The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-03-22

cement common in the communal houses
in the valleys with which 1 am familiar
Knowing that it was the custom with thi.
prehistoric race to bury their dead undel
their dwelling floors, l determined to tr,
digging still deeper.
After cracking the cement and pushing
the broken fragments aside 1 was sur
prised to come upon ashes, corncobs, pot
shards, arrow points and profusion OF
animal bones. This rubbish filed a STRAIT
UNI about eighteen inches thick below
which l suddenly struck a second floor
Under this other stratum of cement
found almost the same quantity of rub
bish as was brought TO light above but
what was my CONSERVATION at discov-
ering still a third floor in this oddly con-
strCcted abode.
with the greatest excitement 1 swung
my shovel and dislodged the debris which
separated me from that which l felt sure
of finding now. here was soon a good
sized hole gaping in the third covering
Of cement and as my implement finally
penetrated the opening it plunged through
into a soft substance and crashed into
a large decorated pot which fell apart
disclosing the head of mummy over
which it had been placed.
"'On examining the mummy which was
that of man." continues Mr.. Tex, L
found that it was wrapped in three kar-
five feet in size. The outer one was
decayed with age. the next one some
what better preserved and the inner one
quite perfect The warp of these kar-
ossess was of vegetable fibre string and
the wool was made of twisted strips of
fur skin, which had the fur left on and
had acquired. through the process of
twisting, a likeness to soft wood.
THE head of the mummy showed that
the man had probably died from a blow
on the skull for there was a large in
dentation directly over the base. The
features were party those of an Indian.
for the cheek bones were rather high and
rather prominent, but the skull was large
and with a somewhat low brow and
without the slightest trace of the usual
artificial fattening practiced by cliff dwell
ers.
The man must have been of great
height, for in his shrunken state he mea-
sured about six feet. He was extremely
broad shouldered and the dried muscles
of his whole body proved him to have
been very active and powerful. The large
chest circumference showed him to have
had powerful lungs. His arms were of
good length and his hands and feet were
small for so large a man.
las fair as the Zuni Indian of New
Mexico and the Mava of Old Mexico, the
mummy was racially distinct from either
of these tribes. To what race, then, diI
he belong?
ION the right wrist of the mummy was
a bracelet made of two polished bones,
each two inches long which were sewn
upon an arinlet of deerskin. Around the
left wrist was fastened a bracelet of
tiny shells. run on a fibre string
These relics are said by the authorities
of the American Museum of Natural His
tory to be very fine specimens.
AS To the discovery of John Tex they
are most conservative, as there are so
many explanations which might be ad-
Vanced for the location in which the mum
my was found, though they admit that it
is probably a very old mummy. and
simple theories account for the difference
in skin and hair.
Discoveries that many consider unim
portant are frequently made nowadays.
and the archa eologists who have that
territory in charge believe that every
hing found is of value and adds link
10 the chain of facts relating 10 the pre-
historic race of cliff dwellers