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Show MEXICO'S ANCIENT PYRAMIDS Cortez Discovers Very Old Monuments Remarkable Cross Pyramids of the Moon and Sun Antedate the Aztecs Service of the Dead Sacred Edifices Protected Against Desecration Des-ecration Discovery of a Statue Recalls Re-calls Scenes From the Old Testament-Relics Testament-Relics of a More Remote Race Discovered Discov-ered Adequate Proofs of a Prehistoric Prehis-toric Race. (Foreign Cor. Intermountain Catholic.) (Copyrighted.) Twenty-seven miles southeast from the City of Mexico, on the way to the sea, are the ruins of au ancient town covering an area of about two miles. This is now the little village of San Juan de Teoti-huacan, Teoti-huacan, which at once offers to the antiquarian two of the most remarkable examples of Toltec remains re-mains in stone to be found on the continent o .America. When Cortez on his way to the conquest con-quest of Mexico passed them, with his mailed company com-pany of heroic fighters, they were already 1.000 years old. Around these monuments of a very ancient an-cient anil half-civilized empire the two oldest civilizations civil-izations of America, the Quiches from the south and the Xahocs from the north, met and fraternized. frater-nized. Here was found that very peculiar symbol called the "Cross of Teotihuacan," now in the Xa- tional Museum of this city. It was cut from a single sin-gle mass of stone and was the emblem of Tlaloc: the god of Rain. Of this "cross, the' crosses of Palenque and Tula and the "swastica." now woiu in miniature in gold and silver by the young giris of our country, I will write some other time. Today To-day I confine myself to Teotihuacan and its wonderful won-derful pyramids. Though antedating the invasion of the Aztecs by many centuries, tjie site of thU ; venerable heap of ruins is known by the Aztec name of Tiotihuacan, THE PYRAMID OF THE MOOX. To the north of the village rises in the open plain a huge monument, squared to the cardinal; points, named the "Pyramid of the Moon." Xearlyt a mile to the south stands in weird isolation, built! of the same material, squared along the same lines, ' the "Pyramid of the' Sun." It towers to the height' of nearly 200 feet, tapes at the base, from west to east. 680 feet, and covers an area with its debris of eleven acres. They are built of stone and have four stages leading to their summits. These monu- ments of a vanished race were brought into touch with each other by a flagged road which leads from ; an open space or plaza, just to the south of the : Pyramid of the Moon, and, passing that of the' Sun, buries itself in a ravine some distance be- yend. These "cyclopean structures are said to b the most ancient monuments in Mexico and ante-! date the settlement of the land by the Aztecs long before the coming of the Spaniards. Antiquarians ' have not yet settled among themselves the meana '. adopted in cutting away from the face of the neigh-' boring hill the immense blocks of volcanic stone, squaring and carrying them to their places in tho pyramids. Thee stones, high in air. are wonderful examples of human perseverance and human strength applied to a determined purpose. The " road fron pyramid to pyramid is called the "AVEXUE OF THE DEAD." Along its entire length, on both sides, there 13 a terrace built of concrete, fragments of eruptive stone and tufa, faced with a coating of plaster still bearing traces of red paint. When the French, i paleolithist. Desire Charnay, explored Teotihuacan in 1880, he cleaned away the debris of the ancient f town and laid bare a building with two large halls I and many small rooms. In 1886, Don Leopold Bar- i tres, the Mexican archaeologist, dug into another I house and uncovered two polychrome frescoes fair- ly well preserved, upon the walls. According to Senor Bartres. these buildings were smothered with earth by the prehistoric people when compelled to abandon the town by plague or the fear of ati ad- vancin'g and conquering host. He believed they were sacred buildings and were overlaid with earth t anticipate destruction or desecration. The great halls and collateral rooms were filled with stones deftly fitted together on beds of mortar, thii3 forming form-ing a compact mass. His son, now residing in Du-rango,tells Du-rango,tells me that his father was of the opinion, that the two great pyramids were raised to the honor of some Chichimec or Toltec divinities, probably the sun and his wife, the moon, for he I traced within the pyramids solar and lunar sym- (Continued on Page 5.), .' j 1 " ! MEXICO'S HISTORIC PYRAMIDS. (Continued from page 1.) Cn the stone platforms of these pyramids the saerirl-ial altars were raised and human sacrifice. "titud to ihe gods of the nation. Stairways, mx and ime-hylf foot wide, ascend from terrace to ter-till ter-till the top is reached. INTERIOR WAS FRESCOED. The exterior of these pyramidal temples Avere '"'.iphly pactereL but. within on each side of the s'airs. the surface was coated with fine plaster, dec-n"a!'d dec-n"a!'d wiih fresco paintings representing rural p'''-nr j,nd possibly events in the nation's history. Tli" h"rps of ruins piled up in many places, or .u-rd trnr.fir.r represent, according to Bartres, all re:iain f the houses of the people. Eacb 1 (ii;e ns divided into ten or twelve rooms, and pntiiddy occupied by several families. The p"r-i' e. ;,;rj -walls were painted im polychromatic, 1 '";? diffrreut color, as many as twelve tints be-:k" be-:k" i rar-rable. "'Uijt.