San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-02-13

20 you d Vaaase OF secret uneaslness anu
great fear even to me.
Last night, as the storm ragged with
a fury have not often seen. there came
blast that shook the temple, and there
seemed to sweep over my head a 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 a loud voice in wailing; then
it passed, but / heard the voice, and
others, too, must have heard its loud
tones. Think not that was dreaming
or shat 1t 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-
gregated there to greet the rising SUM-
All were silent, waiting till the lumi-
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 aflame, and a flood of sunlight
poured over into the abyss, and the
glowing, radiant orb appeared. The
people raised mighty shout, bowed
their heads before the god in prayer for
few moments and disappeared within
their houses. The day had begun in
Atzlan.
Kulcan stood beside the high priest,
neither of them joining in the welcoming
shouts nor the prayers of the populace
as the sun rose. The eyes of the young
er 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 a canyon less than a
mile in width at its widest part and mar
rowing to few feet in places, the eye
being lost in its sharp turns. Through
it ran stream about forty feet wide,
with many shallow fords, making 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 floods 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 venturesome urchins.
This city was built in huge circle
three thousand feet in diameter, form
ing, in fact, one continuous structure,
with a large open court in the center full
of fruit trees and garden plots. This
gigantic tenement contained nearly
thousand rooms, having in its 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
the ladders appeared, pointing in every
direction, giving the city the comical as
pect of forest of leaning bean poles.
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 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 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 fhau Uarn carried ont far ennnnh