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diff --git a/40471-8.txt b/40471-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c2ede9e..0000000 --- a/40471-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4411 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Alamo Ranch, by Sarah Warner Brooks - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Alamo Ranch - A story of New Mexico - -Author: Sarah Warner Brooks - -Release Date: August 10, 2012 [EBook #40471] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALAMO RANCH *** - - - - -Produced by sp1nd, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - - - ALAMO RANCH - - _A Story of New Mexico_ - - BY SARAH WARNER BROOKS - - Author of "My Fire Opal," "The Search of Ceres," etc. - - CAMBRIDGE - PRIVATELY PRINTED - MCMIII - - UNIVERSITY PRESS . JOHN WILSON - - AND SON . CAMBRIDGE . U.S.A. - - - TO LEON - - _Across the silence that between us stays, - Speak! I should hear it from God's outmost sun, - Above Earth's noise of idle blame and praise,-- - The longed-for whisper of thy dear "Well done!"_ - - - - -[Illustration: ALAMO RANCH] - - - - -ALAMO RANCH - -_A STORY OF NEW MEXICO_ - - - - -CHAPTER I - - -It is autumn; and the last week in November. In New Mexico, this land of -sunshine, the season is now as kindly as in the early weeks of our -Northern September. - -To-day the sky is one cloudless arch of sapphire! The light breeze -scarce ruffles a leaf of the tall alamo, the name tree of this ranch. -Here any holding bigger than a kitchen garden is known as a ranch. The -alamo, Spanish for poplar, lends here and there its scant, stiff shade -to this roomy adobe dwelling, with its warm southern frontage and -half-detached wings. Behind the house irregular out-buildings are -scattered about. - -A commodious corral, now the distinguished residence of six fine Jersey -cows, lies between the house and the orchard,--a not over-flourishing -collection of peach, apricot, and plum trees. - -Here and there may be seen wide patches of kitchen garden, carefully -intersected by irrigating ditches. - -Near and afar, wide alfalfa fields with their stiff aftermath stretch -away to the very rim of the mesa, where the cotton-tail makes his home, -and sage-brush and mesquite strike root in the meagre soil. Cones of -alfalfa hay stacked here and there outline themselves like giant -beehives against the soft blue sky; and over all lies the sunny silence -of a cloudless afternoon with its smiling westering sun. - -Basking in this grateful warmth, their splint arm-chairs idly tilted -against the house-front, the boarders look with sated invalid eyes upon -this gracious landscape. - -Alamo Ranch is a health resort. In this thin, dry air of Mesilla Valley, -high above the sea level, the consumptive finds his Eldorado. Hither, -year by year, come these foredoomed children of men to fight for breath, -putting into this struggle more noble heroism and praiseworthy courage -than sometimes goes to victory in battle-fields. - -Of these combatants some are still buoyed by the hope of recovery; -others are but hopeless mortals, with the single sad choice of eking out -existence far from friends and home, or returning to native skies, there -to throw up hands in despair and succumb to the foe. - -Sixteen miles away the Organ Mountains--seeming, in this wonderfully -clear atmosphere, within but a stone's throw--loom superbly against the -cloudless sky; great hills of sand are these, surmounted by tall, -serrated peaks of bare rock, and now taking on their afternoon array in -the ever-changing light, rare marvels of shifting color,--amethyst and -violet, rosy pink, creamy gold, and dusky purple. - -The El Paso range rises sombrely on the gray distance, and on every hand -detached sugar-loaf peaks lend their magnificence to the grand -mesa-range that cordons the Mesilla Valley. - -And now, out on the mesa, at first but a speck between the loungers on -the piazza and the distant mountain view, a single pedestrian, an -invalid sportsman, comes in sight. As he nears the ranch with the slowed -step of fatigue, he is heartening himself by the way with a song. When -the listeners hear the familiar tune,--it is "Home, Sweet Home,"--one of -them rallying his meagre wind whistles a faint accompaniment to the -chorus. It is not a success; and with a mirthless laugh, the whistler -abandons his poor attempt, and, with the big lump in his throat swelling -to a sob, rises from his chair and goes dejectedly in. A sympathetic -chord thrills along the tilted piazza chairs. - -The discomfited whistler is but newly arrived at Alamo; and his feeble -step and weary, hollow cough predict that the poor fellow's journey will -not take him back to the "Sweet Home" of the song, but rather to the -uncharted country. - -And now the invalid sportsman steps cheerily on the piazza. - -"Here, you lazy folks," mocks he, holding high his well-filled game-bag, -"behold the pigeon stew for your supper!" And good-naturedly hailing a -Mexican chore-boy, lazily propped by a neighboring poplar trunk, he -cries, "Catch!" and deftly tossing him the game (pigeons from the mesa) -goes in to put away his gun. When later he returns to the piazza, bathed -and refreshed, it is as if, in a room dim-lit by tallow candles, the gas -had suddenly been turned on to a big chandelier. - -Seating himself in the vacant arm-chair, he fills a briar-wood pipe. -Some of the loungers do likewise; and now, while they smoke and chat, -look at the new-comer, Leonard Starr. Though not robust, he has the -substantial mien and bearing of one who finds it good to live, and makes -those about him also find it good. It is not long before most of these -dispirited loungers are laughing at his lively stories and sallies, and -cheerily matching them with their own. - -Well is it for this troublous world of ours that some of its children -are "born to turn the sunny side of things to human eyes." - - - - -CHAPTER II - - -It is the middle of December; the Alamo boarders are now well arrived. - -First and foremost, Mr. John Morehouse--the one lion of the ranch--makes -his bow. He is conspicuous for his able research in Archæology, and -among his fellow boarders is familiarly known as "the Antiquary." - -Mr. Morehouse has come to New Mexico in the interest of science; he is -not, however, a mere dry-as-dust collector of knowledge, and is very -much inclined to unbend himself to the lighter moods and pursuits of his -less scholarly fellow-men. - -This well-groomed, handsome man of forty is James Morley of Bangor. - -He has come to try this healing air for a slight, but persistent, lung -affection. - -Mr. Morley is known to be a man of means, with all the advantages thus -implied; but all the same, he is given to railing at most things under -the sun; hence by the boarders he is surreptitiously dubbed "the -Grumbler." Mr. Morley's growl is a foregone conclusion, and one may -safely reckon on his bark; but as for his bite, it is simply nowhere. - -Already he has manifested a most considerate kindness for this gray-eyed -little lady from Marblehead, Miss Mattie Norcross,--a sweet-mannered, -quiet gentlewoman, who is currently reported as scant of filthy lucre, -and hence compelled to content herself with a cramped, inexpensive -bedroom for herself and her invalid sister, who has one hopelessly -diseased lung. This cheery-faced Irishman, who with his shy little wife -is, for a stubborn bronchial trouble, making the grand tour of the -world's health resorts, and is now trying New Mexico, is, strange as it -may seem, a Methodist minister. His name is Patrick Haley. It may be -said of Mr. Haley that he has the genial temperament indigenous to Green -Erin, and he has already won golden opinions at Alamo Ranch by the -considerate brevity of his grace before meat. - -Among the invalids attended by their wives are Mr. Bixbee, from Ohio, -and Mr. Fairlee, from New York City. - -Mr. Bixbee has been bidden by his medical dictator to repair his damaged -vitality by rest and nourishing food. It is predicted that this -surfeited "lunger," in escaping his Scylla of consumption, bids fair to -strand upon the Charybdis of liver complaint, since Mrs. Bixbee, in her -wifely zeal, not only plies him all day long with lunches, but makes -night hideous by the administration of raw eggs throughout its drowsy -hours. - -Mr. Roger Smith, an over-worked Harvard athlete, is taking as a -restorative a lazy winter in this restful land. He has also other irons -in the fire, of which, later, we shall hear more. Roger Smith is known -in Boston society as one having heaps of money, but badly off for -pedigree. All the same, he is, in manner and appearance, a gentleman, -and has distinctly the hall-mark of Beacon Hill. He is here known as the -"Harvard man." - -Also, among the sound-lunged invalids, is Mr. Harry Warren, a brilliant -Chicago journalist. Mr. Warren is taking a vacation in Mesilla Valley, -where he is said to be collecting material for future articles, and -possibly for a book. - -The Browns have also two table-boarders from Boston,--Miss Paulina -Hemmenshaw and her beautiful niece, Louise, a superbly healthy brunette. -Their friend, Mr. Henry Hilton, during an absence abroad, has lent for -the winter to these ladies his toy ranch, with its aesthetically -fashioned dwelling-house. - -The Hemmenshaws dine and sup at Alamo Ranch, and the aunt, a -cooking-school graduate, is known to make at Hilton Ranch for herself -and niece wonderful blazer breakfasts, consisting mainly of dishes -new-fangled of name, and eminently trying to mortal digestion. There -are, besides, some half-dozen male lungers unaccompanied by friends; and -two impecunious invalids to whom the kind-hearted landlord, George -Brown, allows bed and board in return for light-choring about the ranch. -These latter are democratically counted in with the dining-room -boarders. - -Leon Starr, by common consent the "star boarder" of Alamo Ranch, has -already been presented to the reader. He has taken the large -two-windowed room on the ground-floor commanding a glorious view of the -distant Organ Mountains. After getting his breath in this unaccustomed -altitude, Leon's next care has been for the depressed lungers who daily -gather on the boarding-house piazza and wonder if life is still worth -living. To get them outside themselves by cheery good-fellowship, to -perform for them little homely services, not much in the telling, but -making their lives a world easier, has been a part of his method for -uplifting their general tone. - -Of an inventive turn of mind, and an amateur mechanic, he has brought -with him a tiny tool chest; and it soon becomes the family habit to look -to Leon Starr for general miscellaneous tinkering, as the mending of -door and trunk locks, the regulating watches and clocks, the adjustment -of the bedevilled sewing-machine of their good landlady, and the -restoration of harmonious working to all disgruntled mechanical gear, -from garret to cellar. He it is who, on rainy days, manufactures denim -clothes-bags for clumsy-fingered fellows; who fashions from common canes -gathered on banks of irrigating ditches, photo-frames for everybody, and -shows them how to arrange the long cane tassels with decorative effect -above door and window, and how to soften the glare of kerosene lamps by -making for them relieving shades of rose-colored paper. - -Pessimistic indeed is that lunger who, succumbing to the charm of this -gracious nature, does not feel the cheery lift in his heavy atmosphere. - -From the landlord and his wife, both worn by the strain of doing their -best for chronically discontented people, down to Fang Lee, the Chinese -chef, Dennis Kearney, the table-waiter, the over-worked Mexican -house-maids, and the two native chore-boys--one and all rise up to call -the star boarder blessed. - -Out on the mesa the air is finer and brighter than on the lower plane of -the ranch, and full of the life and stir of moving things,--quail, -rabbits, and doves. - -Leon had at first found the thin air of this altitude somewhat -difficult; but since time and use have accustomed his lungs to these -novel atmospheric conditions, shooting on the mesa has become a part of -his daily programme, and his quail, rabbits, and pigeons prove a -toothsome contribution to the already excellent ranch table. - -A small, shy Mexican herd-boy, pasturing his lean goats on the mesa, -gradually makes friends with the tall, kindly sportsman. As they have -between them but these two mutually intelligible words, _bueno_ (good) -and _mucho calor_ (very warm), their conversation is circumscribed. Kind -deeds are, however, more to the point than words, and go without the -saying; and when Leon instructed the ragged herd-boy in the use of his -bow, and made and weighted his arrows for him, he _understood_, and -became his devoted henchman, following in his path all through the -week-day tramps, and on Sundays coming to the ranch with clean face and -hands to adore his fetich, and watch, with admiring eyes, his novel -works and ways. - - - - -CHAPTER III - - -After a protracted interval of tranquil sunshine, a stormy wind came -blustering from the west, bringing to Mesilla Valley, in its wintry -train, sunless days, light flurries of snow, and general dreariness. - -The boarders, weather-bound and dull, grew sullenly mutinous; and on the -third of these stormy days, gathering in the ranch parlor after the -mid-day meal, their discontent found vent in banning right and left this -"land of sun, silence, and adobe." - -"Beastly weather!" muttered the Grumbler, drawing into the stove with a -discontented shiver. - -"A precious sample, this, of your fine climate, Brown," jeered Bixbee, -turning mockingly to the disheartened landlord, who, reckless of -expense, commanded of the chore-boy fresh relays of fuel, and -incontinently crammed the parlor air-tight, already red-hot. - -"I say, fellows," drolled the Harvard man, "let's make tracks for -Boston, and round up the winter with furnace heat and unlimited water -privileges, as the house-broker has it." - -"And with cut-throat plumbers thrown in," suggested the Grumbler with a -malicious grin. - -"See here, you folks, draw it mild," laughed the star boarder, crossing -the room with a finger between the leaves of a volume which he had been -reading by the dim afternoon light of this lowering day. "Here, now, is -something that fits your case to a T. Let me read you how they doctored -your complaint in these parts, æons before you were born." - -"Anything for a change," muttered Bixbee, and, with the general consent, -Leon read the following: - -"'When the people came out of the cold, dark womb of the underworld, -then the great sun rose in the heavens. In it dwelt Payatuma, making his -circuit of the world in a day and a night. He saw that the day was light -and warm, the night dark and cold. Hence there needed to be both summer -and winter people. - -"'He accordingly apportioned some of each to every tribe and clan, and -thus it is down to the present day. Then those above (that is, the -Sun-father and the Moon-mother), mindful lest the people on their long -journey to the appointed abiding-place succumb to weariness and fall by -the way, made for them a koshare, a delight-maker. His body was painted -in diagonal sections of black and white, and his head, in lieu of the -regulation feather-decorations, was fantastically arrayed in withered -corn-leaves. - -"'This koshare began at once to dance and tumble. Then the people -laughed, and were glad. And ever from that day, in their wanderings in -search of a satisfactory settling-place in the solid centre of the big -weary world, the koshare led them bravely and well. - -"'He it was who danced and jested to make happiness among the people. -His it was to smile on the planted maize till it sprouted and flowered -in the fertile bottoms, to beam joyously on the growing fruit, that it -might ripen in its season. - -"'From that day there have been delight-makers in all the Pueblo tribes. -The koshare became in time with them an organization, as the -Free-masons, or the Knights of Pythias, with us. This necessity, we are -told, arose from the fact that among the Pueblos there were summer -people who enjoy the sunshine, and winter people,--people who -determinedly prefer to live in the dark and cold.' - -"Is it not so," said Leon, turning down a leaf and closing his book, -"with every people on the face of the earth? - -"Is not the 'delight-maker,'--the koshare,--under various names and -guises, still in demand? It has struck me," continued he, looking -quizzically at this disgruntled assemblage, "that the koshare might be -an acceptable addition to our despondent circle." - -"Amen!" fervently responded the Methodist minister. - -"Right you are," said the Harvard man. "Write me as one who approves the -koshare!" - -"Yes! yes!" eagerly exclaimed approving voices. "Let us have the koshare -here and at once!" - -"A capital move," said Miss Paulina Hemmenshaw (born and reared in the -climatic belt of clubdom, and regent of a Chapter of Daughters of the -Revolution). "Let us have a Koshare Club." - -"Good!" echoed Mrs. Fairlee, among her intimates surnamed "the Pourer," -because of her amiable readiness to undertake for her friends the -helpful office that among afternoon tea-circles has been distinguished -by that name. "We might give afternoon teas to the members." - -"And why not have recitations, with humorous selections?" bashfully -suggested the gray-eyed school-mistress, who rejoiced in a fine-toned -voice and in a diploma from the School of Oratory. - -"Yes, indeed; and music, acting, and dancing, and all manner of high -jinks," exclaimed Miss Louise, who, an accomplished musician, and -distinguished for her amateur acting, with her superb health and -unfailing flow of spirits, might be counted in as a born koshare. - -"And we might unite improvement with diversion, and have, now and then, -a lecture, to give interest to our club," suggested Mrs. Bixbee; and -here she looked significantly at Mr. Morehouse, "the Antiquary," who as -a lecturer was not unknown to fame. - -"Lectures," observed the Minister, "though not strictly kosharean, -would be highly entertaining, and we can, no doubt, count upon our -friend, Mr. Morehouse, to give us the result of some of his research in -Mexican Antiquities." - -The Antiquary, with a smile, accepted the part assigned him by his -fellow-boarder. Here the boarders went to supper, after which the more -sleepy sought their beds. The evening blew stormily in; but, gathered -about the centre table in the warm parlor, the leading spirits of Alamo -Ranch bade the storm go by, while they inaugurated the Club of The New -Koshare. - -The star boarder was chosen president. The Minister was elected -vice-president, Miss Paulina secretary, and the Harvard man treasurer. -These preliminaries well arranged, a programme was voted on, and by -general approval carried. - -Mrs. Fairlee--the Pourer--was to give to the club-members a weekly -afternoon tea. An entertainment open to the entire household was, on -every Thursday evening, to be given in the ranch dining-room by the -Koshare, consisting of music, tableaux, and recitations. A -shooting-match, under the direction of Leon, was to come off weekly on -the grounds of the establishment. There should be among the clubbists a -fund collected for magazines; and on fortnightly Saturday evenings Mr. -Morehouse promised to give them lectures, the result of his antiquarian -researches in Mexico, New and Old; and during this course papers and -talks relating to this subject should supplement his own. - -"The Pueblo," commented the Grumbler, "would not have found magazines -strikingly kosharean; let us by all means have them," and suiting deed -to word, he subscribed to the book-fund on the spot, and paid -surreptitiously the subscription of the little school-ma'am, who had -previously withdrawn in the interest of her invalid sister. - -In this fashion was inaugurated "The New Koshare" of Mesilla Valley; -thereafter the Hemmenshaws bundled themselves in winter wraps and, -handed into their vehicle by the Harvard man, set out in the storm for -their ride to Hilton Ranch, and the Koshare betook themselves to rest. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - -On the morrow the sun shone warm and bright, and on the mesa, and on all -the desert-stretches of mesquite and sage-brush, on the broad alfalfa -fields and outlying acres of Alamo Ranch, there was no longer a flake of -snow. - -Early in this sunny day the star boarder and the Pourer, driven by a -leisurely chore-boy, might have been seen taking their way to Las -Cruces, the nearest village and postal centre, intent on the procurement -of sundry wafers, biscuit, and other edibles pertaining to an afternoon -tea. - -El Paso, the Texan border-town, some forty miles distant, is properly -the emporium of that region. Between it and Las Cruces lies a stretch of -desert more barrenly forlorn than the Long Island pine-lands, since it -is totally void of forest growth, and has but here and there a sprinkle -of mesquite-bushes about three feet in height, the rest being bare -sand-ridges. - -At El Paso one may ride in street cars, luxuriate in rain-proof -dwellings, lighted by electricity, and pretty with lawns and -flower-pots. But even at its best, modern civilization, with its push -and bustle, ill becomes the happy-go-lucky native Mexican sunning -himself in lazy content against the adobe of his shiftily built -dwelling. - -In a land of well-nigh perpetual blue sky, why need mortal man scramble -to make hay while the sun shines? Yesterday has already taken care of -itself. To-day is still here, and always there is _mañana_--to-morrow. - -As for our own upstart civilization, in this clime of ancient Pueblo -refinements one must own that it takes on the color of an impertinence, -and as incongruously exhibits itself as a brand-new patch on a long-worn -garment. - -But to return to Las Cruces, which is "fearfully and wonderfully made." -To look at the houses one might well fancy that the pioneer settlers had -folded their hands and prayed for dwellings, and when the answering -shower of mud and adobe fell, had contentedly left it where it stuck. -All these structures are one-storied, and square-built; each has its one -door, a window or two, and a dumpy roof, fashioned for the most part of -wattles, for, as it seldom rains here, the Las Crucean has no -troublesome prejudice in favor of water-tight roofs. When the sun shines -he is all right; and when it rains, he simply moves from under the drip. -Here, among confectionery that had long since outlived its desirability, -among stale baker's cookies and flinty ginger snaps, the Koshare -commissariat foraged discouragedly for the afternoon tea. - -Duly supplied with these time-honored sweets, Leon and the Pourer, thus -indifferently provisioned, turned their faces homeward, at such moderate -pace as seemed good in the eyes of an easy-going Mexican pony and his -lazy Indian driver. - -On the afternoon of that day Mrs. Bixbee, in her airy bed-chamber, -where the folding-bed in the day-time masqueraded as a black walnut -bookcase, gave the first Koshare afternoon tea. - -Mrs. Fairlee poured from a real Russian Samovar brought over from the -Hilton Ranch for this grand occasion. Somewhat to the general surprise, -the Grumbler made his bow to the hostess in evening clothes, and though -not exuberantly Koshare, he was in an unwontedly gracious mood; -partaking with polite zest of the stale chocolates, tough cookies, and -flinty ginger snaps; munching long-baked Albert biscuit; serenely -bolting puckery Oolong tea; and even handing the cups,--large and -substantial ones, kindly furnished from their landlady's pantry,--and -commending their solidity and size as far preferable to the Dresden and -Japanese "thimbles" commonly appearing on afternoon tea-tables. As for -the Pourer, it must be recorded that her grace, facility, and charm of -manner gave even stone china tea-cups an air of distinction, and lent to -Oolong tea and stale cakes a flavor of refinement. It was on Monday that -this function came off successfully. - -The next Koshare festivity in regular order was the shooting-match. - -Leon, who had inherited from some Nimrod of his race, long since turned -to dust, that _true eye_ and steady hand which make gunning a success, -was here master of ceremonies as well as contributor of prizes. - -The first of these, a pair of gold sleeve-links, he, himself, easily -won, and subsequently donated to Dennis the dudish table-waiter. Of the -five prizes, two others were won by the two impecunious lungers, one by -the Harvard man, and another by the Antiquary. The shooting-match, -enjoyed as it was by the near population of Mesilla Valley, proved a big -success, and weekly grew in grace with the aborigines as having a fine -flavor of circus shows and Mexican bull-fights, and was considered by -the Koshare as one of their happiest hits. - -Equally successful was the Thursday entertainment, held in the big -dining-room, under the auspices of the landlord and his wife, with the -cook, waiter, maids, and chore-boys gathered about the open door. - -It consisted of vocal and instrumental music, and recitations in prose -and rhyme; and, at a late hour, wound up with a bountiful supper -contributed to the occasion by the generous landlord. - -Miss Hemmenshaw, the star performer, gave, with admirable Rachelesque -gesture and true dramatic fire, "The Widow of the Grand Army," recited -with exquisite delicacy Shelley's "Cloud," and sent shivers down the -backs of the entire assemblage, by a realistic presentation of -Rossetti's "Sister Helen." The grey-eyed school-marm recited with -genuine "School of Oratory" precision and finish "Barbara Frietchie," -Holmes' "Chambered Nautilus," Longfellow's "Sandalphon," and "Tom -O'Connor's Cat." Leon read, with admirable humor, some of Mr. Dooley's -best; and the Harvard man brought down the house with Kipling's "Truce -of the Bear." - -There was some fine piano and banjo playing, and the singing of duets; -and the Journalist rendered, in his exquisite tenor, Ben Jonson's rare -old love-song, "Drink to me only with thine eyes." - -"Strange," commented the Antiquary (who in his miscellaneous mental -storage had found room for some fine old Elizabethan plays), turning to -Miss Hemmenshaw in the pause of the song, "Ben Jonson is dust these -three hundred years, and still his verses come singing down the ages, -keeping intact their own immortal flavor. The song-maker's is, indeed, -an art that 'smells sweet, and blossoms in the dust.' Well might they -write him, 'O rare Ben Jonson.'" - -"And how exquisitely," responded the lady, "is the air married to the -words!" And now the Minister brought forward his Cremona. He was a -finished violinist, with a touch that well-nigh amounted to genius. All -praised his performance. At its close the Grumbler, in an aside to the -Antiquary, thus delivered himself:-- - -"To _some_, God giveth common-sense; to _others_, to play the fiddle!" - -From the entry audience the fiddler won rousing rounds of applause, and -Dennis, the waiter, ventured on the subdued shuffle of an Irish jig. - -This it was that suggested to the Koshare an impromptu dance, and -thereupon the young people straightway took the floor. The Minister, -kindly oblivious of his cloth, fiddled on; Miss Paulina called off the -figures, and so, merrily, ended the first Koshare evening -entertainment. - - - - -CHAPTER V - - -As it is not proposed to give this record of the doings of the "New -Koshare" the circumstantiality of a diary, the chronicler may be allowed -to include the ensuing teas, shooting-matches, and all the lighter -kosharean festivities in the one general and final statement, that they -each came off duly and successfully; and leaving their details -"unhonored and unsung," proceed to a more extended account of the -Saturday evening entertainments,--as all members of the club were -invited to contribute to these evenings, and it was expected that the -Minister would, from the storehouse of his travelling experience, -contribute liberally to their delectability; and that the Journalist -(who naturally thought in paragraphs, and, like the fairy who "spoke -pearls," conversed in exquisitely fashioned sentences) would supplement -the papers of the Antiquary by his own brilliant talks. - -And so it was that on the initial Saturday evening, with a full -attendance and great expectations, the Koshare found themselves -convened, the president in the chair, the secretary with notebook in -hand, and all in dignified attention. - -The Antiquary--with this apt quotation from Cumming's "Land of Poco -Tiempo"--began his first lecture before the club. - -"'New Mexico,'" quoted he, "'is the anomaly of the Republic. It is a -century older in European civilization than the rest, and several -centuries older still in a happier semi-civilization of its own. -It had its little walled cities of stone before Columbus had -grandparents-to-be; and it has them yet.' - -"There are," stated Mr. Morehouse, "three typical races in New Mexico. -The American interpolation does not count as a type. - -"Of Pueblo Indians there are nine thousand, 'peaceful, home-loving, and -home-dwelling tillers of the soil.' Then, here, and in Arizona, there -are about twenty thousand Navajo Indians,--nomad, horse-loving, -horse-stealing vagrants of the saddle, modern Centaurs. Then come the -Apaches, an uncounted savage horde, whose partial civilization has been -effected by sheer force of arms, and inch by inch: who accept the -reservation with but half a heart, and break bounds at every -opportunity. Last of all come the Mexicans, shrunken descendants of the -Castilian world-finders; living almost as much against the house as in -it; ignorant as slaves, and more courteous than kings; poor as Lazarus, -and more hospitable than Croesus; and Catholics from A to izzard. - -"The Navajos and Apaches," said Mr. Morehouse, "have neither houses nor -towns; the Pueblos have nineteen compact little cities, and the Mexicans -several hundred villages, a part of which are shared by the invader. - -"'The numerous sacred dances of the Pueblos,' says Cummings, 'are by far -the most picturesque sights in America, and the least viewed by -Americans, who never found anything more striking abroad. The mythology -of Greece and Rome is less than theirs in complicated comprehensiveness; -and they are a far more interesting ethnological study than the tribes -of inner Africa, and less known of by their white countrymen.' - -"The Pueblos of New Mexico," explained the Antiquary, "are by no means -to be confounded with the Toltecs or Aztecs. It is, however, barely -possible that in prehistoric ages the race in possession of Mexico may -have had some tribal characteristics of the latter-day Pueblo. As of -that remote time, there is not even a traditionary record; this -supposition is absolutely conjectural. - -"By investigation and comparison it has, however, been proved that the -Pueblos have racial characteristics connecting them with some mysterious -stage of human life even older than that of the more barbarous Toltecs -or Aztecs. - -"This race has from time immemorial had its book of Genesis. It is not, -like that of the Hebrew, a written record, but has been orally handed -down, and with careful precision, beginning with their original -emergence, as half-formed human beings, from the dark of the mystic -underworld of 'Shipapu' to the world of light. - -"After the fashion of most barbarous races, the Pueblo appears -originally to have 'pitched his moving tent' in various parts of Mexico; -and it may be inferred that he endured many casualities before settling -himself in life. It was to tide over this trying epoch in his existence -that 'Those Above,' according to tradition, made for the tribes that -quaint 'Delight-Monger,' with whom we have already made acquaintance, -who led them in their wanderings from the womb of Shipapu to the solid -centre of their world; but, as has been already stated, this record, -going back to an indefinite period of time, and having only the dubious -authority of folk-lore, is only of traditional value. - -"The Pueblo, no less than the Aztec, is the most religious of human -beings. His ceremonial, like that of the age of Montezuma, is -wonderfully and minutely elaborated; and though originating in a -civilization less splendid and refined, it is really less barbarous, -since its rites have never, like those of the Aztec, included the -horrors of human sacrifice and cannibalism. - -"The Pueblo, since his exit from the womb of mother Earth, seems to have -given his principal attention to the cultivation of its soil. All the -same, he appears never to have shirked the less peaceful -responsibilities of his tribe,--putting on his war-paint at the shortest -notice, to settle the quarrels of his clan. - -"Although like most men of savage birth and breeding, cruel in warfare, -he seems never to have been abstractedly blood-thirsty, never to have -killed, like his ever-belligerent neighbor, the Apache, purely for -killing's sake; but, his quarrel once ended, and the present security of -his clan well achieved, he has contentedly returned to the peaceful ways -of life; diligently sowing, weeding, and harvesting his crops of maize, -melons, squashes, and beans, and--ever mindful of the propitiative -requirements of 'Those Above'--taking careful heed of his religious -duties. - -"For a succinct account of the Pueblo cave (or cliff) dwellers," said -the Antiquary, "I am largely indebted to Bandelier, from whose valuable -Pueblo researches I shall often take the liberty to quote. - -"The imperfectly explored mountain range skirting the Rio Grande del -Norte is picturesquely grand. - -"Facing the river, the foundation of the chain is entirely volcanic. - -"Colossal rocks form the abrupt walls of the gorges between these -mountains, and are often so soft and friable that, in many places they -were easily scooped out with the most primitive tools, or even detached -with the fingers alone. - -"In these gorges, through many of which run unfailing streams of water, -often expanding to the proportions of regular valleys, the Pueblo Indian -raised the modest crop that satisfied his vegetable craving. - -"As it is easier to excavate dwellings than to pile up walls in the open -air, the aboriginal Mexican's house-building effort was mostly confined -to underground construction. He was, in fact, a 'cave-dweller,' yet -infinitely of more advanced architectural ideas than our own remote -forbears of Anglo Saxon cave-dwelling times. - -"Most of these residences might boast of from three to four rooms. They -were arranged in groups, or clusters, and some of them were several -stories high. - -"Rude ladders were used for mounting to the terrace or roof of each -successive story. The Pueblo had, literally, a hearthstone in his -primitive home. His fireplace was supplied with a hearth of -pumice-stone. A rudely built flue, made of cemented rubble, led to a -circular opening in the front wall of his cave-dwelling. Air-holes -admitted their scanty light to these dusky apartments, in which there -were not only conveniences for bestowing wearing-apparel, but niches for -ornamental pottery, precious stones, and the like Indian bric-à-brac. -The ground-floor entrance was a rude doorway closed by a hide, or mat. -Plaited mats of Yucca leaves, and deer-hide, by day rolled up in corners -of the sleeping-apartments, served for mattresses at night. A thick -coating of mud, washed with blood, and carefully smoothed, gave to the -floor a glossy effect. Some of the rooms are known to have been in -dimension ten feet by fourteen. Their walls were whitewashed with burnt -gypsum. - -"Though the time when these traditional cliff-dwellers wooed and wed, -lived and died in the Rialto vale is long, long gone by, the ruins of -their homes may still be seen. Some of them are tolerably intact; others -are crumbled away to mere shapeless ruins. - -"And now, having described their dwellings, let us note some of the most -marked and interesting characteristics of the men and women who made in -them their homes. - -"We are apt," said the Antiquary, "to accord to our more enlightened -civilization the origin of communism; yet, antedating by ages our -latter-day socialistic fads, the communal idea enthused this unlettered -people, and to a certain extent seems to have been successfully carried -out. - -"Let not the strong-minded Anglo-Saxon woman plume herself upon the -discovery of the equality of the sexes. While our own female suffragists -were yet unborn, the Pueblo wife had been accorded the inalienable right -to lord it over her mankind. - -"Among the Mexican cliff-dwellers, 'woman's rights' seem to have been as -indigenous to the soil as the piñon and the prickly pear. - -"In the primitive Pueblo domicile, the wife appears, by tribal consent, -to have been absolutely 'cock of the walk.' The husband had no rights as -owner or proprietor of the family mansion, and, as an inmate, was -scarcely more than tolerated. - -"The wife, in those ever-to-be-regretted days, not only built and -furnished the house,--contributed to the kitchen the soup pot, water -jars, and other primitive domestic appliances,--but figured as sole -proprietor of the entire establishment. - -"The Pueblo woman, though married, still had, with her children, her -holding in her own clan. In case of her death, the man's home being -properly with _his_ clan, he must return to it. - -"The wife was not allowed to work in the fields. Each man tilled the -plot allotted him by his clan. The crops, once housed, were controlled -by the woman, as were the proceeds of communal hunts and fisheries. - -"The Pueblos had their system of divorce. It goes without saying that it -was not attended by the red-tape complications of our time. As the -husband's continuance under the family roof-tree depended absolutely on -his acceptability to the wife, at any flagrant marital breach of good -behavior she simply refused to recognize him as her lord. In vain he -protested, stormed, and menaced; the outraged better half bade him _go_, -and he _went_! Thus easily and informally were Pueblo marriages -dissolved; and, this summary transaction once well concluded, each party -had the right to contract a second marriage. - -"The Pueblo Indian is historically known as a Catholic; that is to say, -he told his beads, crossed his brow with holy water, and duly and -devoutly knelt at the confessional. This done, he tacitly reserved to -himself the privilege of surreptitiously clinging to the Paganism of his -forbears, and zealously paid his tithe of observances at the ancient -shrine of 'the Sun Father' and 'the Moon Mother.' - -"Some of the Pueblo tribes are said still to retain the use of that -ancient supplicating convenience, 'the prayer-stick.' - -"'Prayer-sticks, or plumes,'" explained the Antiquary, "are but painted -sticks tufted with down, or feathers, and, by the simple-minded Indian, -supposed especially to commend him to the good graces and kindly offices -of 'Those Above.' In a certain way, the aboriginal prayer-stick seems to -have been a substitute for an oral supplication. - -"The Pueblo, pressed for time, might even forego the hindering -ceremonial of verbal request, adoration, or thanksgiving, and hurriedly -deposit, as a votive offering to his easily placated gods, this tufted -bit of painted wood; and, furthermore, since prayer-sticks were not -always within reach, it was permitted him in such emergencies to gather -two twigs, and, placing these crosswise, hold them in position by a rock -or stone. And this childish make-shift passed with his indulgent gods -for a prayer! - -"The most trivial commonplace of existence had, with the superstitious -Pueblo, its religious significance; and it would seem to have been -incumbent on him literally to 'pray without ceasing.' Hence the -prayer-plume, or its substitute, was, with him, one of the necessities -of life. Time would fail me to tell of the ancient elaborate religious -rites and superstitions of the Mexican Indian; to recount his latter-day -ceremonials, wherein Pagan dances, races, and sports are like the jumble -of a crazy quilt, promiscuously mixed in with Christian festas and holy -saint-days; and indeed the subject is too large for my sketchy handling. -It may not, however, be amiss to notice the yearly celebration of the -festival of San Estevan. It may be still witnessed, and seems to have -been the original Harvest-home of the Mexican Indian, the observance of -which has been handed down in various ways from all times, and among all -peoples, and is probably the parent of our Thanksgiving holiday. - -"The monks of the early Catholic church, in their missionary endeavor to -commend the Christian religion to the pagan mind, took care to graft -upon each of the various festas of the Pueblo one of their own saint-day -names. Thus it was that the Acoma harvest-home masquerades under the -guise of a saint-name, though an absolutely pagan ceremonial. - -"It is still observed by them with genuine Koshare delight. There are -dances, races, and tumbling, and the carnival-like showering of Mexican -confetti from the roofs of adobe houses. In summing up this brief -account of the sedentary New Mexican, I quote literally the forceful -assertion of Cummings. 'The Pueblos,' says this writer, 'are Indians who -are neither poor nor naked; who feed themselves, and ask no favors of -Washington; Indians who have been at peace for two centuries, and fixed -residents for perhaps a millennium; Indians who were farmers and -irrigators, and six-story housebuilders before a New World had been -beaten through the thick skull of the Old. They had,' he continues, 'a -hundred republics in America centuries before the American Republic was -conceived.' - -"This peaceably minded people, as has already been stated, are by no -means to be confounded with the roving New Mexican aborigines, with the -untamed Navajo scouring the plains on the bare back of his steed, or the -fierce Apache, murderous and cruel. - -"We must not," said Mr. Morehouse, "take leave of the Pueblo, without -some reference to the great flat-topped, slop-sided chain of rock-tables -that throughout the length and breadth of his territory rises from the -sandy plains, the most famous and best explored of which is known as 'La -Mesa Encantada,'--'the Enchanted Mesa.' - -"According to tradition the Mesa Encantada gains its romantic name from -an event which centuries ago--declares the legend--destroyed the town, -then a well-populated stronghold of the Acomas. As a prelude to this -legend, let me state that the Pueblo cliff-dwellers often perched their -habitations on lofty, sheer-walled, and not easily accessible mesas, a -natural vantage-ground from which they might successfully resist their -enemies, the nomadic and predatory tribes formerly over-running the -country. - -"The steep wall of the Acoma Mesa, with its solitary trail, surmounted -by means of hand and foot holes pecked in the solid rock, was so well -defended that a single man might keep an army at bay. What fear, then, -should these Acomas have of their enemies? - -"The Acomas, like other Pueblo Indians, have from time immemorial been -tillers of the soil. - -"From the fertile sands of their valley and its tributaries they won by -patient toil such harvests of corn, beans, squashes, and cotton as -secured them a simple livelihood; and 'their granaries,' it is asserted, -'were always full enough to enable them, if need be, to withstand a -twelvemonth's siege.' How long the top of Katzimo, the site of the -Enchanted Mesa, had been inhabited when the catastrophe recorded in the -legend befell, no man may say, not even the elders of the tribe; this -much is, however, known,--the spring-time had come. The sun-priest had -already proclaimed from the housetops that the season of planting was at -hand. The seeds from last year's harvest had been gathered from the -bins; planting-sticks had been sharpened, and all made ready for the -auspicious day when the seer should further announce the time of -repairing to the fields. On that day (so runs the tale), down the ragged -trail, at early sunrise, clambered the busy natives; every one who was -able to force a planting-stick into the compact soil, or lithe enough to -drive away a robber crow, hurried to the planting. Only a few of the -aged and ailing remained on the mesa. - -"While the planters worked in the hot glare of the valley below, the sun -suddenly hid his face in angry clouds. The busy planters hastened their -work, while the distant thunder muttered and rolled about them. Suddenly -the black dome above them was rent as by a glittering sword, and down -swept the torrent, until the entire valley became a sheet of flood. The -planters sought shelter in the slight huts of boughs and sticks from -which the crops are watched. - -"The elders bodingly shook their heads. Never before had the heavens -given vent to such a cataract. - -"When the sudden clouds as suddenly dispersed, and the sun-lit crest of -Katzimo emerged from the mist, the toilers trudged toward their mountain -home. Reaching the base of the trail, they found their pathway of the -morning blocked by huge, sharp-edged pieces of stone, giving mute -testimony of the