The St. Johns herald., 1890-06-26
STRANGE PAlNTiNel.
$ Great En 1ian Battle scene Depicted or
 Locks in New Mexico.


 There has recently been discovered, according to the Philadelphia Times, near Dona Ana, \. A., on the banks of the Rio Grande, a stone bearing the rec ord in series of pictures of an Indian fight between two tribes. The pictures, which are painted in bright red on the face of the rock, which is nearly fiat, show them to be the work of more skillful hand than was common among the Indians, and betrays even slight perception Of perspective which is en- tirely unique. The lasting qualities of the paint manufactured by the Indians, the secret of which has never been dis covered, are well known, weather and time producing no perceptible effect upon it, but actually seeming to deepen and intensity it.
 The exact date of the inscription is, of course, not to be arrived at, but from the half-buried condition of the stone and other marks it is safe to suppose that it is at least three hundred years old, if not of much more remote antiquity. Its great age is proved further by there be- ing no knowledge of such tremendous fight as is here represented since the coming of the white man to this region.
 On being questioned on the subject, however, an old Indian called Bobby One-Eye, who is we'll known in these parts, and who claims to be no years old, declared that he had heard of a great battle that occurred ''longa, tonga ago." far to the west. So vague was he, though, that it was easy to see that he merely repeated an old tradition. The pictures are eight in number and di- vided from each other by lines into chapters of the history of the event. Bobby One-Eye seemed perfectly famil- far with this style of writing and read fly translated the inscription.
 The first picture represents the figure of an Indian brave, decorated with feathers and armed with tomahawk, bow and quiver. Beneath the warrior are five hundred minute strokes which tell the number of fighting men in the tribe. The second picture is that of a bird flying toward the setting sun. This, Bobby said, shows that their jour ney was to the westward. In smaller figures are the new moon and buck, which gives the time as being in the first quarter of the buck moon, an swering to July. The third picture con- sists of seven suns and as many stars, which indicates that they were seven days and nights on the way.
 The next picture is that of the sun rising over number of wigwams and hand pointing with three fingers to a crouching panther. According to the interpretation of the Indian this signi- fes that they arrived at the habi- tation of their enemies at sunrise and then lay in wait three days. The fifth picture shows where their enemies, numbering 500, were surprised while asleep. This is told by the wigwams, near which lies man sleeping and be- meath him that number of strokes. They killed with the tomahawk 200 of the foe and took fifty prisoners. The sixth picture shows this by a head eleven with tomahawk with 200 lines be- meath, and man with his hands and feet bound and fifty lines. That their own loss was IFS is represented in the seventh picture by head so num- bered, and inclOsed in a bow, which was the emblem of honor. The eighth picture shows their triumphal march back toward the rising sun, their ene mics in full flight, which is represented by flight of broken arrows in the op- posite direction and the huts of the van quished in flames. The stone is large, upright one, worn smooth by the action of water in some past age, and is fully twenty-five feet in height by sixteen wide. The pictures begin near the top, extending to within four feet of the base. It is a subject for speculation how the artist suspended or elevated himself so as to be able to paint the first four or five of his sketches. The stone was nearly buried under the sand and earth, and it's inscription was only acci- dentally discovered by Mexican ranch man of the neighborhood, who, catch ing glimpse of the red paint, scraped away enough of the soil to see that it was the work of man.