Lincoln County record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1900-1905, 1900-11-16
A Curious Indian.

Mountlin, has in his employ an In.
din from southern Mexico, who
claims to he an Az &C and thoroughly
educated in the Aztec language, aud
Mr.. Durham is convened that he
tells the truth. Near Durham station
there is II large amount nf "pictnre
writing" on the rocks which is sup
posed to have been written bv the
Aztecs. The second day after tie
lndi,n's arrival ut the station, Mr..
Durham took him to the rocks and
pointed to the "picture writing" He
seemed surprised and delishte and
Mt once commenced to read the char
meters. After reading them he told
Mr.. Durhan that they were dated
1851 and stated that about one
quarter Of a mile in cert,in diuc-
tion lie would fud the ruins Of an
Aztec town. Mr.. Dnrlioni knew :lie
ruins were there aud ask the Indian
If he could 20 to the IN hv the ,lirrc.
tions given III the writing, aud he
replied in the affirmative, then went
direct TO the r,il 8 He also told Mr.
ham TINT the pill, 81 of rocks near
the rufus, which the latter hid sup
possed were graves, denoted where
the AZ tees, when lhey left the conn
try, had buried tier idols. He
stated that according TO the writing
on the rocks be would find these
idols by sim ing ton vertical depth
of thirteen fe,t and drifting in Ger
tain direction ten feet. He Offered
to prove the truth Of his irtcrpreta-
ton of the writing by digging up
some of the idols, He also stated
thlt according to the wri ings on the
rock, that in a certain dir elton and
a C. rtain distance would be found n
very large square house, and that in
a certain corner of certain room in
this building ,ollls containing tablets
Of stone giving Aztec history had
been buried, aud that the tablets
also gave a history Of and directions
to gold mines worked by the Azt,cs
The direction and distance he read
from the rocks and the. description
If the building, indicated that the
old Casa Grlnde ruin was tie luild
ing referred to. He writes these
Aztec characters on paper with a
pencia as readily as we write En-
glish words, and write and reads
them from left and right, 'he same
As we do in English. But the most
peculiar thing about this Indian cur
iosity is the fact that when you point
,ut to him any animal or object and
,sk him the English name of it, he
will write it down III what he de-
,lares is Aztec and then write under
t the English name correctly in
English letters, but can not pro-
nounce it. He explains this by say
ny that his father, who WIS an Aztec
scholar also knew the English alpha
BET and taught it to him; that there
ire the same number of characters
n the Az ic alphabet MS there are i'll
he English alphabet aud TINT the
arrangements of them is such tn
" taking the English letters by
numbers they will correspond with
he numbers Of The Az &c character
u tie Aztec alphabet For in,t-nce
,ou point toa cat aud ask him to
rive the name in English. He will
write it in Az'tc first. The number
,f Aztec clarlct, rs will corr spaHd
With the third, first and twentieth
etters of the al Ii ,het coust tqnenily
le will write T. A I. but could not
write it without writing it in his own
nngulge. We shall lie ,rn something
nore of Il is strange character He
ray be able, by reading the picture
Writing which is heard all over tins
.ountry, 10 give rs some intesteling
history of this aneilut land -Ari5 ma
Blade.