disaster to the ladder-trail above. - -"The huge rock mass, which had given access to the cleft by means of the -holes pecked in the trail-path, had in the great cloud-burst become -freed from the friable wall, and thundered down in a thousand -fragments, cutting off communication with the mesa village. The Acomas, -when asked why their ancestors made no desperate effort to reach the -sufferers whose feeble voices were calling to them from the summit for -succor, but left their own flesh and blood to perish by slow starvation, -gravely shook their heads. - -"The ban of enchantment had already, for these superstitious pagans, -fallen upon the devoted table-land; it had become 'La Mesa Encantada.' - -"The publication by Mr. Charles F. Lummis, who resided for several years -at the pueblo of Iselta, of the story of Katzimo, the tradition of which -was repeated to him by its gray-haired priests some twelve years ago, -aroused the interest of students of southwestern ethnology in the -history of 'La Mesa Encantada,' and, subsequently, Mr. F. W. Hodge was -directed by the Bureau of American Ethnology, of the Smithsonian -Institute, to scale the difficult height of this giant mountain, for the -purpose of supplementing the evidence already gained, of its sometime -occupancy as a Pueblo town. His party found decided evidence of a former -occupancy of the mesa, such as fragments of extremely ancient -earthenware, a portion of a shell bracelet, parts of two grooved stone -axes, lichen-flecked with age. Here, too, was an unfeathered -prayer-stick, a melancholy reminder of a votive offering made, at the -nearest point of accessibility, to 'Those Above.' - -"'When I consider,' says Mr. Hodge, in his charming paper, 'The -Enchanted Mesa,' published in the 'Century Magazine,' some three or -four years ago, 'that the summit of Katzimo, where the town was, has -long been inaccessible to the Indians, that it has been swept by winds, -and washed by rains for centuries, until scarcely any soil is left on -its crest, that well-defined traces of an ancient ladder trail may still -be seen pecked on the rocky wall of the very cleft through which the -traditionary pathway wound its course; and, above all, the large number -of very ancient potsherds in the earthy talus about the base of the -mesa, which must have been washed from above, the conclusion is -inevitable that the summit of 'La Mesa Encantada' was inhabited prior to -1540, when the present Acoma was discovered by Coronado, and that the -last vestige of the village itself has long been washed or blown over -the cliff.'" - -With this account of the Enchanted Mesa, Mr. Morehouse, amid general -applause, ended his interesting paper on the Pueblo Indians; and after a -short discussion by the Club of the ancient and modern characteristics -of these remarkable aborigines, the Koshare, well pleased with the -success of its endeavor to combine improvement with delight, adjourned -to the next Monday in January. - -Little dreamed Roger Smith as, that night, after the Club entertainment, -he handed the Hemmenshaw ladies to their wagon, for the return ride to -Hilton Ranch, that the very next week he was to undertake, on their -behalf, a hand-to-hand encounter with a blood-thirsty Apache. Yet so was -it ordained of Fate. - -It has already been stated that these ladies were but day-boarders at -Alamo Ranch, occupying, together with Sholto, a Mexican -man-of-all-work, the Hilton Ranch, a good mile distant from the -boarding-house. - -Louise Hemmenshaw, usually in exuberant health, was ill with a severe -influenza. It was the third and cumulative day of this disease. Sholto -had already been despatched to Brown's for the dinner; Miss Paulina had, -in this emergency, undertaken to turn off the breakfasts and suppers -from her chafing-dish. - -After replenishing, from the wood basket, the invalid's chamber fire, -Miss Paulina administered her teaspoonful of bryonia, gave a settling -shake to her pillow, and hurried down to fasten the back door behind -Sholto. - -Lingering a moment at the kitchen window, the good lady put on her -far-off glasses for a good look across the mesa, stretching--an unbroken -waste of sage-brush and mesquite-bush--from the Hilton kitchen garden to -the distant line of the horizon. - -As she quietly scanned the nearer prospect, Miss Paulina's heart made a -sudden thump beneath her bodice, and quickened its pulses to fever-time; -for there, just within range of her vision, was the undoubted form of an -Apache savage, clad airily in breech-clout, and Navajo blanket. Skulking -warily along the mesa, he gained the garden fence and sprang, at a -bound, over the low paling. For a moment the watcher stood paralyzed -with wonder and dismay. - -Meantime, under cover of a rose-trellis, the Apache, looking bad enough -and cunning enough for any outrage, coolly made a reconnoisance of the -premises. This done, still on all-fours, he gained the bulkhead of the -small dark vegetable cellar beneath the kitchen. It chanced to have been -inadvertently left open. - -With a satisfied grunt (and eschewing the paltry convenience of steps) -he bounded at once into its dusky depths. - -Summoning her failing courage, this "Daughter of the Revolution" -resolutely tiptoed out the front door, and, with her heart in her mouth, -whisking round the corner of the devoted house, shot into place the -stout outside bolt of the bulkhead door. - -This feat accomplished, she made haste to gain the safe shelter of the -adobe dwelling. She next looked well to the bolt fastening the trap-door -at the head of the ladder-like stairway leading perilously from the -kitchen to the dim region below, where the Apache might now be heard -bumping his head against the floor-planks, in a fruitless endeavor to -discover some outlet, from this underground apartment, to the family -circle above. With the frightful possibility of a not distant escape of -her prisoner, the good lady lifted her heart in silent prayer, and -hurrying promptly to the chamber of her niece, gave a saving punch to -the fire, a glass of port wine to the invalid, and, feigning an -appearance of unconcern, left the room, and slipped cautiously down to -the kitchen. Here she dragged an ironing-table, a clothes-horse, and a -wood-box on to the trap-door, and breathlessly waited for the Apache's -next move. - -And now, a step might be heard on the driveway, followed by a rap at the -front door. - -Prudently scanning her visitor through the sidelight, and assuring -herself that he was no breech-clouted savage, but a fellow white man, -Miss Paulina let in through the narrowest of openings,--who but their -friend the Harvard man! "Dear soul!" tearfully exclaimed the good lady, -while Roger Smith stood in mute wonder at the warmth of her greeting. - -It was but the work of a moment to explain the situation and acquaint -him with the peril of the moment. - -Sholto, at his leisurely Mexican pace, now opportunely appeared at the -back door with the hot dinner. - -"There is a time for all things," said the "president of Chapter 18th," -as (having pulled the bewildered Mexican inside) she vigorously shot the -door-bolt in place, deposited the smoking viands on the sideboard, and -thus addressed him. "Sholto," said Miss Paulina, "I have an Apache here -in the cellar. For the time being his ability to work us harm is -limited; but an Apache is never nice to have round; and, besides, he -must have terribly bumped himself poking round there all this time in -the dark. One would not unnecessarily hurt even a savage. We must -therefore let him up, bind him fast, and take measures for delivering -him to the police at Las Cruces. Here is a clothes-line: it is good and -strong; make up a lasso, and when I open the trap-door, as his head bobs -in sight, throw it, and then help Mr. Smith haul him out, and tie him." - -Sholto's lasso was soon in working order. The trap-door once raised, the -head of the unsuspecting savage flew up like a Jack in a box, and with -such a rubber-like bound that Sholto's lasso went wide of the mark. In -this dilemma, a scientific blow from the fist of a Harvard athlete -deftly floored him, and, in the consequent lapse of consciousness, he -was easily bound, and safely deposited in the bottom of the Hilton -express wagon. This accomplished, Sholto and the Harvard man summarily -took the road for Las Cruces, some four miles distant. The horse and his -driver being in absolute accord as to the ratio of miles proper to the -hour, the captors drove leisurely along; the Harvard man meantime -relieving the slow monotony of the way, with incident and anecdote, and -Sholto, in turn, imparting much interesting New-Mexican information. - -Presently a faint stir, as of the quiet, persistent nibbling of a mouse -in the wall, might (but for the talking) have been heard from the bottom -of the wagon. "Poor beggar!" said the Harvard man, at last recalling to -mind the captive Apache; "he must, by this time, be about ready to come -to." And taking from his over-coat pocket a tiny flask of brandy, he -turned on his seat with the humane intention of aiding nature in -bringing about that restoration. "Gone! clean gone! by George!" -exclaimed the astonished athlete. The cunning savage had, with his -sharp, strong teeth, actually gnawed through his wrist cords, and, with -tooth and nail extricating himself from the knotted clothes-line, was -already on his return from the unsatisfactory husks of Mesilla Valley, -to the fatted veal of the U. S. government, in his father's house,--"The -Reservation." "_They are fleet steeds that follow!_" quoted the Harvard -man as the jubilant Apache, with flying heels, loomed tantalizingly on -the distant plain. The startled cotton-tail, swept by "the wind of his -going," scurried breathlessly to his desert fastnesses among the -sage-brush and mesquite. - -With a humorous glance at his fast-vanishing form, the Harvard man -measured with his eye the intervening distance, the speed of the escaped -captive, and the pace of the propeller of the Hilton express, and -gracefully accepted the situation. Sholto lazily turned the horse's -head, and in process of time the discomfited captors of Miss Paulina's -Apache--like John Gilpin-- - - "Where they did get up - Did get down again." - -Meantime, Miss Hemmenshaw brought up the mid-day meal. - -"Auntie," said the invalid, "this feverish cold puts queer fancies in my -head. While you were away, I must have taken a little nap, and when I -awoke there seemed to be some sort of a rumpus going on below; after -which I fancied that a team started away from the back door. It could -not have been Sholto's; for he would be coming from Brown's about that -hour with our dinner." - -"It may have been just a part of your dream, dear," pacified the aunt; -"but come, now, here is our dinner. Let us have it together. A -wonderfully nice dinner Mrs. Brown has sent us, too, and you can -venture to-day on a quail, and a bit of orange pudding. For myself, I am -as hungry as a bear;" and, removing the books from the oval bedroom -table, Miss Paulina laid the cloth, set out the dishes and glasses, and -daintily arranged the viands, which the two ladies discussed with -evident relish. - -"And now," said the aunt, "since you have dined, and have something to -brace you up, I will 'tell my experience;'" and forthwith she related to -the astonished Louise the adventure of the morning. The good lady had -but accomplished her exciting account, when the valiant captors of the -Apache drove up. - -Miss Paulina, with the concentrated importance of her entire "Chapter," -met and opened the door to her hero. - -"Well?" asked she of the crestfallen athlete. - -"No: ill!" replied he; "the Apache never reached Las Cruces. He managed -to unbind himself, and slipped from our hands by the way. The -clothes-line has come back safe; but the savage is, long ere this, well -on his road to the Mescalero Reservation." - -"Well," said Miss Paulina, judicially, "I can't say that I'm sorry. The -creature had a rough time bumping about that low, dark cellar; and your -blow on his head was a tough one. And when one considers the -slip-shodness of things at Las Cruces, and the possible insecurity of -their jail, _we_, on the whole, are the safer for his escape; and _he_ -will, of course, feel more at home now in the Reservation, and will -probably remain there for a while, after the fright we gave him." - -Thus reassured, the Harvard man accepted Miss Hemmenshaw's invitation to -stay to supper. And presently the convalescing invalid came down to -express her thanks for his devoir of the morning. Reclining on the -parlor lounge, in a cream-white tea gown, she looked so lovely that a -man might well have dared a whole tribe of savages in her defence. By -and by they had a quiet game of chess. It goes without saying that the -lady won. There _might_ be men hard-hearted enough to beat Louise -Hemmenshaw at chess. The Harvard man was not _of_ them. - -So slipped away this happy afternoon; and, at sunset Sholto appeared -with the tea equipage, and the young people covertly made merry over a -chafing-dish mess achieved by the Cooking School pupil; and under cover -of rarebit, water-biscuit, and cups of Russian tea, the Harvard man made -hay for himself in this bit of sunshine, and grew in favor with both -aunt and niece. - -With Miss Paulina Hemmenshaw, true to her aristocratic birth and -breeding, pedigree far out-weighed filthy lucre. To be well born was, in -her estimation, to be truly acceptable to gods and men. - -Roger Smith, with his plebeian surname and unillustrious "tanner" -grandfather, was by no means a suitable husband for her motherless -niece, to whom, as the head of her brother's household, she had for -years filled a parent's place. Louise Hemmenshaw, as the good lady -shrewdly guessed, was the magnet that drew this undeclared lover to -Mesilla Valley. During the preceding winter they had met at many social -functions in Boston and Cambridge, and he had become the willing captive -of her bow and spear. He had never told his love. - -The social discrepancy between the lovely aristocrat and Roger--the -grandson of Roger the Tanner--was too wide to be easily overstepped. - -Ostensibly the Harvard man had come to New Mexico to recruit his spent -energies; but in his heart of hearts he knew that dearer than health was -the hope of winning the heart of Louise Hemmenshaw. Already his native -refinement and charm of manner had commended him to Miss Paulina; and -now, his prowess in the day's adventure had made her, for good and all, -his warm friend. As to her niece, he told himself, as, that night, by -the light of a low moon, he took his way to Alamo Ranch, recalling the -tender pressure of the invalid's white hand, when, with a rosy blush, -she bade him good-night, that in his wooing he had to-day "scored one;" -and with the confident egotism of presumptuous mortals, when events play -unexpectedly into their hands, he decided that Fate had prearranged this -timely call of his on the Hemmenshaws, and had timed the arrival of the -Apache at that opportune hour, with an especial view to the fulfilment -of his own cherished wishes. