Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1906-01-17
NEW WORLD MUMMIES
REMAINS or CLIFF DwELLERs
FOUND I'M SOUTHWEST.
Uhambsr IN Solid Granite Wall Yisldl
a the Remains Of an Ancient
Race Great Find for
Scientists.

Many persons who have an interest
IN archaeology win be surprised to know
that not all the mummies to be seen
IN museums have been taken from far
away tombs in Egypt or other eastern
lands. Well-preserved mummies have
occasionally been taken from the ruins
of the cliff jewellers in the mountain
canyons in Arizona and also in New
Mexico and southern California.
These mummieS, though poor speci-
mems Of the mummifying art, are con-
sidered great treasures by scientists
because they give the anthropologist
vague idea of the strange people who
had the earliest civilization on the
American continent The best of them
are almost entirely ignorant of who
the Aztecs and Toltecs were, how they
looked and lived and why they have
been so entirely obliterated from the
face of the earth.
The reason for this ignorance il
found in the fact that no satisfactory
remains of the dead Aztecs have been
found. These people were cremation,
lists and they probably burned house.
hold effects with the dead, leaving lit
tie or nothing for the scientist to build
a theory upon.
Frequently a party of explorers in
the Valleys of Arizona will come upon
seale1 jars of burned bone dust. But
the mummy which was found by two
gold mine prospectors in a lonely can.
yon along the ella river in the heart OF
the country once occupied by the Az
tees and Toltecs has excited much at
tention. The hollow in the rocks was
about seven feet deep and four feet
high. 1t was evidently made for the
purpose of burial of the body found
there, for no other mummy has ever
been found within 100 miles of this
lonely sepulcher.
AT the rear of the cave the miners
found what appeared to be chamber
in the solid granite wall. The mouth
of the chamber was sealed. When the
cementlike substance was broken away
and a fat stone lifted it was found
that human mummy was within.
There was smell of rosin and balsam
when the miners raised the little body
which had lain there for 500, perhaps
200, years. The body was evidently
that of child, the offspring of prehis-
toric royalty. When the coverings had
been removed it was found that the
body was that of girl about five
years of age.
There was no doubt that she was OF
noble family and that her costly and
elaborate burial, instead of that of Gre
nation, had been for some extraor-
binary reason, Wrappings that filled
five hushel baskets were unwound from
the remains AS the hands were re-
moved peanuts and mesquite beans
rolled out. Both we're in as good a
state of preservation as if they had
Ibeen placed there a few months be-
fore. A child's plaything, a curious
bone affair, was found placed between
the arms The little shriveled hands
were clasped about bits of mesquite
wood and thick mass of raven black
hair, much finer than that of an In,
dian, covered the head. The legs were
drawn UP in the position of q child
creeping. The finger nails were per-
feet and the teeth intact The nose
ears and eyes we're gone and the skin
WAS broken on the right knee and one
lot the wrists, exposing bones, sinews
and dried flesh.
SO fine mummy had probably never
Eneen found before in the valleys Of
Arizona. 1t has been photographed
more than hundred times. Many
scientists and psychologists have
travelled long distances to see it and
Ieay that it is the most interesting and
obstructive of all things found in that
part of the country in decade. 1t has
Lbeen made gift to the Smithsonian
institution