Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-04-29
From C. N. Holford's New Mexican
Sketches.
ORIENTAL REsEMBLANcEs.

are the oldest in America, notwithstapd-
ing that churches yet stand in Cuba,
built during the governorship of Velas-
quez, years before white man ever
set foot on the mainland of North
America. have seen it stated that
the Spaniards located in Santa Fe in
1910, which was nine years before
Cortez landed at Vera Cruz, the oldest
established Spanish post on the main
land. Would you believe these writer's,
the first view of the New World Column
bus got must have been, not of the low
shores of San Salvador, but of the lofty
brow of "Old Badly or he must
have landed from balloon in front of
the old Palace. OF the antiquity of
this old Palace, too-the government
house of the Pueblo. the Castilian, the
Mexican and the Gringo-we see re-
markable, not to say improbable, ac-
counts.
But there is to be seen here in New
Mexico the impress of a civilization
(the Arabic) older than that of Europe,
older than that of ancient Rome. And
there are some grounds for believing
that the ancient Pueblo civilization
which the Spanish conquerors found
here and to great extent displaced, is,
II not the direct offspring, at least the
kindred of the civilization of the Egypt
of four thousand years ago. The char
acter of many of the ancient ruins from
Zuni to Palenque and Copan, the type
OF heads and features sculptured on
them, the pottery of the Pueblos and
Navajos-all, if not exactly resembling
those of ancient Egypt, resemble moth
ing else in the world so much. The
wooden pillow used by the Indians of
New Mexico is of the exact type found
sculptured upon monuments that were
old before the walls of Troy were built.
The character of the country and eli
mate considerably hightens these re-
semblances. Standing near one of
these Indian pueblos and reading a
page of Bayard Taylor's journey up the
Nile, you might easily fancy as you
look around that the great traveller was
describing the scene before you. The
rude houses of sun baked mud with oc-
casional bits of vineyard about them;
in the background the barren flats or
the low yellow sandhills; in front the
broad river, its turbid waters changed
to cleaning silver by tie slanting rays
of the sun; and over all the pale, hot,
quiet. cloudless sky. The dusky in
habitants in their scanty white cotton
garments moving languidly about, the
asses plodding afield or standing with
mournfully dropping heads. and the
rude, antique looking implements seen
here and there, harmonic well with
the rest of this picture of ancient Egypt.
rs il were.
| have said that Spanish New Mexico
bears tokens of the influence of the
Arabian civilization, and it may not be
clear at first sight how it can be so.
1t will be remembered that the immedi-
ate successors of the great Arab proph-
ct carried their conquering arms and
fanatic faith, not only to the walls of
Vienna on the north. but along the
whole southern coast of the Mediter-
ranean, then swarmed up into Spain,
crossed the Pyrenees and overran half
of France. Though the mace of Charles
Martel crushed their front at Poitiers
and the swords of the Paladins scourged
them back across the mountains, they
held possession of more or less of Spain
for nearly eight hundred years. Not
only did this long dominion of so ener-
getic race deeply impress. Spanish
customs and architecture, and mingle.
no doubt, much of its blood with the
Spanish race, but when the last king
of the Spanish Moors yielded the KEYS
of his capital to the consort sovereigns
of Aragon and CASTLE and babe adieu
forever to the Alhambra's marble halls.
many thousands of the Moors remained
behind still further to impress their
characteristics upon Spain When
they were finally expelled eighty years
later by the foolish bigotry of Philip IL,
Spain lost in them her most substan-
tial ctizens-her most skillful meehan-
les and enterprising traders. But, even
thus it is estimated that there are 60, 900
MoreScoS, or persons of Moorish descent,
in Spain. 1t is highly probable that so
fine an opportunity for adventure as
was opened by the discovery of the
New World was embraced BY thous-
ands of an adventurous race whose an
cestors carried their banners over two
thousand leagues of conquest in Europe
and Africa. and it is not unlikely that
many of these Morescos were in the
vanguard of the ConquistadorcS.
Santa Fe, except in its new American
features, is type of the remote, half
Moorish towns of Estramadura three
hundred years ago. The influence of
the rest of Europe has greatly changed
Spain since the days of Charles V, but
that influence fell far short of New Mex
leo. In n few hooks of Spain hun
dred years ago were remnants of these
things which had already vanished
from the more accessible localities.
Cadalso, IN his Cdrtas Marruecas, writ
ing from one of these hooks, SAYS, 1.-THE
somber costumes. the women secluded
in the houses or appearing on the streets
only with faces muifled in black shawls.
the houses with their blank street walls
jealousy hiding the inner courts, and
many other things, have made me
look into the almanac to see if it was
really the year 1865, or the year 1900"
Many of these things to be seen in Spain
only in the hooks n hundred years ago,
could be seen in some New Mexican
owns in the year 1880.
The ancient architecture of the New
Mexicans is decidedly Moorish-al-
though in the matter of public build
Al.