The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-16

Mexican custom, and no one knows where
it was taken. 1t ought to have remained IN
the palace of Axayacatl. which was Moteu-
khZoma'S own palace, for the one in which
he lived was the palace of each supreme
pontiff, and was within the inclosure OF the
Cohuapantli. Here he could not be buried,
neither could he in his own palace, occupied
as it was by the Spaniards. There was ac-
tually no place to which he could be taken
save Chapultepec, where, according to ira
dition, all the first monarches of the Acam-
apichtli line were buried in one general
tomb or cave. Now 1T has always been a
mooted point whether the sculptured rocks
of Chapultepec indicated cave tomb. Con-
corning one we need not concern ourselves,
for it is certainly connected with the secret
rites of the Totecs. But the sculptured
rock to the left of this is individually Culhua
work, and is so rudely executed that the
Spaniards who drilled hole through it from
above and then blew it to fragments nave
not robbed the world of anything very fine
Would they had never done anything worse.
There are some scattered syrnbo s or hero
glyphs TO the left of the shattered cary
ings, chief among which is the reed and an
animal like a wolf or a fox, for the tail re-
sembleS that of the latter more than the
former: The creatures back and tail are
covered with arrowheads. 1t holds in Its
mouth the baton OF a battle ak whose blade
is split into three, and singularly enough,
in spite of the poor carving, the impression
is firmly fixed on the mind that this ak is
metallic. Undoubtedly the coyote and the
arrowheads give the name ItZcohuatl, the
fourth and greatest of the Mexican kings.
To be exactly correct he was the fourth
of the Acamapichti line but he was the
first of Mexican blood to mount the throne,
for his mother was q Mexican, and he was,
therefore, accounted illegitimate. But 1T
was g. time when the best man was wanted,
and he was emphatically that man. He
changed the whole order of succession. and
after him all the sons of king were legiti-
mate, no matter of what race the mothers
were. We have his name written on ma
guey paper in two other ways, and as | am
the only one to advance the idea that this
carving relates to Itzcohuatl, the reader
must take the statement with grains of al
lOwance But from the sculptured slab
found at Tepotzlan with the armorial bear
ing of Ahuitzotl we know that the written
name was one thing and the heraldic form
another.
1t is my belief that behind this rock is
a cave in which may be found the bodies of
several Mexican kings including the ILL
starred victim of Spanish brutality. There
are various reasons for this. One is that
part of man recumbent, which seems to
be q modification of the well-known HERO
glyph for the proposition TIN, which means
behind. Not far from this symbol is a Nero
glyph repeated seventeen tmes) made Of
an isoceles triangle topping a half circle.
This certainly in the Egyptian frescoes
means treasure or tribute of precious met
ais. The whole seems to say treasure is
behind" and probably for that reason the
Spaniards, who had some inkling of the
Mexican hieroglyphs blew out the face Of
the rock. But that was foolish, for the en-
trance must be from eight to ten feet be-
low the present level of the circular road
around the rock. When the gardeners were
freeing from soil the trunks of the two big
Expresses that guarded the entrance in the
old days-perhaps. oh, perhaps-they found
a Mexican drain that went under the road
in the direction of the sculptured rocks.
Why was this drain made? Was it to drain
the living rock? Or to drain a sepulchral
cave? Do we not know that there Is a SINH
lar drain in the great pyramid OF GiZeh in
Egypt going from the most central cham
Der to where the royal sarcophagus was
found. to the winding passage that led to
the entrance? The mouth of this drain in
Chapultepec was covered up with turf, but
! have a gay guess, as the Scotch say, that
1t could be found again without much diff
Guilty. If Porfrio Daz RECEIVERS the COM
bined treasures of the Acamapichtli fam
lily / want my share to be brought to me
by Colonels Green and De Witt Foster in
two of those long pieces of Mexican drawn
work that Paul Ellie sells in his curio store.