San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-02-20

painted decorative border which had
been ohliterated in the blackness OF
years On her bottom he found barna.
Giles, black and brittle, proving that she
had once VOyaged at sea for long pc.
Rod.
1t was with a creeping feeling-a
ShuddGr of involuntary awe-that Eric
| gazed upon this wOndrous relic, and it
was several minutes before he Summoned
| cOmpoSure to examine it infinitely. In
the bottom of the boat lay several large
water arms and bundle of spears, each
with its shaft split and flint spearhead
| inserted i'll it. No vestige of the lash
ings of gut remained. They had long
ago decayed. On the stern thwart rest
ed an .oblong block. Eric pitched it up
| and knew at once that it was metal.
Can it be copper" he thought, and
! taking his knife he sliced a small piece
! from it, Lo, it was bronze, rudely en-
| gGaved with characters slightly resem-
bling Ph9nician writing! A slab of
bronze! What was it doing here? Ikla-
pei did not know what it was, but he
said that there was once a knife made
of the same metal in Atzlan, but it had
been lost for many years. 1t was stolen
from the temple ages ago by man who
went into the desert and never returned.
In AT there were many such knives, he
said, but they were very precious, and
but one, which QuetZal had brought,
was ever seen in the west. He had
heard of arrows and spearheads and axes
of the same metal, but had never seen
them. The slab had been preserved
sacredly, yet he had thought more than
once of trying to convert it into axes,
but knew of no way to do it.
AT this moment Eric glanced up and
beheld the evil face of Chalpa, his eyes
lighted with malice, peering down upon
them. As Eric's eyes met his he drew
his head back and disappeared, but there
was an unpleasing suggestion in the sus-
picious, yindictive look in his face that
left feeling in Eric's mind that Chalpa
would be a good man to make "a target
of before very long. IklaDel had seen
nothing, but when Eric explained the
occurrence he angr1y called to Chalpa,
but received no answer. The man had
Eric's unpleasant feeling. That Chalpa
hated as we'll as feared him he knew full
well from the evil chances he cast upon
him, and there seemed something omi-
nous i'll his stealthy lowering and spying.
Still, as he had disappeared, neither
Eric nor Iklapel allowed it to rest long
upon their minds, and they continued
their examinations of the relics undis-
turbed
Each of the glazed tiles inserted in
the walls, Iklapel asserted, had been
brought i'll the very earliest times from
At. They We're covered with rude pic
ture writing, among which Eric found
destruction OF the city Of Atlantis oc-
CURED at a period when mankind had
arrived at IL state of great learning and
civilization, for we know that the most
wOndrOuS cities then stood on the shores
of the western ocean, to which came
great ships from far away toward the
setting sun, from distant islands, taking
many months for their voyages, and
bringing rare and curious treasures
from another race. 1t was the people
u.
they gradually came northward, extend
ing their settlements along the great
rivers, building mounds in imitation of
the sacred city,
I've seen them," interrupted Gilbert,
"and they are the source of much dis
cusSion among our learned men"
They still exist them inquired Ikla-
pei, and continued: These people went
far to the north and dug deep i'll the
earth for copper on the borders Of the
north sea. We have none of this cop
per left. 1t long ago vanished, but the
memory of it fingers with us. Twas
rare and valuable metal. After long
time the cities Of the great country of
Xibaba, which had sunk in the sea
where astrip of land had been, slowly
rose again and were rebuilt. All this
was long ago, long ago, before the sea
had left these deserts above us, but after
time wild and savage race overtlowed
the land from the north, strange in
speech and dark, fearful and blood
thirsty. They drove our people back
until they were obliged to dwell in the
inaccessible cliff houses and build them
selves walled towers for defense, for they
were not warlike race.
''Since the people lived in the caves
and cliff houses, the rivers have cut
their way deep into the earth, leaving
the dwellings of our forefathers high
upon the cliffs, so you may know that
many ages have passed since then.
There were seven great cities in the
Atzlan country ages ago. but they have