San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-02-21

our arts of building, mining. sculpture,
painting and writing-the study of the
sun, moon and stars. and our religion.
Il can show you," continued Iklapel,
"many things which came from AT ages
ago, when the sea, now dried up, reached
nearly to this city of Atzlan."
What cried Eric in amazement.
"Have you traditions of the time when
the sea was near this placer
"Oh, yes; there was a great sea to the
north" said the priest, land a chain o:
large salt lakes in a great circle TO the
east. All this desert was at one time
under water. and it was near our city.
But it dried away, and the land was
white with salt. In the underground
room of the temple is canoe, which
has been kept sacredly, that journeyed
often to At and returned laden with
much treasure. 1t is the boat. they say,
that brought Quetzal to this land"
II must see it, cried Eric.
"You shall this very day. shall pro
cure torches at once"
Never mind them" said Eric. 81
have lantern that will Outshine all
your torches. But what else is there
among your sacred relics from the van
iShed city,
MANY things. Images of gold and
silver, pottery, carved stones, earrings,
bracelets. stone axes and knives. The
sacred white knife which your light
ming shattered in Kulcan's hand came
from At.
ALAS" cried Eric. with a sense OF
real injury at the loss of such treas.
ure Il regret the deed now. l should
have hesitated had ! known the worth
of the weapon
He was trembling with eagerness to
see the relics. Almost feverishly he
hurried the old man along. and reach
ing the temple he ran up to his room
and brought down his electric light ap.
paratus, long unused, but needing only a
few touches to be in working order.
Meanwhile Iklapel had brushed away a
covering of sticks, grasses and earth
from the ground floor of the temple, re
vealing large trapdOor, and when Eric
arrived he told him to lift it up. 1t was
not easily moved, however, and took
several minutes of effort, but it yielded
at last, and they descended ladder into
room about fOrty-tive feet wide, in the
masonry of which was imbedded many
decorated yellow slabs, with glazing
similar to common modern earthen,
ware.
In an instant the light had flooded
every crevice with a dazzling brilliancy
and showed to Erics eyes sight that
made his heart beat with new emo
ton. He stood by boat so ancient
that beside it the pyramids were young.
1t was about thirty-seven feet in
length and twelve feet wide. The bow
was high and terminated in a swans
head and neck, we'll carved and Curving
gracefully. The bow was decked over
for about four feet, and the lines of the
vessel, although somewhat clumsily de-
signed, showed much nautical knOwl-
edge. She had eight wide thwarts, and
had evidently carried a mast inserted in
the center of the boat, as there was a
round aperture in one thwart. There
were deep, round notches in the outer
edge of the gunwale, evidently made
by the abrasion of paddles, for thus she
must have been propelled, as there was
no evidence of oars or any other appli.
ance for their use.
The wood Of which she was built was
as hard as iron and as black. Great
--S1lAs III I,ure VnIu occurred at intervals
representations of elephants, lions and
camels, distinctly and carefully drawn
animals of which Iklapel had no con
ceptiOn whatever beyond these rude out
lines. There were boats delineated
there somewhat resembling the one be
fore them, and figures in costumes re
sembling those in the early TolteC
manuscripts. Temple fronts and houses
war chariots with prancing horses, and
most wonderful of all, battle scene
in which clouds of rolling smoke anC
curiously carved tubes belching flames
moving down whole rows of men, wer
depicted with rare skill. 1t would hav
stood for a rude picture of a modern
field of war.
1t was with wonder and amazemen
that Gilbert studied the strange pic
lures, undoubtedly relics of long pas
age, for he was convinced that tn
priest had no knowledge of their impol
and meaning; in fact the characters i
which the records were written upo
them were with few exceptions unf;
miliar to him, they having been supe
seeded by a more convenient if less pit
turesqe method in later times In the,
characters he found many resemblin
those of the Maya alphabet, but more
the nature of pictorial representation
These Were similar 10 the characte,