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - - -Another two weeks of lighter Koshare festivities had again brought round -the more solid fortnightly entertainment of the Club. - -Its members duly assembled, the president in his chair, and the -secretary at attention, Mr. Morehouse thus began his second paper. - -"Before Texas," said he, "became a part of an independent republic, and -until after the Mexican war (when we forced Mexico to sell us all -California, New Mexico, and Arizona, nearly all of Utah and Nevada, -besides Texas, and the greater part of Colorado), Mexico proper reached -way up here; and it is thought by some archaeologists that the mesas or -table-mountain land especially characterizing the New Mexican landscape -may have afforded the suggestion for the Teocallis of the great -pyramid-like mounds, with terraced sides, built by the Aztecs. Some -scholars have even convinced themselves that the Aztec culture must have -originated here in the North. Others wholly discard the conclusion. - -"Mr. Baxter, in his valuable and interesting book of Mexican travel, -says, decidedly, 'The New Mexican Indians were not Aztecs, and Montezuma -had no more to do with New Mexico than he did with New England.' And -with this assertion I think we must all, perforce, agree. - -"Of the Toltecs, the probable predecessors in Mexico of the Aztecs, all -written records," said the Antiquary, "have long since perished. They -are known to us only through traditionary legends orally handed down by -the races that succeeded them. - -"They are said to have entered the Valley of Anahnac from a northerly -direction, coming from a mysterious unknown region, and probably before -the close of the seventh century. They appear to have been a far more -gentle and refined nation than their immediate successors, the -half-savage Aztecs, who, at last, with their semi-civilization, -dominated Mexico. By general archæological agreement, the Toltecs were -well instructed in agriculture, and many of the most useful mechanic -arts. - -"'They were,' declares Prescott, 'nice workers in metals.' They invented -the complex arrangement of time adopted by the Aztecs, who are said to -have been largely indebted to them for the beginnings of that -incongruous civilization which reached its high-water mark in the reign -of the Montezumas. So late as the time of the Spanish Conquest the -remains of extensive Toltec buildings were to be found in Mexico. - -"'The noble ruins of religious and other edifices,' says the same -writer, 'still to be seen in Mexico, are referred to this people, whose -name, _Toltec_, has passed into a synonym for _Architect_.' - -"After a period of four centuries--having succumbed to famine, -pestilence, and unsuccessful wars--this remarkable people disappeared -from the land as silently and mysteriously as they had entered it. It -is conjectured that some of them may have spread over the region of -Central America and the neighboring isles; and that the majestic ruins -of Mitla and Paleque are the work of this vanished race. Tradition -affirms that a remnant of Toltecs still lingering in Anahnac 'gave -points' to the next inhabitants; and the Tezcucans are thought to have -derived their gentle manners and comparatively mild religion from the -handful of Toltecs who still remained in the country. A Spanish priest, -with that keen relish for the marvellous common to his kind, accounts -for this mysterious disappearance by supernatural stories of giants and -demons. - -"According to good authorities, more than a hundred years elapsed -between the strange disappearance of the Toltecs from the land of -Anahnac and the arrival on its borders of the Aztecs. - -"After the nomadic fashion of barbarous races, this people did not at -once make a permanent settlement, but pitched their tents in various -parts of the Mexican valley, enduring many casualties and hardships, and -being at one time enslaved by a more powerful tribe, whom their prowess -subsequently dominated. - -"Some of these wanderings and adventures are perpetuated in their oral -traditional lore. - -"One of these legends is well substantiated, and current at this day, -having been the origin of the device of the eagle and cactus, which form -the arms of the present Mexican republic, and may be found on the face -of the Mexican silver dollar. Thus it runs: 'Having in 1325 halted on -the southwestern borders of the larger Mexican lakes, the Aztecs there -beheld, perched on the stem of a prickly pear, which shot out from a -crevice of a rock that was washed by the waves, a royal eagle of -extraordinary size and beauty, with a serpent in his talons, and his -broad wings open to the rising sun. - -"'They hailed the auspicious omen, which the oracle announced as an -indication of the site of their future city.' - -"The low marshes were then half buried in water; yet, nothing daunted, -they at once proceeded to lay the sloppy foundation of their capital, by -sinking piles into the shallows. On these they erected the light -dwelling-fabrics of reeds and rushes,--the frail beginnings of that -solid Aztec architecture carried to such elegant elaboration in the time -of the Montezumas. In token of its miraculous origin they called their -city Tenochtitlan. Later it was known as Mexico, a name derived from the -Aztec war-god, Mexitil. - -"It has been shown that the Aztec race, once permanently established in -Mexico, finally attained to a civilization far in advance of the other -wandering tribes of North America. - -"'The degree of civilization which they had reached,' says Prescott, 'as -inferred by their political institutions, may be considered not far -short of that enjoyed by our Saxon ancestors under Alfred. In respect to -the nature of it, they may better be compared to the Egyptians; and the -examination of their social relations and culture may suggest still -stronger points of resemblance to that ancient people. - -"'Their civilization,' he goes on to say, 'was, at the first, of the -hardy character which belongs to the wilderness. The fierce virtues of -the Aztec were all his own. They refused to submit to European -culture--to be engrafted on a foreign stock. They gradually increased in -numbers, made marked improvements both in polity and military -discipline, and ultimately established a reputation for courage as well -as cruelty in war which made their name terrible throughout the valley.' -In the early part of the fifteenth century--nearly a hundred years after -the foundation of the city--that remarkable league--of which it has been -affirmed that 'it has no parallel in history'--was formed between the -states of Mexico and Tezcuco, and the neighboring little kingdom of -Tlacopan, by which they agreed mutually to support each other in their -wars, offensive and defensive, and that in the distribution of the spoil -one-fifth should be assigned to Tlacopan and the remainder be -divided--in what proportions is uncertain--between the two other powers. - -"What is considered more remarkable than the treaty itself, however, is -the fidelity with which it was kept. - -"During a century of uninterrupted warfare that ensued no instance, it -is declared, occurred in which the parties quarrelled over the -distribution of the spoil. By the middle of the fifteenth century the -allies, overleaping the rocky ramparts of their own valley, found wider -occupation for their army, and under the first Montezuma, year after -year saw their return to the Mexican capital, loaded with the spoils of -conquered cities, and with throngs of devoted captives. - -"No State was able long to resist the accumulated strength of the -confederates; and at the beginning of the sixteenth century, on the -arrival of the Spaniards, the Aztec dominion reached across the -continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific." - -Here Mr. Morehouse ended his paper on the Toltecs, and the Koshare, with -many thanks for his interesting account of these ancient races, -supplemented his information by a general discussion of the genuineness -of the accepted authorities for the early history of the Aztecs and of -the time of Montezuma. - -"Prescott," said the Minister, "traces some points of resemblance -between the history of the Aztecs and that of the ancient Romans; -especially in polity and military success does he compare them." - -"Unfortunately," observed the Antiquary, "the earlier records of the -Mexican people can only be scantily gleaned from oral tradition and -hiero-graphical paintings." - -"Later, however," remarked the Journalist, "we have the seemingly more -definite and reliable accounts of the Spanish chronicles." - -"These," returned the Minister, "being usually ecclesiastic, have warped -their record to suit their own bigoted views; consequently, much of the -narrative popularly known as Mexican history is to be taken with more -than the proverbial pinch of salt." - -"It has," said the Journalist, "been urged by realistic critics of our -own fascinating historian--Prescott--that since he drew his historic -data, with the exception of the military record of the Spaniards, from -these unreliable sources, his history is little other than the merest -romance. Plainly, the assertions of some of the chroniclers are scarce -more worthy of credence than the equally fascinating adventures of -Sinbad the Sailor, and the impossible stories of Baron Munchausen. -'Bernard Diaz'--that enigmatical personage from whom many of Prescott's -data are drawn--tells us that the Aztecs actually fattened men and women -in cages, like spring chickens, for their sacrifice, and asserts that at -the dedication of one of their temples a procession of captives two -miles long, and numbering seventy-two thousand persons, were led to -sacrifice! By the way, it has, however, been latterly proved that the -so-called sacrificial stone, now exhibited in the National Museum of -Mexico, is not a relic of the Aztecs, but of the earlier Toltecs (who -were not addicted to human sacrifice), and is as innocent of human blood -as the Calendar Stone, referred to the same period. The critics of Diaz -have detected in his account constant blunders in many important -matters, and his glaring geographical errors would seem to prove that, -though he claims to have been, all through the Conquest, the very shadow -of Hernando Cortez, he has never even been in the country he describes!" - -"From what I have read of Bernald," said Leon, "I think we may finish -him off with 'Betsy Prig's' very conclusive objection to Sairey Gamp's -'Mrs. Harris'--there ain't no sich person!" - -"Even so," exclaimed the Minister, "I, for one, agree with certain -downright critics who contend that Diaz was a pure fabrication, a -priestly scheme of the Roman Church to screen the cruel enormities of -their agent, Cortez. Father Torquemada, another of Prescott's -authorities, is thought to be scarcely more reliable. Las Casas, another -of our historian authorities, whose history was, at the time, promptly -suppressed by the all-powerful Inquisition, declares these Spanish -histories of the Conquest to be 'wicked and false.'" - -"And yet, in spite of these strictures," contended Leon, "I, for one, -still pin my faith to Prescott and his implicit honesty of purpose. He -gave us, in his own learned and fascinating way, the narrative of these -priestly chroniclers as he found it. If the chroniclers lied, why, so -much the worse for the chroniclers." - -"Lying," complained the Grumbler, "is a malady most incident to -historians;" and thereupon rose to open the parlor door for the -gray-eyed school teacher, who just then bade the Koshare good-night, -adding that she had already been too long away from her sister. - -And now the chairman announced the next paper in the Koshare course for -the second Saturday in February, and the members, one and all, -dispersed. - -Sholto, roused from a most enjoyable series of naps, brought his wagon -to the side door, and with a friendly grasp from the hand of Miss -Paulina, and a shy, tremulous clasp from that of her niece, the Harvard -man saw the ladies off. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - - -February had come, bringing in its train such weather as verified the -warmest praise of New Mexico's perfect climate. - -It was on one of its most spring-like afternoons that a walking party of -eight set out to pay a long-proposed visit to the ladies at Hilton -Ranch. - -As the little party went gayly along the mesa, Leon, carrying his gun, -shot doves for the evening meal, while the rest walked on, chatting -merrily. - -The ladies talking over, by the way, the late attempt of the Apache on -Hilton Ranch, Mrs. Bixbee declared herself curious to see the cellar in -which Miss Paulina had caught that prowling savage. On their arrival -that good lady, informed of this desire, kindly proceeded to gratify her -guest, and the entire party was presently led by her to the kitchen, the -hero of this adventure modestly walking beside the fair lady of his -love. Sholto, busied about the place, was just then out of call, and -Miss Hemmenshaw, intent to afford them a peep into the cellar, begged -the Harvard man to raise for her the heavy trap-door. - -The dear lady never quite knew how it was that, leaning forward, she -lost her balance, and, but for the prompt help of Roger Smith, might -have landed, pell-mell, on the cellar bottom; or how, in rescuing her, -he himself made the misstep that, ere he could recover his poise, threw -him to the end of the ladder-like cellar stairs. - -Recovering breath, Roger Smith cheerily called up to the affrighted -group at the top, "All right!" but, on pulling himself together to make -the ascent, he suddenly found all wrong. He had sprained his ankle; and -it was with painful effort that he won to the top. At this juncture -Sholto, aroused by the unwonted rumpus, made his appearance, -anticipating no less a disaster than the reappearance of the slippery -savage, for whom he still held the lasso "in pickle." Disabled by the -sprain, the Harvard man submitted himself to the stout arms of the -Mexican, and, by Miss Paulina's direction, was carried into the bedroom -adjoining the ranch parlor. - -There, laid upon a movable couch which served the double purpose of sofa -and bed, Sholto having, not without difficulty, removed his boot and -stocking, he submitted the swollen foot to the careful inspection of -Miss Hemmenshaw, who, with a steadiness of nerve not unworthy of her -"Chapter," put the dislocated joint in place, bandaged the injured -member with arnica, administered an internal dose of the same -restorative, and duly followed it with a glass of old Port. This done, -Sholto wheeled the sufferer's couch into the adjoining parlor. Half an -hour later Leon came in with a well-filled game-bag; and after an hour -of mild Koshare merriment, in which the athlete but feebly joined (the -pain of his ankle was still terrible), the little party took its way, in -the fading sunlight, to Alamo Ranch. Miss Paulina, having promptly -decided that her patient was unequal to the return by way of the jolting -Hilton express team, sent to Mrs. Brown