Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-03-08
IN TROPICAL CLINICS.
Life in a Picturesque South Amer
lean Capital.
CHIEF CITY OF COLOMBIA.
BOgota and Her People-ReligiOus Ira.
dittons Of the Chibchas-The Houses
Of the TOwn-Lack OF Conveniences-
The Barracks.
From THE Stars Travelling Commissioner.

From THE Stars Travelling Commissioner.
BodoTA DE SANTA FE, COLOMBIA, Feb. 10.
~ OLUMBIA'S capital, yclept tho city
N " OF "holy faith" occupies a little de-
IL tached plateau of the Andes, $3.50
Nofeet above the level of the sea.
~ Away up here, half a mile higher
than the very top of Mount Washington, one
can almost imagine ones self in the north
temperate zone, SO thin, pure and cool is the
atmosphere. Though only a few degrees from
the equator the temperature averages so de-
grees Fahrenheit and most of the northern
products are found fourishing amid a surpris-
ing profusion of tropical fruits and flowers.
This mountain valley is doubly interesting as
having been the traditional heaven of the
Chibchas, the ancient people who inhabited
this region in the morning twilight Of history.
Queseda tells US that at the time of the con-
quest Gin 1880 they numbered about three
quarters OF a million. Here stood their sacred
city, called Bo-cat-a; and the present capital,
which occupies nearly the same site, evidently
took its name from the older one, though the
corrupted modern word has quite a different
sound, the accent being given on the final syl-
liable.
THE CHIBCHAs
They we're curious race, those long-dead
Chibchas, and around no spot on the two
Americas are clustered more wild stories and
improbable traditions concerning a vanished
civilization. OF their remoter history the
world knows absolutely nothing except that
they were a very ancient and powerful people
when the Spaniards found them, three centuries
and a half ago. given to agriculture and the
peaceful arts and with form of government es-
sentially patriarchal. Their most ancient i'm
perial capital, the residence of the emperor, was
not Bocata, where the temples stood and the
priests dwelt, but Manguita. on the opposite side
of the plain, near the present village of Fauna.
The study of Chibchan religion from the shat
tered remnants of tradition that remain is a
fascinating one; but newspaper space will not
permit more than the briefest mention Of it,
for this rushing generation has little time to
devote to myths of the shadowy past. Their
faith seems to have been a strange mixture of
ancient Buddhism, modern theosophy and Bible
Christianity, but included no sangunary sacri-
fees like those that marked the rituals OF many
of the neighboring tribes of Central and South
America.
RELIGIOUS TRADITION.
In Bohica, their elysium Supposed to be
literally located on this high plateau), they
had a divine Mediata or deity of mercy, CORE
spending somewhat to Christ the NaZarine
Like all other races, they, too, had a trad tion
of the flood and character closely resembling
the Hebrew Noah, the Greek Ducalaine and the
Mexican COjco, and, to complete the scheme
of salvation, they believed also in a spirit of
evil, akin to the scriptural Satan, who was for
ever striving to get the better of the higher
powers. with more or less success. Their god of
science. as typIfed by earthen images, was al
most identical with the Buddhist god OF wis
tod N lnls hat do
found in many Chinese temples, while their
Chibchacum fac simiIe of the Buddhist
god of agriculture.
The most splendid temple Of old Bocata, con-
secratei to the god of agriculture, stood near
the site Of the present grand cathedral in the
center of the modern capital Thither twice
every year went the emperor, his chief caciques
and all the royal retinue to offer oblations to
the deity who was believed to preside over the
harvests-a ceremony not unlike the ''mOon
feasts" that are yet celebrated in many OF the
Interior districts of China.
And SO goes on the march Of changing
religions. as since this weary world was young
Each forgotten faith has had its followers, as
devoutly sincere, no doubt, and perhaps as
deserving of eternal peace Off living up to ones
convictions may win heavens clemency) as
those who today rear temples to other forms
of relglon-as the unborn races OF coming
centuries, each in it's little day, will worship
new gods, yet to be evolved from man s
Imagination.
THE INHABITANTS.
The present inhabitants Of the Bogota plain
seem a totally different people from any we
have previously met in Colombia, possessing a
deal more energy and disposition to keep up
within halling distance of the the times. Here
agriculture and the useful arts are at least a
century ahead of their practice in the torrid
valleys and along the burning coast The
wooden shovel and clumsy forked stick have
given place to the iron spade and patent pillow,
and the quintas (farms), inclosed within sub
stantlal walls of stone or adobe have spacious
houses that wear an air of paatial elegance
compared with the mud and bamboo huts along
the great rivers.
Sentlmentalists may attribute this state of
things to the influence of the early owners of
the soil-to the pastoral Chlbchas, whose spirits
yet hnger in the land they loved-but the truth
is that the natural conditions of the soil have
more to do with the condition of the people
than the people have in changing the condition
OF the soil. While the LATEST race might work
to some advantage SO near the stars as Bogota
the most energetic Yankee would soon lose his
Wanted "yIm" and become utterly shiftless
under the influence of the tropic sun in the
humid low lands near the equator.
Mr.. Scruggs, late consul from the United
States to Colombia (from whom much of the
data 1 using has been derived),
says that though pure and exhilarating
this climate Is not conducive to lon
gevity or to mental activity. He adds:
"A man, for instance, who has been accus-
toned to eight hours daily labor in New York
or Washington will here ind it impossible to
apply himself closely more than five hours
each day. Ii he exceeds that limit ominous
symptoms of nervous prostratisn will be
almost sure to follow" / have myself OBJ
served the same thing in other high attitudes
of the far south, that people of ordinarily
calm temperament when in the north speedily
find themselves mere bundles of nerves,
strung to such tension as to induce excessive
irritability, insomnia and mental exhaustion,
even without any especial strain, mental or
physical.
PICTURESQUE OLD BoGoTA.
This old Bogota somehow presents an ap-
pearance of unusual picturesqueness, though
in land where all things are as quaint as was
Egypt in the days of Moses. Its narrow and
crooked Streets winding uphill and down, are
paved with the sharpest of small stones, that
make pedestrians feel like penitential pilgrims
on the way to Mecca with peas in their Shoes
and in the middle Of each street is cut deep
ditch or channel, through which the melted
SHOWS of the nearby mountains dance in noisy
rivulets. The city has population of some
thing over 900 and III many respects is quite
modern, in others fully two hundred years be-
hind the times.
Its white-walled casas are mostly of one
story, with projecting roofs of red tiles and
green-painted windows latticed like those of
prisons. between whose bars one sees peering
eyes-the beautiful, dark eyes of Colombian
women, full OF wondering curiosity at sight of
''las estrangeras Americanas." Though built
M nh and