-niif.an aqueducts of stone led to com-' com-' "-'Hid V'Utilsins or hydrants, from which water for 'Kimp-tj'- was rarricl on the head in earthen j 'sr" Tumfn, as in Cairo or Damascus today. ; i f Tei.tihuacan yielded a great accuinula-i accuinula-i ' '-tone ?,nd terra-cotta idols, ollas, glazed and !vd jKitory anl specimens of carvings and -"''U unknown use. !"ii !),nre Charnay was carting away a ""0 r-.,;;r.,;OM ((f pgp 'finds"J7or the Museum ' I-r'i!vic. pavis ,K. Was held up by the Mexican ''''' ' and told to disgorge. This highway rr'MjfTv. p.s l-,r. denounced it. soured Charnay, nd t,!l" ; ' n . u - Frenchman never again had a kindly ''d fr,- Mcsn-o or it? laws. STRANGE COINCIDENCE. sr "he Pyramid of the Moon, a monolithic a' :p f-i -ol.,sal dimensions was uncovered. " It rr;ri'- woman clothed in tunic and overdress.. 1 r'an"E a necklace of four strings of pearls and 2 d iir ornameniod with the feathers of the' 1 Ofron ;ir,ri the plumes of the Casique bird. 'd )i,v 101T, j, a si,,jTUar coincidence. It is Jrded i thr ihirty-first chapter of Genesis that rr "faban was gone to shear his sheep, Jacob "p. and wiih his wives, went his way, and Ra-' Ra-' t '-. h..r father's idols." Then Laban pursued. litu Le overtook Jacob, he at once asked the patriarch: "Why hast thou stolen my godsf On the freshly plowed stretches of level Sand, crossing thp broadest raight Micoatle or "Path of the Dead," were found innumerable little idols, seated and upright. up-right. These were the household gods, like upto those worshiped by Laban. But the coincidence? Well, when Laban searched the tent of Jacob, Rachel Ra-chel sat upon the idols, excusing herself to her father, for not rising to greet him, by a straight lie. In one of the houses uncovered in this ancient, town was found a female figure seated, and concealing con-cealing beneath her robes five miniature idols, or gods, as Laban called them. RELICS OF REMOTE RACES. Here also were plowed up countless small heads modeled in clay. They measure in length from one to two inches, having nothing more than the neck-attached neck-attached to them. The features and peculiar headdresses head-dresses of these little idols vary very much, and owing to well-defined peculiarities of the faces ami bonnets, it is contended by archaeologists that they are not Toltec, but, relics of an unknown and still more remote people. Leaving to one side the mysterious mys-terious and irritating Calendar Stone ,now in the National Museum, there is no subject associated with Mexican paleoliths ancient -stone productions. or ceramics baked or burned pottery that has provoked more discussion among students' of prehistoric pre-historic Mexico than these little heads. Mr. Tyler in his admirable book on "Primitive Culture," says they arc an unsolvable problem, and Professor Putnam Put-nam writes of them as the "riddle of many heads." One thing, at least, is certain. In other days, "days outside of history," as the Chinese have it there lived here and on the land around, a dense population of men, women and children, whose, hearts beat high with love and hope. Of one blood with ourselves, they, too, were subject to our passions, pas-sions, governed by the same unchangeable laws' and ruled by high or ignoble purposes. Morally, intellectually, intel-lectually, anatomically, physiologically, they differed dif-fered from us, but in spite of all differences, they were of our blood and primal origin. And being of one species with us, they and we had a common origin, which biologically means, we and they sprang from one primitive pair. But who were they; where did they come from, and how did they come? Who built these lonely pyramids? Wc know not. Xor how long they lived here, nor whence they came. The dust of their great mer and fair women mingles with and lies under the dust of the earth they once so proudly trod. Strange, is it not, that of the myriads who Before us passed the door of darkness through. Not one returns to tell us of the road Which, to discover, we must travel, too ? And so I thought when alone I stood on this awful aw-ful "Path of the Dead," amid the ruins and mortuary mor-tuary remains of a mysterious race, whose national life disappeared in a night of impenetrable darkness. dark-ness. When I came out from the gruesome associations asso-ciations of Teotihuacan I carried with me a sense of depression and an abiding persuasion of the antiquity an-tiquity of the human race on the American continent. conti-nent. Mexico City. |