The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-28
4 QUEER BURYIXG GROUND.
The Bodies There Are only Short
Term Tenants.
From the San Francisco CAL.

From the San Francisco Call.
Ex-Assemblyman p. H. Mack Of Inyo
county, who Is engaged with Alton 'ney
Patrick Reddy in some mining enterpri SEES
in the strange little state Of Guanajuato,
Mexico. 1000 miles below Eel Paso, is al
the Russ. He tells a remarkable story Of
the queer burial customs in the ancient
city of Guanaiuato, the capital OF the
little state, a place $50 years old.
1t is story Of a strange human bone
yard, of crypts ia a mountain side, and
of mummihed bodies, the like of which
have not been seen since the explorations
among the Egyptians II is different from
anything of which he has ever heard or
read, and filed him with awe as he con-
templated 1t.
Ii isuat the,old city In the heart Of
Mexico, where the burying ground Is that
Mr.. Mack is interested in the mining en-
terprise alluded to-
THE burying ground is on a high point
OF a mountain near the town. said he yes
terday, "and is nearly one hundred yards
square. 1t is inclosed by a wall twelve
feet in hight and eight feet thick, and in
the walls are pigeon olelike places, or
crypts, for the bodies.
When a man dies his relatives can, on
the payment of $40, get him put in one
of these crypts. The ends are sealed up,
and he is allowed to stay there for five
years.
AT the end OF that time. If his relatives
come forward and pay 500 more, the re-
mains are allowed to remain there per
petually. II, however, the relatives have
died, moved away or fail to put up the
500, the remains are taken out carted
away and put into a great boneyard near
al hand, where remains have in like man
ner accumulated and where bones now lie
twenty feet deep.
There is a flight OF steps leading down
into passageway, which is 800 feet long
AT the end of this passageway is a great
yard, or excavation, for the CASTOR bones.
1t is here that they are piled to such an
immense depth.
There are to be seen arms, legs, skulls
and other bones a pleasure, or to your
horror, just as you take it. The skulls
piled so high and thrown about in such a
disordered way seem TO leer at you. The
sensation is peculiar and utterly unlike
anything ever experienced before.
mot many Americans have ever been
there, and OF Those who have, including
some lady tourists. a number have faint
ed outright. The sight was too much for
their nerves. e.
There is a. potter's- field aside from this
as part of the burying ground already
told about, and this consists of a trench
in which bodies are buried three deep
without any kind of coffin
This being a burying ground managed
| by the authorities, the collins that are
| used are owned by the municipality, and
| II simply rents the collins for use tin The
| body is slowed away in the crypt told
ABOUT aWhlle ago. Inc cofnns are useC
over and over, and one of them may have
! previously had twenty bodies in it. 1t is
| kept as any other receptacle would be
| and is used as long as it will last 1t /.
! the oldest idea on the part of the munich
i pality of which 1 ever heard.
| There is another adjunct of this re
| markable burying ground. 1t is this: A
the bottom of the stairs, on both sides o
| the 300-foot passageway which is NOR
properly a tunnel. are mummlAed bodies
They are sealed up in the holes on eacl
| side, and they dry up in such way as t.
| be preserved. p