradients T. 'twere folly 10 be wise" The
! piece dc resistance was large earthe~n
bowl filled with something that looked
| like mud, in which mahogany shavings
" Il
jerked PORK, and while we We're engaged in
fishing for it grunt as of protest, came
| from an unjerked relative III the corner,
where pig had unit that moment been
peacefully sleeping. Thencefurward a run
ming comment uf nasal remcnStrance was
kept up by piggy, who declined 10 remain
longer in his corner, and was pursued to
and fro by the mistress of the casa and
our attendant troop of boys.
No stretch of imagination, nor glamour
of romance, nor effort of good nature
could induce US to believe that the weary
hours which followed were pleasant ones.
The neighbors, fiocking in to view las
AmericatoS, fiilled.the house to suffocation
in conjunction with the occupants already
mentioned, besides few social goats and
| gobblers, creeping babies and other creep
| ing things. There being no beds of any
kind, except the straw mats on the floor
upon which the family reclined, wrapped
up in their Serupes, we begged the privi-
lege of reposing upon the. dining-room
table-a modest request that was readily
| granted. But when our hostess generously
divided with us her own greasy and YER
min-infested blankets, we concluded to
defer tired natures sweet restorer till a
more convenient season. We held hasty
council, declined the coverings and sent
out and purchased supply of candles that
must have exhausted the village stock.
Then, gathering our belongings about us, we
mounted the table and sat in the middle of
it-as the best underground from the
myriad creatures that crawl by night
where, surrounded by burning candles, we
must have looked like wooden saints upon
an altar. And there we sat the long night
through, replying to all questions ON the
part of our entertainers by calmly declar-
ing that it was our custom That settled
it, so far as protest was concerned, for in
this country custom is everything; and in
such respect are the unknown ways OF
Americans held that if we had announced
that we usually stood upon our heads, the
assertion would have been received quite
as matter of course. Luckily my bag
contained an old Spanish book of Mexican
mythology Clavigero's rendering of
THE AZTEC HISTORIAN, IxTLILxoCHITL,
And we amused ourselves till daylight in
translating it into English. And this is