an order for supper for her -guest, Louise, and herself. It was duly conveyed to Hilton's by an Alamo -chore-boy. Sholto, as the sole male dependence of Hilton's, must stick -to his post; for, sagely observed the "Daughter of the Revolution," two -women, heroic though they might be, were no match for an Apache -marauder; and as for poor Roger Smith, he could now neither "fight" nor -"run away." - -Sholto lighted the lamps, laid the supper on the low Queen Anne table, -added fresh water from the spring, and when a pot of tea had been made -by the hostess' own careful hand, and Sholto had wheeled up the couch of -the invalid, that he might take his supper _à la Roman_, the three made -a cheery meal. - -When the man had removed the supper things, and piled fresh wood on the -andirons, the ladies brought their work-baskets; and while they busied -themselves with doily and centre-piece, the Harvard man, lying in the -comfort of partial relief from pain, watched the dainty fingers of -Louise Hemmenshaw as she bent industriously over her embroidery, and -fell fathoms deeper in love with the dear and beautiful girl. - -Roger Smith stayed on at Hilton Ranch, where, thrown day after day in -semi-helplessness on the kind attendance of Miss Paulina and the sweet -society of her niece, he (I grieve to say) fell a ready prey to the -suggestions of a certain wily personage who (according to Dr. Watts) -finds employment for idle hands, and thus conceived the wickedness of -cunningly using this accident to further his own personal ends. Thus -devil-tempted, this hitherto upright young person resolved that it -should be a long day before his sprained ankle should permit him to -return to Brown's, and lose this precious opportunity of establishing -himself in the good graces of the aunt, and winning the love of the -niece. - -Far from approving the crooked policy which led Roger Smith to feign -lameness long after the injured ankle had become as sound as ever, the -present historian can only, in view of this lapse from integrity, affirm -with Widow Bedott that "we're poor creeturs!" and, with that -depreciative view of humanity, go on with this truthful narrative. - -A whole delicious month had been passed by the Harvard man in this -paradise,--Elysian days, while, waited on by Sholto, petted by Miss -Paulina, and companioned by the loveliest of houris, he dreamed out his -dream. - -At last, on a certain decisive evening, Roger Smith found himself alone -in the gloaming with Louise Hemmenshaw. The aunt, who through all these -weeks had zealously chaperoned her niece, had passed into the -dining-room to evolve some chafing-dish delicacy for the evening meal. -Without, the setting sun flooded all the west with gold, touched the -distant mountain peaks with splendor, and threw a parting veil of glory -over the wide mesa. Within, the firelight made dancing shadows on the -parlor wall, where the pair sat together in that eloquent silence so -dear to love. "Well," said the athlete to himself (compunctiously -glancing at his superfluous crutches, left within easy reach of his -hand), "this performance can't go on forever. I have made believe about -long enough; what better may I do than own up this very night, and -somehow bring this base deceit to an end." - -Mentally rehearsing the formula, in which, over and over, he had asked -the hand of this beautiful aristocrat, his mind still sorely misgave -him. "Why," thought this depressed lover, "was not my name Winthrop, -Endicott, or Sturgis, instead of Smith; and my grandfather a senator, a -judge, or even a stockbroker, rather than a tanner?" - -Neither Miss Paulina nor her brother, he discouragedly mused, would ever -countenance this unequal match. His millions would with them weigh -nothing against "the claims of long descent." - -The sun had gone down, the after-glow had faded to gray. They were still -alone. The firelight half revealed the lovely figure beside the hearth. -In that gown of golden-brown velvet, with the creamy old lace at wrists -and throat, the brown hair combed smoothly from the white forehead, -knotted behind and fastened with a quaint arrow of Etruscan gold, Louise -Hemmenshaw was simply adorable! It was indeed good to be here; and why -should not a life so sweet and satisfying go on indefinitely? - -"It is four weeks to-day since I fell down cellar,"--such was the -commonplace beginning to this much considered tale of love. - -"Really?" said the lady, looking innocently up from an absorbed -contemplation of the fender. "It has not seemed so long. I never before -realized what a serious thing it is to sprain one's ankle. You have been -a most patient sufferer, Mr. Smith; and, indeed, for the past two weeks, -a most jolly one. Aunt Paulina was saying to-day that it was high time -we all went back to Alamo for our meals, and helped out the Koshare -doings of the Club." - -"Dear Miss Hemmenshaw," here blurted out the culprit, "do not despise me -for my meanness, since it is all for love of you that I have been -shamming lameness. For these last two weeks I could at any time have -walked as well as ever." And, hereupon, without the slightest reference -to his crutches, he rose from his chair and skipped over to her side. "A -sprain," explained this audacious lover, "may be cured in a fortnight, -but it takes a good month to woo and win a fair lady. Having soon after -my accident decided that point, I have done my best. Tell me, dear -Louise," pleaded he, "that my time has been well spent. Say that, -deceitful ingrate though I am, you will take me, for good and all." - -"Roger Smith," replied the lady, with much severity, "you have repaid -the devoted care of two unsuspecting females by a whole fortnight of -wilful duplicity. For my aunt I cannot answer; for myself, I can only -reply,--since to err is human; to forgive, womanlike,--dear Roger, on -the whole, I will." - -Miss Paulina, a moment later entering the parlor, surprised her invalid -guest, standing crutchless on his firm feet, with his arm thrown about -the waist of her niece. "Well, well!" exclaimed the astonished lady, -"and without his crutches!" - -"Dear Miss Paulina," said Roger Smith with a happy laugh, "my ankle is -as well as ever; and your niece has promised to marry me. Say that you -will have me for your nephew." - -"I seem already to have gotten you, my good sir, whether I will or no," -laughed Miss Hemmenshaw. "But, my stars and garters" (mentally added -she), "what ever will my brother say? A tanner's grandson coming into -the family! and he a Hemmenshaw, and as proud as Lucifer!" "Never mind, -Auntie dear," said the smiling fiancée, guessing her thoughts. It will -be all right with father when he comes to know Roger; and besides, let -us remember that under the 'Star Spangled Banner' we have our -'Vanderbilts,' our 'Goulds,' and our 'Rockefellers;' but _no_ Vere de -Veres. And if we _had_, why, Love laughs at heraldry, and is - - "'Its own great loveliness alway.'" - -"To-morrow," said Miss Paulina decisively, "we will all dine at Alamo -Ranch." - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - - -Through this month of wooing and betrothing at Hilton Ranch, the -Koshare, at Alamo, never once remitted its endeavor to hearten the -despondent. - -The weekly entertainments took their regular course, and were -successfully carried on, and, in due time, the fortnightly club convened -to listen to the Antiquary's account of "Montezuma and his Time." - -And here the Koshare chronicle returns on its track to record that able -paper. - -"As a consistent Koshare," said Mr. Morehouse, to his eager listeners, -"it behooves me to give--without that dry adherence to facts observed by -the 'Gradgrind' historian--the charming melodramatic details of that -romantic monarch's life and times afforded by the popular -Munchausen-like data of the Spanish chroniclers, albeit they have in -their entirety, all the fascination, and, sometimes, all the -unbelievableness of a fairy tale. - -"The Aztec government," prefaced the Antiquary, "was an elective -monarchy, the choice always restricted to the royal family. - -"The candidate usually preferred must have distinguished himself in war; -though, if (as in the case of the last Montezuma) he was a member of the -priesthood, the royal-born priest, no less than the warrior was, with -the Aztec, available as an emperor. - -"When the nobles by whom Montezuma the Second was made monarch went to -inform the candidate of the result of the election, they are said to -have found him sweeping the court of the temple to which he had -dedicated himself. It is further asserted that when they led him to the -palace to proclaim him king, he demurred, declaring himself unworthy the -honor conferred on him. It is a humiliating proof of the weakness of -human nature in face of temptation, to find that, later, this pious king -so far forswore his humility as to pose before his subjects as a god; -that five or six hundred nobles in waiting were ordered to attend daily -at his morning toilet, only daring to appear before him with bared feet. - -"It was not until, by a victorious campaign, he had obtained a -sufficient number of captives to furnish victims for the bloody rites -which Aztec superstition demanded to grace his inauguration, -that--amidst that horrible pomp of human sacrifice which stained the -civilization of his people--Montezuma was crowned. - -"The Mexican crown of that day is described as resembling a mitre in -form, and curiously ornamented with gold, gems, and feathers. - -"The Aztec princes, especially towards the close of the dynasty, lived -in a barbaric Oriental pomp, of which Montezuma was the most conspicuous -example in the history of the nation. - -"Elevation, like wine, seems to have gone to the head of the second -Montezuma. - -"An account of his domestic establishment reads like the veriest record -of midsummer madness. Four hundred young nobles, we are told, waited on -the royal table, setting the covers, in their turn, before the monarch, -and immediately retiring, as even his courtiers might not see Montezuma -eat. Having drunk from cups of gold and pearl, these costly goblets, -together with the table utensils of the king, were distributed among his -courtiers. Cortez tells us that so many dishes were prepared for each -meal of this lordly epicure, that they filled a large hall; and that he -had a harem of a thousand women. His clothes, which were changed four -times a day (like his table service), were never used a second time, but -were given as rewards of merit to nobles and soldiers who had -distinguished themselves in war. If it happened that he had to walk, a -carpet was spread along his way, lest his sacred feet should touch the -ground. His subjects were required, on his approach, to stop and close -their eyes, that they might not be dazzled by his effulgent majesty. His -ostentatious humility gave place to an intolerable arrogance. He -disgusted his subjects by his haughty deportment, exacting from them the -most slavish homage, and alienating their affection by the imposition of -the grievous taxes demanded by the lavish expenditure of his court. - -"In his first years Montezuma's record was, in many respects, -praiseworthy. He led his armies in person. The Aztec banners were -carried far and wide, in the furthest province on the Gulf of Mexico, -and the distant region of Nicaragua and Honduras. His expeditions were -generally successful, and during his reign the limits of the empire -were more widely extended than at any preceding period. - -"To the interior concerns of his kingdom he gave much attention, -reforming the courts of justice, and carefully watching over the -execution of the laws, which he enforced with stern severity. - -"Like the Arabian ruler,--Haroun Alraschid, of benign memory,--he -patrolled the streets of his capital in disguise, to make personal -acquaintance with the abuses in it. He liberally compensated all who -served him. He displayed great munificence in public enterprise, -constructing and embellishing the temples, bringing water into the -capital by a new channel, and establishing a retreat for invalid -soldiers in the city of Colhuacan. - -"According to some writers of authority there were, in Montezuma's day, -thirty great caciques, or nobles, who had their residence, at least a -part of the year, in the capital. - -"Each of these, it is asserted, could muster a hundred thousand vassals -on his estate. It would seem that such wild statements should be 'taken -with a pinch of salt.' All the same, it is clear, from the testimony of -the conquerors, that the country was occupied by numerous powerful -chieftains, who lived like independent princes on their domains. It is -certain that there was a distinct class of nobles who held the most -important offices near the person of their emperor. - -"In Montezuma's time the Aztec religion reached its zenith. It is said -to have had as exact and burdensome a ceremonial as ever existed in any -nation. 