Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1888-04-20
YUCATOES.
The Indians of Yucaran in Three Centuries

The Indians of IuCalau in Three Centuries.
The very first Spaniard who saw an In
dian of Iucatan, says Il writer in the
Philadelphia Record, was Ferdinand Co
lumbus, when lin 1902, having been
driven by adverse currents out of his
southerly course, ne sighted group of
islands off Honduras and captured huge
canoe. The latter is described as wide as
valley and eighty f ct long, formed of
trunk of single tree. 'In the middle
was an awning of palm leaves, hot unlike
those of Venetian gOndOlas, under which
were the women and children and all their
goods. The canoe was directed by TWEEN
ty-fiye Indians, who wore cotton coYerlets
and tunlc5 without sleeves, dyed various
cOlors and cufiously worked, and a cover
ing for the lOins of similar material. The
females wrapped themselves in IGrge
mantel5, like the Moorish women of
Grenada. The men wore long swords,
with channels on each side of the blade,
edged with sharp flints that cut the body
as well as steel. They had copper hatch
cts for chOpping wood, belts of the same
material, and crucibles i'll which to melt
it. For provisions they carried such roots
and grains as the natives of HispaniOla
(Hayti) eat, beside sort of wine, made
of maize, and great quantities of almonds,
of the kind used for money by the people
of New Spain" The canoes described so
long ago are precisely like the chalupa5
seen to-day on the Viga canal, leading
from the city of Mexico out to the far
famed Floating Gardeus; the dress of the
Indians is the same as that worn in Yu
cutan at ths present day, and among the
poor of Central America the seeds OF the
cacaO are still used for small change.
There has been much talk among the
Radicals III Eng land about abolishing the
House of Lords. There are Diany who
admit the inefficiency and entire useless
| ness of that body as legislative power,
| but who still are in favor of the institu-
! tiOn because of its antiquity. This ian
| tiquity" has great hold upon the aver
age English mind. The irrevsrent Pail
Mall Gazette has undertaken to show how
| the present House OF Lords deserves the
| right of protection on this ground.
| There is at present but one peer who
can claim tie distinction of most an
1 cient nobility. This is the Duke of Nor
| folk, who is indebted for his presence in
| the House of Lords to Henry H., WHO first
| ennobled the family By the title of Earl
| of Arundel, the higher title only follow
| ing $50 years afterwards. OF the present
membership of the House of Lords $40
! 127 peerages we're created by Queen Vic
| toria, Il by William w., and 16 by George
". Their predecessors, with the eIcep-
| tion of Charles IL, who created Is new
| peers, generally averaged about five apiece
| during their reigns. From this it may be
| seen that the present House of Lords is
| essentially modern in formation. Lord
| Beaconsfeld, who was an authority on
| such matters, once said: 81 never heard
| of peer with an ancient lineage! +
| The thirty years of the Wars of the
| Roses freed us from those gentlemen.
/ take il, after the battle Tewkesbufy q
! Norman baron was almost as rare being
! in England as q wolf is now. When
I Henrs VII summoned his frs. Parliament
| there were only twenty-nine temporal
peer. TO be found" The rest were re-
created afterwards. One-hslf the hered-
| itary peerages were created within the
! last sixty yesrs, and not one-fourth were
in existence 80 years ago.