The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-07-19

Table Of Dead
Men.
Desperate Struggle Of Prospector Caught
in tho Tendriis Of the Deadly
Creeper.
sYou want to know how those marks
came there, do YOUR Well, you would
guess mighty long time before you would
and tell you the story
He held up his brown right hand as he
spoke. Acroes the back of it were two livid
lines, One of these lines passed inside his
hand and wound around his little finger.
This finger was twisted and broken and
bent backward. Right up to the finger
nail extended the fiery thread-like line. The
second line was deeper red, wider than
the other, and from it other filament-lik
lines branched, covering the wrist with a
could be seen to wind once around the
wrist and then was lost up the speakers
sleeve, says the San Francisco Examiner.
''Well," he resumed, you remember
the excitement that followed the
discoveries of silver in Yucatan in 1877. The
quantities Of horn silver for some time and
selling it at Merida. Finally one of the
halfbreed merchants of that town got an
Indian drunk and induced him to tell where
they obtained the silver. They say it was
one of the mines from which the Aztecs, or
whatever race it was that built the citiesthe
ruins of which cover SO many miles in that
country, used to get the silver for their tenn
pies. At all events the merchant came back
with two burros laden with almost pure sill
YER. He said that there was silver enough
in sight at the mine to load a feet of steam
treasure mountain was, and started out
with pack train for more. One of his
mules strayed back nearly a month later,
but that was all that was ever heard of him.
Il was one Of the swarm of prospectors
that started out to ind the old mine. 1t
his first trip, SO We could calculate about
what distance he had travelled. had for a
companion a Balize Indian hunter, who
knew something of the interior country.
We travelled ten days through the widest
country that any one ever heard of. Noun
feet above the clouds, and whose sides were
covered with jungles so thick that for days
together we simply had to hew our way
through it. At last we reached valley,
the other side of which was bounded by a
separate chain of mountains. These. from
able, but my companion said he had been
on top of them.
the Chihuandassi.'
II had heard of the Chihuandassi. The
name means Table of Dead Men, and the
Indians say it is covered with plants that
have the power of motion.
"Have YOU ever been on the Chihuan-
dassi?' asked.
mo man has ever gone there and re-
turned to tell of it," he answered.
We crossed the valley, passing through
transparent quartz, and finally struck the
trail he spoke Of and two days later stood
on the top. On tho other side was a narrow
gulch and beyond it q sheer wall many hun
dreds Of feet high. Still the top of thiswa
upon the Table of Dead Men. The mesa
on the other side of the gulch seemed per-
fectly level, and as far as we could Judge
was surrounded on all sides by just such
precipice as we saw. The country is all
sandstone. and the swift little rivers have
nearly all worn deep channels for them
selves. In many localities you can walk a
hundred miles, be able to throw stone
into the river, and yet you may die of thirst,
go high and erect are those fearful walls,
The Chihuaudassi was covered with some
!OW VeGotatAOu auu eAeIe were lew trees
""rhat is the flower that travels said
my companion.
'He noticed my look of amused incredu-
lily and resumed rather angrily:
"'You don't believe it? I have seen il
move. Look there!'
II looked; the table was agitated, and
looked like the waves of the sea. The
whole green surface seemed to approach
the edge nearest rs. My hair rose for a
moment then I burst out laughing. 1T is
only the wind tossing the snakeweed,' I
"'But there is no wind here
He spoke truly. The air where We
stood was perfectly still. Yet, explained,
it might be breeze engendered by the ma
ture Of the country, that did not extend to
our side.
Those flowers are devils. No one who goes
ever comes back from there
Two Indians who loved one woman went
up on the Chihuandassi to battle. Human
eyes never again saw them alive. We are
told that they fell victims to the flower that
creeps.
II had first-class pair of glasses with
me, and directed them to the plateau.
Half covered with the vines and creepers
could see something white. There were
two spots that might be skulls, and 1
thought I could trace the outlines of two
human forms. They might have been
rocks, and were doubtless what originated
the Indian legend.
AN idea suddenly occurred to me that
this story of certain death to whoever
went up to that mountain-top was story
OF the Indians to prevent any one going
there.
"'fll bet horse said I, that the mine
is there, and I'm going to see'
We'll. to cut it short, I left him there,
and, with one mule started for the Chi
huandassi. l calculated that 1 could get
around in three days, and told him to camp
there and wait tor me. It was nasty work
getting down into the river-bed, but I did
il before night, and had the satisfaction of
camping on an old trail that night. Early
the next morning entered fissure at the
base of the lone mountain. It was a drv
watercourse, not more than a dozen feet
wide. and wound around between hirh
sandstone walls. 1t was, however. com
paratively free from brush, and got along
famously for q time. There were MANY
mathematics and centipeds along the old
intercourse, and nothing more.
II had been going up the old channel for
probably four hours. getting higher every
step. The walls of the water-course were
getting lower, and at this point l YVES not
more than forty feet below the surface. As
turned a sharp bend, however, came
right up against boulder that completely
filled the creek bed. The trail ended right
there. 1t appeared as if the rock had re-
Gently rolled down to where it lay. l
thought that if could climb over it