Show PH HISTORIC CITIES OF YUCATAN continued front from last issue MOSQUITOS AND among the discomforts comforts dis of tropical travel none are more un unpleasant pleasant than tile 1 festive mosquitos which i in n yucatan completely distance their new jersey cousins and without a heavy mosquito bar the travelers would have soon succumbed to the savage attacks of these aliese pestiferous insects abound in ill the sandy foothills they are it a little littie red insect about the size of a half grain of wheat and have a habit of sinking shafts beneath orle ones I 1 s nails either on hands or I 1 or leet boring M their way thru leather or cloth an and causing using Ja festering sores which soon rot off the nail and it if not nob treated properly and in ill time result in ill gangrene sand flies a sort of 94 narrow gangell gauge pinch bug which sticks closer than a brother help to make inake makeup up 0 tho the rank and file of objectionable inhabitants of yucatan bucat Yu caban il CLIFF d 1 etli after jai leaving abing th hie city of Nl mexico exico the explorers camped r one noon noona at fc the foo t 0 of f i an all abrupt cliff which arose sev oral eral hundred feet above the valley willis dis discovered covered half buried in the soil soila tit fc the clio foot of the cliff a liand hand and arm arin carved from froin granite gr amite and on oil drawing drabin 9 closer to tile precipitous side of the rocky mesa ni esa they discovered hundreds litin dreis of figures carved in ill bas behof covering the smooth face of the alie rocks towering above t them il e in fulla one hundred feet above the valley w w 1 as a massive sun with long iong rays extending on oil every side carved in tile the solid rock while beneath and around it were male and female figu figures reb some clothed clot lied i in n a sort of flowing garment gari nent and some entirely nude in postures poa tures of worship dance or tile lie chase an ali animal resembling the horae save that it had two sharp horns pro hurling from froin either side of tile the feud wits was also among tie the curious carvings beneath Beneat li the soil of their camping ground they ecca v te I 1 several beautiful specimens sli of anis limbs and heads which had evidently by erosion ar or other otherwise yi ae become detached from froin the face of the cliffard cliff clif fand and fallen to th the e valley beneath honert ih after a hurried hii lunch ieli the young i neu men decided to make an afi attempt to scale the overhanging cliff leaving jose in ill charge of the camp and after a tedious climb consuming some three hours found themselves on oil the top of it a narrow mesa inesti or table land extending to the westward some feet while beyond its limits lit aits nits the explorers could dimly discern the partly destroyed remains of what they believed to be an all ancient city returning to their camp they waited for the following day to break when leaving 0 their guide in care of their camp the adventurous young fellows climbed tile the mesa again by weans means of a rough stairway eviden evidently lly hewn out of the solid rock by the hand of man mail ages before and just its as the sun arose found themselves clambering over tile the moss grown walls of what had lit in ages past been a large ant and prosperous city the tha walls wore were iti in places fully fifty feet high and twenty feet lin an thickness with watch towers rising to a beig heights lith of fifty or op sixty feet above the walls wa N at intervals of about one hundred yards the streets were borowi aud and had bad at one time ben been paved with flat blocks of granite while the houses many of which were in a splendid condition of pre ber were substantially built of granite with tile lile roofs resembling ing an architectural design a a combination of egyptian and corinthian art in ell every eveia house they found it a plaza in the center of which was a 1 large smoothly hewn basin evidently i intended for bathing by tile the strange peo pan te ie whose very existence has been lost beneath the ruins of ages the chambers were on oil upa the second floor and in many were fragments of red oro wood bedsteads which had withstood od the ravages of thousands of years and now stood mute anute proofs of it a higher grade of af civilization of 01 thousands of years past than that which existed in the old world at the same saine period in the center which was fully fifteen miles in circumference stood an immense temple tho the pol portico tico I 1 of which was suppo supported arted 1 by y ten tell granite pillars three of wili which il ve vere re ina hi as perfect a state of prof t Ls as oil hirthe tile illy day they a A ro electea alo rein afinder been I 1 n by tile W ru v ages ol 01 0 I 1 blaw u in r N n c ift 1 n ly seventy five feet high hi gh and sik aix feet itil in ali diameter a and at uio l uini their entire ca wore were cn 1 11 V lie biown NV n louves leaves reset 1 limi ell A ALTAR timm fraet inon 1110 11 the first room of tho briding buil bu iding doii was partially to vered with it a roof consisting of cilie carefully rullY m batched massive blocks of granite ii aply half of chioli had fallon 11 iii eliere hero were several G dinall n III altars fashioned of fully c carved arved black granite while in in the second or principal princ room were endless figures carved on oil all of tile walls of suns stills Illo moons and stars chariots riots and horses men and women iv the latter it invariably facing the sun sull which occupied half of the end wall of tha room it in the center of tills thi s hall was an all immense altar nearly thirty feet high and fifty feet ifie long built like the pyra pyramids mills with two foot steps extending from froin the lie floor to the top of the altar an ali examination aini nation of the altar revealed a hollowed ed out space large enough co 10 pe permit brinit four men to lie he I 1 side by S side ide its entire len lengthy tind and the explorers aftel seare searching among the ashes all and d dirt rt which Ilet nearly ArlY filled tle the cavity fo found u d b bones A e which the smith I 1 pro fessor pronounced droho luneed the bones bo nes of it a mans thigh and fore arm the they y also discovered a curiously fashioned knife blade of pure copper but as As flexible and finely tempered as tile the fin fill est damascus steel lying among the ashes on the altar the handle was of horn somewhat resembling the buck and engraved in curious hieroglyphics tiles i which however they were unable to decipher deci phero but which resembled egyptian characters 1 COPPER implements at the foot of the altar were four granite posts about ten tell feet high in ill which wore faste fastened tiel three large c opper copper 1 rings ove at the top one iii ia the center and a I 1 id tile the other at the base ba se of tile the post in the dust at the base of one of these posts they found a hollow ball of copper copped pierced with four small holes on oil each side and containing some hard loose substance I 1 which upon being shaken gave fourth it a sound souad like fike that of a mellow silver bell in ill one corner comer of tile the altar hall ball was a large stone closet reaching nearly to the coiling ceiling all and upon forcing op open 1 en the stone door the searchers found an all instrument resembling a manini mammoth oth zylo phone e except t that hat suspended bolieau h each key were long ion 1101 low tubes of graduated sizes sixes which evidently formed a musi crl ell instrument for the wonder ful people who hid had been lost sight of in ill tile the march ch of H time in 0 they also ako discovered a linely finely wrought copper lie helmet linet of gr gigantic igan proportions all and if it ever had bad served for it a headpiece for these forgotten people peo aple thero there must inest have been gralli gl alli ill I 1 in those days for tile the he helmet linot was fully twenty inches in ill diameter and weighed about thirty pounds A spear the hundle bundle of which was ai a i exquisitely curved piece of ivory about ten tell feet feel long in the butt of which was set a ru ruby by of fully five carets ahil while le the tip was of finely tempered copper about a foot in length ws was alao 11 found within thee the closet ioset severia iSe vernl cippera and pots all ali of oi cop copp per erand and all grayen en with tile the same unintelligible symbols completed the c collection 0 of f curios discovered within the net these were stored away and afterwards taken to tile the I 1 united states and england by bv 0 w the explorer and now rest within the curio hals of the smithsonian institute and british museum maseu D an ail fini immense reservoir had biad been dug duc 0 out opt oi of the alu solid rocks in one corner of the city evidently having 0 served set ved as it a storage for foi water to supply its inhabitants th thousands 0 of years ago to be continued in fit next issue |