The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1893-02-24


last night will have wrought their fears
to a higher pitch. And now 1 will reveal
TO you cause of secret uneasiness and
great fear even to me.
''Last night, as the storm ragged with
a fury l have not often seen, there came
blast that shook the temple, and there
seemed to sweep over my head some
thing, I know not what, but | felt its
touch as though long, slender threads
brushed by me, and out of the cloud
there came loud voice in waiIing; then
it passed, but 1 heard the voice, and
others, too, must have heard its loud
tones. Think not that was dreaming,
or that Ii was the vagary of a blind
mans mind. 1t is the truth. Long
have preached signs and wonders, yet
this is the first have myself witnessed
or believed in. Were / to attempt to
prevent the sacrifice the envious priests
themselves will turn upon us, and we
will but add our own bodies to the offer
ing. know it and it is impossible"
1t had grown lighter while the two
talked, and the housetops were already
black with the forms of the people CON
5regated there to greet the rising sun.
All were silent, waiting till the luni-
nary appeared over the edge of the cliffs.
Its beams already blazed upon the north
ern wall of the canyon and brought out
in strong relief the banded colors of the
lime, sandstone and slate. The sky was
all afame, and a food of sunlight
poured over into the abyss, and the
glowing, radiant CRIB appeared. The
people raised mighty shout, bowed
their heads before the god in prayer for
few moments and disappeared within
their houses. Tho day had begun in
Atzlan.
Kulcan stood beside tho high priest,
neither of them joining III the welcoming
shouts nor the prayers of the populace
as tn. I'm rose. The eyes of the young
sr man were so blinded with tears that
he saw nothing Of the scene, while he en-
deavored to control his emotions. Be-
fore him stretched canyon less than
mile in width at It's widest part and mar
rowing to a few feet in places. the eye
being lost in it's sharp turns. Through
ii ran a stream about forty feet wide,
with many shallow fords, making a curve
about the city and sinking into danger
GUS quicksands at the western extrem-
ity. The walls of the canyon, two thou
sand feet high above the city and sink
ing to seven hundred feet at the western
end, had been terraced by the foods into
huge steps, upon which the ruined cliff
houses stood, one row above another.
Stairways and ladders were carved in
the rocky walls, giving access to the
heights above, although these were now
only used by venturesone urchins.
This city was built in huge circle
three thousand feet in diameter, form
ing, in fact, one continuous structure,
with large open court in the center full
of fruit trees and garden plots. This
gigantic tenement contained nearly a
thousand rooms, having in it's eastern ex-
tremity seven stories of apartments. 1t
was built in a regular and beautiful al
formation of large and small square cut
stones laid in white mortar, or, more
strictly speaking, gypsum cement. There
had been in earlier times no doors or
windows upon the ground floor, and the
entrance had been effected by ladders,
hundreds of which leaned against the
walls and protruded from the roofs; but
now few large doorways opened into
the fields outside the city.
The successive stories were set back,
one behind the other, leaving the high
est tier single line of apartments, each
story being reached by short ladders.
The houses were three rooms deep, open
ing on the interior court, and connect
ing by trapdoors with the rooms below.
There were innumerable trapdoors in
the roofs, through which the ends of
4 ii
direction, giving the city the comical as
pect of a forest of leaning bean piles.
Up the ladders children and even dogs
ran with ease and agility.
On the western end of the city the
houses were only one story in height,
imparting to the whole the appearance
of an amphitheater or a vast fortress.
Within the court, toward the western
end, stood the temple, the highest build
ing of all, from the roof of which rose
the smoke of the perpetual fire.
All about the outskirts, and also with
in the court, were pleasant gardens and
fields cultivated to a high degree by
irrigation. In places on the cliffs the
terraces had been converted into gardens,
walled and faced with neat masonry,
and with raised edges to hold water
upon the surface, to which the water
pipes ran.
Through the outer walls of the houses
projected for foot or two the cedar
poles forming the floors, and in some in
stances they were carried out far enough
to form balconies. upon which grew
trailing plants with great scarlet flowers
blazing in the spring sunlight in riotous
rivalry of color with the burning cliffs.
In this great beehive dwelt two thou
sand souls, one family above another,
the roof of one forming the floor and
yard of the next above, the humblest
dwelling in the highest tiers, for the
mobiles and wealthy citizens, as a matter
of course, were averse to climbing and
preferred to be near the ground, where
opportunities for communion or display
were greater.
AL this lay before the young priest as
he stood and strove with his emotions,
and such was the scene that greeted Gil
bert's eyes in the depths below him when
he awoke from s1umber.
rTo BE CONTINUED.