The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-07
BONES OF MEXICANS.
Strangest Cemetery in the
World at Guanahuato.
THOUSANDS OF SKELETONS,
The Dead Kept I'm Pigeon Hole yap1.s
The Municipal Conn and Grave.
yard Sandwiches.


ground of the world Is here at GUIANA
huato. / have visited the most curious
graveyards on record, but I have never
seen anything that compares with the hor-
rors / saw today. I have stood in the
lonely garden Of the Wat Sab Kate in
| Bangkok, in Siam, and have watched the
hungry dogs fight over the bleeding flesh
| of the dead humans who were thrown
there for burial. / have seen the vultures
by the hundreds swoop down upon the
naked dead babies of the Parsees as they
were laid upon the Towers of Silence at
Bombay, and / have wandered among the
tombs OF the thousand generations of
Cinnamon which fill the sides Of the White
| Cloud mountains near the big city of Cam
| ton. / have admired the sculp-
| tured marbles representing living wives
bending over their dead husbands
| in the wonderful Campo Santo in
Genoa, have seen the dead piled naked on
| top of one another in the cemetery at
| Naples and have wandered among the
bone receptacles of the catacombs at Rome.
have seen the mummy tombs of Egypt,
| the burning CHATS Of the Ganges, the Gre
| nations and quicklime burials of the
| japanese, but the sights of this Mexican
cemetery are stranger than ALL do not
| find them down in any of the books on
Mexico and / would hardly have believed
that they existed had / not seen them
with mine own eyes. Imagine if you can
the bones of 10000 human beings torn to
| pieces and piled one on the top of another
| like so much corn in granary. Put all
ages and sexes together. Tear them limb
| from limb and mix the mass of skulls,
legs, arms and ribs together so that the
bony fingers of one runs into the hollow
| eyes of its neighbor, and the parts of the
different skeletons lose themselves in the
vast pile of this vaulted granary of bones.
PIGEON HOLES FOR BRAINS AND BODIES.
| This gives but faint idea of what saw
! to-day. The cemetery of this city OF
| Guanahuato is situated on the top of a
| high hill overlooking the town. rode up
| to it on little donkey and was admitted
| to it by an Indian who had hat fully
| foot high on his swarthy head, a revolver
foot long tied TO his leather belt and a
| pair of buckskin pantaloons which fitted
his lean legs like glove. This town is q
mile and half above the sea. The air
here is as dry as are the bones of these
skeletons the year round, and nature wears
perpetual smile Of blue skies, bright
flowers and bracing air. The cemetery
gives a view of hundreds Of low mountain
peaks every one of which covers incalcul-
able riches Of silver and gold, and the
precious metals undoubtedly lie under the
very bones Of these tens Of thousands
| of the dead. entered by its wide
| gates and found myself surrounded
| by great walls in court which contained
| perhaps five acres of ground. The walls
| of this court were about eight feet
IL I'd ~l
/ found that they were in fact made up
of pigeon-holes about three feet square
and six feet deep, some Of which were open
and others of which were closed with
marble slabs, on which were printed the
names and virtues of the dead who were
shelved within. There were thousands of
these pigeon-holes, and my guide showed
me card giving the rates. From it see
that these holes are rented out 70 the
bodies of the dead, and the guide tells me
that the most of them are taken for about
| five years, after which the bones of the de-
| ceased are taken out, the pigeon-hole is
| cleaned, and il is ready for the next occu-
| pant. 1t costs SIS for the use Of one of
| these pigeon-holes for five years, and this
1 seems to be the shortest term for which
| they are leased. 4 man who wants one
| perpetually can have 1t by paying 800,
and if he cares to crowd his whole family
/ into the same hole, he can have it for the
lump sum Of $500.
/ GRAVEYARD SANDWICHES.
The ordinary dead are, however, buried
] in the ground. The city of Guanahauto is
| rich, but its great wealth is in the hands
! of few. The majority are too poor to
| buy vault for any number of years, and
| the masses are buried, The rates are also
| ON the rental basis. 1t costs a dead man
one dollar to lie two years in these burial
/ grounds, and after that his bones are taken
/ up and another body fills the hole. The
/ five acres which make up the court Of the
cemetery are literally composed of bone
! dust. Each removal has left some pieces
| OF his skeleton behind, and the ground is
| made up of the dust Of past humanity.
| In going over IL you see s.tle pieces of
| bones sticking up everywhere and at one
| point where number Of graves were be-
| ing dug, noted pieces of skulls and
| other bits of skeletons among the mixture
of dirt and bones thrown up. / was in
| terested in watching the digging of
| the graves, and in the curious manner
| in which the bodies were laid
in them. One digging here suflices for
number of burials. The hole made is
about two feet wide, seven feet long and
| from six to eight feet deep. The first
| corpse that comes gets the bottom berth.
| He is taken out of his rented coffin and
| laid with his head on bunch of leaves
| and over him is put perhaps six inches
/ of dirt The grave is then ready for the
| next arrival, who is buried in like man
! ner. and so the bodies are sandwiched one
on top of the other until the grave is filed.
| Guanahuato is very unhealthy city and
| the death rate IS very large. During the
past month there were four burials day
| in this cemetery, and saw six deep graves
/ already dug when visited il. Three Of
| these were only half filled and the others
had nothing whatever in them
cATAcoMBs AND xUMxrEs.
| Leaving the court was next conducted
| down into the great storehouse for the
! bones of the dead after their leases have
expired and they have been ousted by their
| landlords from their tenements above.
| Going down q winding stair so narrow
that my sides grazed the wall as / passed,
| entered long vaulted passage walled
with stones and paved with cement. This
| passage was well lighted by openings from
| above, and il was dry and free from smells.
1t runs clear around and under the edge Of
! this five acres Of cemetery, and is in fact
| walled tunnel about twelve feet high, SIX
feet wide and more than 1000 feet long.
| For ages this tunnel has been the recepta-
/ Gle Of the bones of the dead Of this city, and
it is now almost filled. Only about 200
/ feet e il remain vacant and the entrance
I 20 Is $ in the middle Of this. stood &C
this point, and looking either way could
see the great piles OF skulls and other
pisces of skeletons jumbled together in all
sorta Of shapes and mixed up into one
( heterogeneous mass u lones Esss7y n .
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