Show GHOSTS GUARD MUSE I A Mountain of Gold in Sina H loa Owned by Spirits IT is OPENED ONCE A YEARS YEAR-S Traditions of Massacred Miners A Touch Yarn fepooks at Their Lunch A Sonora coriespondent of the St Louis 6lubeDemocrat writes About sixty miles from the Pacific Coast inI I the State of Sinaloa is a mountain known rs Cerro del Oro or Hill of Gold It rises in majestic grandeur from the midst of clustering hills grand in themselves but insignificant in the presence of this silent gloomy rugged old king To the casual observer ob-server there is nothing remarkable about this magnificent mountain whose sides are covered with vegetation and apparently as smooth as the grassy slopes of California seen from the deck of a passing steamer Its immensity is not realized until the ascent is undertaken under-taken Its sides apparently so smooth are found to be traversed by deep gorges and by fissures shaded by giant trees whose interlacing branches cast a sombre gloom over the entrances to the deep canyons It is with hesitation akin to fear that one enters their cavernous cav-ernous depths There it is that the people of the neighboring hamle s have taken refuge in the dark days of revolution and invading wars leaving their poor huts and huddling their children together to seek shelter from the rude storm of human passion in the rugged bosom of the old mountain of mystery Many a grayheaded man and woman can remember the time when with hurried steps and many backward glances they sought shelter in the deepest fastnesses as the only haven of safety Fortunate were they who had sufficient warning to gather up their few cows and burros the former furnishing milk and the latter loaded with corn and bedding from the home that would soon be destroyed by the relentless torch of the invader Nothing but war in its cruelest from could induce a Mexican to leave his homo and seek shelter in the gloomy caves of old Cerro del Oro For it is the abode of spirits and demons No one cares to venture alone into the depths Many queer tales are told of the strange sights seen by venturesome venture-some person That it is under a spell of enchantment is well known by the old and firmly believed by the young That extensive mining has been done in this mountain no one can doubt as numerous patios where ore was assorted and ruins of arrastras where the gold was extracted prove that beyond a doubt and by digging into the piles of waste fine specimens of free gold ore are obtained Occasionally in the neighboring villages while excavating foundations for houses bars of cold have been discovered and ornaments of gold crudely hammered out have been unearthed But there are no gold mines known to exist within leagues of this mountain A STRANGE TRADITION There is a strange tradition handed down that long ago this hill was the scene of active mining that the mountain moun-tain side now so gloomy and silent echoed the click of the hammer and voice of muleteer urging the patient animals as they toiled around the arrastra and the singing of the happy miners rushing down the mountainside mountain-side their days task donethinking of the bright eyes waiting for them and the hot tortillas and frijoles waiting for them at their humble little homes But in an evil day all was changed A band of robbers lured by the glitter of the abundant gold swept down the mountain side like a blast of fire shot down the men like dogs not leaving a soul alive to tell the tale They loaded all the mules with treasures and left the place so lately full of life a scene of grim death and desolation Then it was that the Duendes fairies of the mountain by enchantment closed up the entrances of the mine and it is I I said that spirits of the murdered miners still dwell in the mines Once every year the portals of the mines are opened On the eve of St John towards evening an old man appears ap-pears at the mouth of the tunnel and later the mountain side is peopled as of old the ghostly actors going through the work as in life the men with their hammers the muleteers at their arras tras all busily at work but silent as the grave A young man who was belated while looking for cattle came unexpectedly unex-pectedly upon the scene He was fixed I without power of motion and was forced against his will to see the ghostly crew at work over the glittering golden treasures At J2 oclock the ghostly caituin gave the signal and all impels quit work and seizing their napkins containing the midnight lunch lit fires to best their tortillas and coffee The fire was an unearthly blue and burned with a flickering uncertain light The eyes of each and every one was lit up with an uncanny glow of phosphorescent phosphores-cent light At a word they all resumed work until at the crowing of a cock at a distant hamlet all vanished and the unwilling spectator found himself again capable of motion In the gray morning morn-ing he rushed frantically home tearing tear-ing his flesh and clothing in his mad rush through the throny brush Arriving Ar-riving home he was met by a horrified look from his wife who fell fainting to the ground His hair had turned snow white and while only 25 years old he appeared to be an old man of GO ANOTHER LEGEND Years after this some little girls were out gathering wild fruit They came upon level place tree of bushes which they never remember to have seen Looking up they saw the entrance to a tunnel and just inside was seated a venerable old man who was making motions for them to come closer but they being frightened ran home The next day a party of men visited the spot but it was a tangled labyrinth of thorpy brush interspersed with large tree treeThe tradition further states that in only one way can the spell be broken man must ask who he is and what he wants He will offer to give to the speaker the wealth of the mountain only on the promise that onetenth of the wealth taken from the mine be devoted de-voted to masses tor the souls of himself and his murdered 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