'One,' observes Prescott, 'is struck with its apparent -incongruity, as if some portion had emanated from a comparatively -refined people, open to gentle influences, while the rest breathes a -spirit of unmitigated ferocity; which naturally suggests the idea of two -distinct sources, and authorizes the belief that the Aztecs had -inherited from their predecessors a milder faith, on which was -afterwards engrafted their own mythology.' The Aztecs, like the -idolaters to whom Paul preached, declaring the 'Unknown God' of their -'ignorant worship,' recognized a Supreme Creator and Lord of the -Universe. - -"In their prayers they thus addressed him: 'The God by whom we live, -that knoweth all thoughts, and giveth all gifts;' but, as has been -observed, 'from the vastness of this conception their untutored minds -sought relief in a plurality of inferior deities,--ministers who -executed the creator's purposes, each, in his turn, presiding over the -elements, the changes of the seasons, and the various affairs of man.' -Of these there were thirteen principal deities, and more than two -hundred inferior; to each of whom some special day or appropriate -festival was consecrated. - -"Huitzilopotchli, a terrible and sanguinary monster, was the primal of -these; the patron deity of the nation. The forms of the Mexican idols -were quaint and eccentric, and were in the highest degree symbolical. - -"The fantastic image of this god of the unpronounceable name was loaded -with costly ornaments; his temples were the most stately and august of -their public edifices, and in every city of the empire his altars reeked -with the blood of human hecatombs. - -"His name is compounded of two words, signifying 'humming-bird' and -'left;' from his image having the feathers of this bird on his left -foot. - -"Thus runs the tradition respecting this god's first appearance on -earth: 'His mother, a devout person, one day, in her attendance on the -temple, saw a ball of bright-colored feathers floating in the air. She -took it and deposited it in her bosom, and, consequently, from her, the -dread deity was in due time born.' He is fabled to have come into the -world (like the Greek goddess, Minerva) armed _cap-à-pie_ with spear and -shield, and his head surmounted by a crest of green plumes. - -"A far more admirable personage in their mythology was Quetzalcoatl, god -of the air; his name signifies 'feathered serpent' and 'twin.' During -his beneficent residence on earth he is said to have instructed the -people in civil government, in the arts, and in agriculture. Under him -it was that the earth brought forth flower and fruit without the fatigue -of cultivation. - -"Then it was that an ear of corn in two days became as much as a man -could carry; and the cotton, as it grew beneath his fostering smile, -took, of its own accord, the rich dyes of human art. - -"In those halcyon days of Quetzalcoatl all the air was sweet with -perfumes and musical with the singing of birds. - -"Pursued by the wrath of a brother-god, from some mysterious cause -unexplained by the fabler, this gracious deity was finally obliged to -flee the country. On his way he is said to have stopped at Cholula, -where the remains of a temple dedicated to his worship are still shown. - -"On the shores of the Mexican Gulf Quetzalcoatl took leave of his -followers, and promising that he and his descendants would revisit them -hereafter, entered his 'Wizard Skiff,' and embarked on the great ocean -for the fabled land of Tlapallan. - -"The Mexicans looked confidently for the second coming of this -benevolent deity, who is said to have been tall in stature, with a white -skin, long, dark hair, and a flowing beard. Undoubtedly, this cherished -tradition, as the chroniclers affirm, prepared the way for the reception -of the Spanish conquerors. - -"Long before the landing of the Spaniards in Mexico, rumors of the -appearance of these men with fair complexions and flowing beards--so -unlike their own physiognomy--had startled the superstitious Aztecs. The -period for the return of Quetzalcoatl was now near at hand. The priestly -oracles were consulted; they are said to have declared, after much -deliberation, that the Spaniards, though not gods, were children of the -Sun; that they derived their strength from that luminary, and were only -vulnerable when his beams were withdrawn; and they recommended attacking -them while buried in slumber. This childish advice, so contrary to Aztec -military usage, was reluctantly followed by these credulous warriors, -and resulted in the defeat and bloody slaughter of nearly the whole -detachment. - -"The conviction of the supernaturalism of the Spaniard is said to have -gained ground by some uncommon natural occurrences, such as the -accidental swell and overflow of a lake, the appearance of a comet, and -conflagration of the great temple. - -"We are told that Montezuma read in these prodigies special -annunciations of Heaven that argued the speedy downfall of his empire. - -"From this somewhat digressive account of the Aztec superstition, in -regard to the 'second coming' of their beneficent tutelar divinity, -which, as may be seen, played into the hands of Cortez, and furthered -his hostile designs upon Mexico, let us return to the time in Aztec -history when no usurping white man had set foot upon Montezuma's -territory. - -"We are told that this people, in their comparative ignorance of the -material universe, sought relief from the oppressive idea of the endless -duration of time by breaking it up into distinct cycles, each of several -thousand years' duration. At the end of each of these periods, by the -agency of one of the elements, the human family, as they held, was to be -swept from the earth, and the sun blotted out from the heavens, to be -again freshly rekindled. With later theologians, who have less excuse -for the unlovely superstition, they held that the wicked were to expiate -their sins everlastingly in a place of horrible darkness. It was the -work of a (so-called) Christianity to add to the Aztec place of torment -the torture of perpetual fire and brimstone. The Aztec heaven, like the -Scandinavian Valhalla, was especially reserved for their heroes who fell -in battle. To these privileged souls were added those slain in -sacrifice. These fortunate elect of the Aztecs seem to have been -destined for a time to a somewhat lively immortality, as they at once -passed into the presence of the Sun, whom they accompanied with songs -and choral dances in his bright progress through the heavens. After -years of this stirring existence, these long-revolving spirits were -kindly permitted to take breath; and thereafter it was theirs to animate -the clouds, to reincarnate in singing birds of beautiful plumage, and to -revel amidst the bloom and odors of the gardens of Paradise. - -"Apart from this refined Elysium and a moderately comfortable hell, void -of appliances for the torture of burning, the Aztecs had a third place -of abode for immortals. Thither passed those 'o'er bad for blessing and -o'er good for banning,' who had but the merit of dying of certain -(capriciously selected) diseases. These commonplace spirits were fabled -to enjoy a negative existence of indolent contentment. 'The Aztec -priests,' says Prescott, 'in this imperfect stage of civilization, -endeavored to dazzle the imagination of this ignorant people with -superstitious awe, and thus obtained an influence over the popular mind -beyond that which has probably existed in any other country, even in -ancient Egypt.' - -"Time will not permit here a detailed account of this insidious -priesthood; its labored and pompous ceremonial; its midnight prayers; -its cruel penance (as the drawing of blood from the body by -flagellation, or piercing of the flesh with the thorns of the aloe), -akin to the absurd austerities of Roman Catholic fanaticism. The Aztec -priest, unlike the Roman, was allowed to marry, and have a family of his -own; and not _all_ the religious ceremonies imposed by him were austere. -Many of them were of a light and cheerful complexion, such as national -songs and dances, in which women were allowed to join. There were, too, -innocent processions of children crowned with garlands, bearing to the -altars of their gods offerings of fruit, ripened maize, and odoriferous -gums. It was on these peaceful rites, derived from his milder and more -refined Toltec predecessors, that the fierce Aztec grafted the loathsome -rite of human sacrifice. - -"To what extent this abomination was carried cannot now be accurately -determined. The priestly chroniclers, as has been shown, were not above -the meanness of making capital for the church, by exaggerating the -enormities of the pagan dispensation. Scarcely any of these reporters -pretend to estimate the yearly human sacrifice throughout the empire at -less than twenty thousand; and some carry the number as high as fifty -thousand. A good Catholic bishop, writing a few years after the -conquest, states in his letter that twenty thousand victims were yearly -slaughtered in the capital. A lie is brought to absolute perfection when -its author is able to believe it himself. - -"Torquemada, another chronicler, often quoted by Prescott, turns this -into twenty thousand _infants_! - -"These innocent creatures, he tells us, were generally bought by the -priests from parents poor enough and superstitious enough to stifle the -promptings of nature, and were, at seasons of drought, at the festival -of Haloc, the insatiable god of the rain, offered up, borne to their -doom in open litters, dressed in festal robes, and decked with freshly -blown flowers, their pathetic cries drowned in the wild chant of the -priests. It is needless to add that this assumption has but the -slightest groundwork of likelihood. - -"Las Casas, before referred to, thus boldly declares: 'This is the -estimate of brigands who wish to find an apology for their own -atrocities;' and loosely puts the victims at so low a rate as to make it -clear that any specific number is the merest conjecture. - -"Prescott, commenting on these fabulous statements, instances the -dedication of the great temple of the 'Mexican War God' in 1486, when -the prisoners, for years reserved for the purpose, were said to have -been ranged in files forming a procession nearly two miles long; when -the ceremony consumed, as averred, several days, and seventy thousand -captives are declared to have perished at the shrine of this terrible -deity. In view of this statement, Prescott logically observes: 'Who can -believe that so numerous a body would have suffered themselves to be led -unresistingly, like sheep, to the slaughter? Or how could their remains, -too great for consumption in the ordinary way, be disposed of without -breeding a pestilence in the capital? One fact,' he adds, 'may be -considered certain. It was customary to preserve the skulls of the -sacrificed in buildings appropriate to the purpose; and the companions -of Cortez say they counted one hundred and thirty-six thousand skulls in -one of the edifices.' - -"Religious ceremonials were arranged for the Aztec people by their -crafty and well-informed priesthood, and were generally typical of some -circumstances in the character or history of the deity who was the -object of them. That in honor of the god called by the Aztecs 'the soul -of the world,' and depicted as a handsome man endowed with perpetual -youth, was one of their most important sacrifices. An account of this -sanguinary performance is gravely given by Prescott and other writers. -Though highly sensational and melodramatic, since our betters have found -it believable, we transcribe it for the New Koshare; thus runs the -tale:-- - -"'A year before the intended sacrifice, a captive, distinguished for his -personal beauty, and without a single blemish on his body, was selected -to represent this deity. Certain tutors took charge of him, and -instructed him how to perform his new part with becoming grace and -dignity. He was arrayed in a splendid dress, regaled with incense and -with a profusion of sweet-scented flowers, of which the ancient Mexicans -were as fond as are their descendants at the present day. When he went -abroad he was attended by a train of the royal pages; and as he halted -in the streets to play some favorite melody the crowd prostrated -themselves before him, and did him homage as the representative of their -good deity. In this way he led an easy, luxurious life until within a -month of his sacrifice. Four beautiful girls were then given him as -concubines; and with these he continued to live in idle dalliance, -feasted at the banquets of the principal nobles, who paid him all the -honors of a divinity. At length the fatal day of sacrifice arrived. The -term of his short-lived glories was at an end. - -"'He was stripped of his gaudy apparel, and bade adieu to the fair -partners of his revelry. One of the royal barges transported him across -the lake to a temple which rose on its margin, about a league from the -city. Hither the inhabitants flocked to witness the consummation of the -ceremony. As the sad procession wound up the sides of the pyramid, the -unhappy victim threw away his gay chaplets of flowers, and broke in -pieces the musical instruments with which he had solaced the hours of -his captivity. - -"'On the summit he was received by six priests, whose long and matted -locks flowed disorderedly over their sable robes, covered with -hieroglyphic scrolls of mystic import. They led him to the sacrificial -stone, a huge block of jasper with its upper surface somewhat convex. On -this the prisoner was stretched. Five priests secured his head and -limbs, while the sixth, clad in a scarlet mantle, emblematic of his -bloody office, dexterously opened the breast of the wretched victim with -a sharp razor of _itzli_ (a volcanic substance hard as flint), and, -inserting his hand in the wound, tore out the palpitating heart. The -minister of death, first holding the heart up towards the sun (also an -object of their worship) cast it at the feet of the god, while the -multitudes below prostrated themselves in humble adoration.' - -"The tragic circumstances depicted in this sanguinary tale were used by -the priests to 'point a moral.' The immolation of this unhappy youth was -expounded to the people as a type of human destiny, which, brilliant in -its beginning, often closes in sorrow and disaster. - -"In this loathsome manner, if we may believe the account given, was the -mangled body disposed of. It was delivered by the priests to the warrior -who had taken the captive in battle, and served up by him at an -entertainment given to his friends. - -"This, we are told, was no rude cannibal orgy, but a refined banquet, -teeming with delicious beverages, and delicate viands prepared with -dainty art, and was attended by guests of both sexes, and conducted with -all the decorum of civilized life. Thus, in the Aztec religious -ceremonial, refinement and the extreme of barbarism met together. - -"The Aztec nation had, at the time of the Conquest, many claims to the -character of a civilized community. The debasing influence of their -religious rites it was, however, that furnished the fanatical conquerors -with their best apology for the subjugation of this people. One-half -condones the excuses of the invaders, who with the cross in one hand and -the bloody sword in the other, justified their questionable deeds by the -abolishment of human sacrifice. - -"The oppressions of Montezuma, with the frequent insurrections of his -people," concluded the Antiquary, "when in the latter part of his reign -one-half the forces of his empire are said to have been employed in -suppressing the commotions of the other, disgust at his arrogance, and -his outrageous fiscal exactions, reduced his subjects to that condition -which made them an easy prey to Cortez, whose army at last overpowered -the emperor and swept the Aztec civilization from the face of the -earth." - -"I find it strange," said the Journalist (in the little talk that -followed Mr. Morehouse's able paper), "that civilized nations have held -an idea so monstrous as the necessity of vicarious physical suffering of -a victim to appease the wrath of a divine being with the erring -creatures who, such as they are, are the work of his hands. - -"That unenlightened races, from time immemorial, should have supposed -that the shedding of blood propitiated their angry god, or gods, is but -the natural outcome of ignorance and superstition; but, that in this -twentieth century, civilized worshippers should sing-- - - 'There is a fountain filled with blood - Drawn from Immanuel's veins; - And sinners plunged beneath that flood - Lose all their guilty stains'-- - -passes my understanding." - -"In the ruins of Palenque there is," said the Antiquary, "a scene -portrayed on its crumbling walls, in which priests are immolating in a -furnace placed at the feet of an image of Saturn the choicest infants of -the nation, while a trumpeter enlivens the occasion with music, and in -the background a female spectator, supposed to be the mother of the -victim, looks on." - -"The sacrifices to Moloch (or Saturn)," interpolated the Minister, "were -marked features of the Phoenician idolatry. In the Bible account we read -that even their kings 'made their children to pass through the fire to -Moloch.'" - -"Well," commented the Grumbler, "it may be said of a portion of this -evening's entertainment that it is distinguished by the charm found by -'Helen's' sanguinary-minded 'baby,' in the story of 'Goliath's -head,'--it is 'all bluggy.'" - -"Right you are," responded the star boarder with a shudder. "Cold -shivers have meandered along my poor back until it has become one -dreadful block of ice; and, judging by the horror depicted on these -ladies' faces as they listened to the details of the Aztec sacrifice, I -fancy that they too have supped o'er-full of horrors." - -The Minister's eye rested for a moment affectionately on his stanch -little wife. He sighed, and looked with mild rebuke on these godless -triflers. - -And now the Koshare (some of them stoutly orthodox) wisely put by the -question of vicarious atonement, and summarily adjourned. