The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1912-11-14
BOOK OF HISTORY
UNLOCKED By
Records of an Ancient People
Read From Carved Walls
In Mexico, 20

"HROUGH the medium of hum
bic fat stone, carved on one
| side in mysterious. unknown
tongue and equally carved on
the other in partly known Nahuat lam
guage, Professor Ramon Mena has IN
locked in Mexico a volume Of history
which had been thought to be forever
sealed when the Catholic priests of
Cortes' expedition burned the 10000
volume library Of the Aztecs at Tlaco-
lula. Back for 5000 years Professor
Mena has unrolled this tome of time,
reading its secrets from the carved
walls of Militia, Palenque, Chichen-
liza, Bacalar and Xochicalco.
It has been known almost since Cor
ties conquered Mexico for Spain that
the Aztecs were new race; that they
built none of the massive structures,
even then ruins. which covered the
land. Back Of the Aztecs there stood
in the shadow great. peaceful. edu-
Gated, moral, building race. Tradition
had died out among the !Aztecs They
lacked scribes to keep records Of the
history of their country. But in Tlaco-
lula. forty miles from Tenochtitlan
(now Mexico City, the capital of the
empire of the Aztecs, was library of
10000 deersl1in and fiber volumes,
carefully guarded by handful of
priests of the old cult This library,
priceless to humanity, was given to the
flames in one huge bonfire by the ia
matte priests who accompanied the con-
querors.
Ever since the inquisition was driven
from Mexico men of science have been
hunting for the key which should I'M
lock the imperishable library of the
past preserved in carvings. mural dec
orations. painted frescoes and fat
stone plaques in the five great ruined
cities which have been best preserved
Of all the works Of the teeming popula
ton once inhabiting Mexico
Key to the Mystery.
! This key has been found in the ruin
Of Xochicalco, seventy-fve miles south
and west of Mexico City. Xochicalco
pronounced Zocheekalko-was city
fifteen miles in one dimension by ten
In another. closely built town of
stone and cement, it's center a magnifi-
| cent temple, browning a lofty artificial
| mound or pyramid, whose truncated
| top has an area of $4,000 square yards
In the center of this plain rises the
ruined temple, seventy-6ve feet long
m CT
vice from north to south. It stands
true to the compass, and the height of
the base walls alone is twelve feet The
temple topping these walls rose about
thirty feet higher.
Carvings FIVE inches deep, despite the
wear and tear of fifty centuries, cover
this basic wall, the tale of the race that
built the ruin. preserved from the
hands of vandal priests forever in i'm
perishable stone. On one of these
carved stones. twelve feet long, two
feet thick and nearly four feet wide. is
double carving. On one side is the
original, done by the men who built
the temple; on the other, cut by some
Aztec priest, is the translation of this
carving done into the picture writing
Of the Nahuat tongue, the name of the
language spoken by the Aztecs, and
their contemporary race, the Tlascal.
lans.
This carving Professor Mena found
while digging around the base of the
ruined temple. Seven months of hard
work were put in comparing the char
acters and formulating a sort of pic
ture alphabet of the original carving
on the ruin Then the archaeologist
spent Eve months more translating the
story of the four walls, and this is what
they TELL
A Race of 100,000,0o0.
About 5000 years ago. as nearly as