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - - -It was but the next week when, unexpectedly as thunderbolts now and then -surprise us on days of serene, unclouded sky, an unlooked-for domestic -calamity startled Alamo Ranch. - -Dennis, the good-natured Irish waiter, and Fang Lee, the Chinese cook, -had come to blows. The battle had been (so to put it) a religious -controversy, and such, as we know, have a bitterness all their own. It -was inaugurated by Dennis, who, as a good Catholic, had, on a Friday, -refused to sample one of Fang's _chef-d'oeuvres_,--a dish of veal -cutlets with mushroom sauce. A mutual interchange of offensive words, -taunts highly derogatory to his holiness Pope Leo XIII. and equally -insulting to the memory of that ancient Chinese sage, Confucius, had -finally led to a bout of fisticuffs. In this encounter, Fang Lee, a -slightly built, undersized celestial, had naturally been worsted at the -hand of the robust Hibernian, a good six feet five in his stockings. -Dennis, the "chip well off his shoulder," had peacefully returned to the -duties of his vocation, nonchalantly carrying in the dinner, removing -the plates and dishes, and subsequently whistling "St. Patrick's Day in -the Morning" under the very nose of the Confucian, as he unconcernedly -washed his plates and glasses, and scoured his knives. Fang, having -meantime sent in his dinner, cleaned his pots and pans, brushed his -baggy trousers, adjusted his disordered pigtail, and straightway gave in -his notice; and with sullen dignity retired to the privacy of his -bedroom, for the avowed purpose of packing his box. On the ensuing -morning he would shake from his feet the dust of Alamo Ranch. - -Vain were the endeavors of his discomfited employers to gain the ear of -the implacable Fang Lee. He stood out resolutely for the privacy of his -small sleeping apartment, obstinately refusing admission to outsiders. - -In a house replete with boarders, and forty miles from available cooks, -Fang's pending loss was indeed a calamity. - -In this dilemma, the disheartened landlord and his wife begged the -intercession of the star boarder,--always in high favor with the -domestics, and known to be especially in the good graces of the -Chinaman. Long did this envoy of peace unsuccessfully besiege the -bedroom door of the offended Fang Lee. In the end, however, he gained -admittance; and with adroit appeals to the better nature of the irate -cook, and a tactful representation of the folly of giving up a good -situation for the sake of a paltry quarrel, he finally brought Fang Lee -down from his "high horse," and persuading good-natured Dennis to make -suitable friendly advances, effectually healed the breach. - -Ere nightfall amity reigned in the ranch kitchen, and the respective -pockets of the belligerents were the heavier for a silver dollar,--a -private peace-offering contributed by the arbitrator. An Irishman is -nothing if not magnanimous; Dennis readily "buried the hatchet," handle -and all. - -Not so Fang Lee, who, smugly pocketing his dollar, covertly observed to -the giver, by way of the last word, "All samee, Pope bigee dam foolee." - -With genial satisfaction the star boarder received the thanks of the -Browns for having saved to them their cook, and, with simple pleasure in -the result of his diplomacy, met the encomiums of his fellow-boarders. - -To this gracious and beautiful nature, replete with "peace and good-will -to man," to help and serve was but "the natural way of living." - - - - -CHAPTER X - - -At mid-March, in this sun-loved land, the genial season far outdoes our -own belated Northern May. Already, in Mesilla Valley, the peach, pear, -and apricot buds of the orchard are showing white and pink. In the -garden, rose-bushes are leaving out, and mocking-birds make the air -sweet with song. - -"In the spring," said Leon Starr, parodying Tennyson one morning at the -breakfast-table, "the Koshare fancy lightly turns to thoughts of Shalam. -Why not make to-day our long-planned excursion to that famous colony?" - -"All right," responded the entire Koshare; and that afternoon a party of -twelve set out from Alamo Ranch to explore that remarkable colony, some -seven miles up the valley. - -A description of the place and an account of this excursion is copied -verbatim by the present writer from the journal of one of the party. - -"To begin at the beginning," says the narrator, "the colony was started -by one Dr. ----, a dentist from Philadelphia. He enlisted as a partner -in his enterprise a man from that region of fads--Boston, Mass. To this -chimera of the doctor's brain, the latter, a man of means, lent his -approval, and, still more to the point, the money to carry out the -doctor's plans. - -"Some few years ago the original founder of Shalam died, leaving to his -partner the work of carrying out his half-tried experiment. - -"Mr. ---- lived on in the place, assuming its entire charge, and finally -marrying the doctor's widow,--a lady of unusual culture and refinement, -but having a bent towards occult fads, as Spiritualism, Mental Science, -and their like. - -"Well, we arrived safely at Shalam, and were met by Mrs. ---- and a -dozen or more tow-headed kids. It is noticeable that the whole -twenty-seven children selected for this experiment have light hair and -blue eyes. Mrs. ---- kindly presented us to her husband,--apparently a -man of refined natural tendencies and fair intellectual culture, but -evidently, like 'Miss Flite,' 'a little _m-m_, you know.' - -"Conventionally clothed, Mr. ---- would undoubtedly have been more than -presentable; in his Shalam undress suit he was, to say the least, -unique. - -"His long, heavy beard was somewhat unkempt. His feet were in sandals, -without stockings. His dress consisted of a pair of white cotton pants, -and a blouse of the same material, frogged together with blue tape, the -ends hanging down over his left leg. Hitched somehow to his girdle was a -plain watch-chain, which led to a pocket for his watch, on the front of -his left thigh, placed just above the knee. When he wants time he raises -the knee and takes out the watch, standing on one leg the while. - -"The place is beautifully situated on the banks of the Rio Grande, with -a range of high mountains across the river. - -"It consists of two parts: 'Leontica,' a village for the workers, where -they have many nice cottages, an artesian well for irrigation, and a big -steam pump to force the water through all the ditches; Shalam, the home -of the children, has a big tank, with six windmills pumping water into -it all the time. Near the tank is the dormitory,--a building about one -hundred and fifty feet in dimension. Through its middle runs a large -hall for the kids to gambol in. On each side are rooms for the -attendants and the larger children. - -"Chiefly noticeable was the cleanliness of the hall, and the signs over -the doors of the chambers, each with its motto, a text from -'_Oahspe_,'--the Shalam bible. - -"At each end of the hall was a big sign, reading thus: '_Do not kiss the -children._' As none of them were especially attractive, this command -seemed quite superfluous. After looking over the dormitory, we were led -to the main building, projected by the late Dr. ----. This encloses a -court about one hundred and fifty feet by sixty in size, and planted -with fig trees. - -"The front of the building is taken up by the library of the doctor; on -the opposite side is his picture gallery. - -"Rooms or cells for the accommodation of guests occupy the long sides of -this structure. - -"I was cordially invited to occupy one of these; but the place is too -creepy for me! The pictures in the gallery were all done by the deceased -doctor, under the immediate direction of his 'spirit friends.' To look -at them (believing this) is to be assured that artists do not go to -heaven, since not even the poorest defunct painter would have -perpetrated such monstrosities. - -"They all represent characters and scenes from the doctor's -bible,--known as Oahspe, and written by him at the dictation of spirits. -The drawing is horrible, the coloring worse; and no drunkard with -delirium tremens could have conceived more frightful subjects! - -"Mr. ----, the doctor's successor, is a curious compound of crank and -common-sense; the latter evinced by his corral and cattle, which we next -visited. I have never seen so fine a corral nor such handsome horses and -cattle. They are all blooded stock; many of the cows and calves having -come from the farm of Governor Morton, in New York State. The cows were -beautiful, gentle creatures; one of them is the largest 'critter' I ever -saw, weighing no less than fifteen hundred pounds! - -"The county authorities--scandalized by the meagreness of the Shalam -bill of fare--compelled Mr. ---- to enrich the children's diet with -milk, and, thus officially prodded, he is trying to give them the best -in the land. - -"The stock department of Shalam seems to be his undivided charge; while -Mrs. ---- manages the garden. She kindly showed us all over it; and it -is a beauty! With water flowing all through it, celery, salisfy, and -lettuce all ready to eat, and other vegetables growing finely. She gave -us a half bushel of excellent lettuce, which we all enjoyed. - -"The Shalam idea is to take these children from all parts of the -country, to bring them up in accordance with its own dietetic fad (which -in many respects corresponds with that of our own dream-led Alcott), -feeding them exclusively on a vegetable diet so that they won't develop -carnal and combative tendencies, and thus start from them a new and -improved race. Will they succeed? God knows; but they seem to have -started wrong; for the children are largely the offspring of outcasts, -and you can't expect grapes from thistle seed. However, Mr. ---- and -Mrs. ---- are both sincere, kind-hearted reformers, trying to do what -they think right in their own peculiar way. They are doing no harm by -their experiment--hurting no one; and if the children turn out badly, it -is no worse than they would if left alone; and if well, it is a distinct -triumph of brain over beastliness. It may be well to state that no -_materia medica_ is tolerated at Shalam. The health of the colony is -entrusted absolutely to the 'tender mercies' of mental healing. Mr. ---- -is himself the picture of health, and says he does not know what it is -to feel tired. ('They that be whole need no physician!') As for the Lady -of Shalam, there is a look in her face that led me to think she was -deadly tired of the whole business, but was too loyal either to her dead -or living husband to 'cry quits.' - -"These children know not the taste of physic. All their ailments are -treated in strict accordance with Mental Science. They eat no eggs, -fish, or other animal matter, save the county-prescribed milk, living -solely on grains, vegetables, and fruits; and it must be said that they -all look extremely healthy. Mr. ---- informs us that he rises daily at -three A.M., goes directly to his corral and milks, comes in a little -after four and prepares the children's breakfast. They are called at -four forty-five, and breakfast at five. At five thirty devotional -exercises begin, and last until six thirty, when the father of Shalam -goes out and starts the hands on the farm. At eight the children begin -lessons or some kind of mental training, which lasts till dinner time. - -"After dinner they run wild for the rest of the day. - -"We left Shalam at about five P.M. On the homeward drive we discussed -this odd colony, and compared notes on what we had observed. An -irreverent member of the party thus summed up the whole business in his -own slangy fashion,--'a man who all winter long prances round in -pajamas, making folks shiver to look at him, ought to be put in an -insane asylum.' So there you have his side of the question. - -"The original founder of Shalam, Dr. ----, not only aspired to be a -painter, but, as an author, flew the highest kind of a kite, giving to -the world no less than a new bible. - -"A glimpse at its high-sounding prospectus will scarce incite in the -sane and sober mind a desire to peruse a revelation whose absurdity and -fantastic assumption leaves the Mormon bible far behind, and before -whose 'hand and glove' acquaintance with the 'undiscovered country' -Swedenborg himself must needs hide his diminished head. - -"Thus it runs: '_Oahspe_; a new Bible in the words of Jehovih and his -Angel Embassadors. A synopsis of the Cosmogony of the Universe; the -creation of planets; the creation of man; the unseen worlds; the labor -and glory of gods and goddesses in the etherean heavens with the new -commandments of Jehovih to man of the present day. With revelations from -the second resurrection, found in words in the thirty-third year of the -Kosmon Era.' - -"Oahspe's claims are thus _moderate_: 'As in all other bibles it is -revealed that this world was created, so in _this_ bible it is revealed -_how_ the Creator _created_ it. As other bibles have proclaimed heavens -for the spirits of the dead, behold _this_ bible revealeth _where_ these -heavens _are_.' - -"Oahspe also kindly informs us 'how hells are made, and of what -material,' and how the sinner is in them mainly punished by the forced -inhalement of 'foul smells,'--so diabolically foul are these that one is -fain to hold the nose in the bare reading of them! - -"'There is,' declares Oahspe, 'no such law as Evolution. There is no law -of Selection.' A vegetarian diet is inculcated; and we are gravely -informed that 'the spirit man takes his place in the first heaven -according to his _diet_ while on earth!' - -"A plan for the founding of 'Jehovih's Kingdom on earth through little -children' is given. This 'sacred history' claims to cover in its -entirety no less a period of time than eighty-one thousand years. At -quarter-past six," concludes our informant, "we arrived, tired and -hungry, but glad to have gone, and glad to get back, leaving behind us -Shalam, with its spirit picture-gallery and its fantastic Oahspe, for -the more stable verities of commonplace existence." - - - - -CHAPTER XI - - -It was on Friday that the Koshare made their little excursion to the -Shalam settlement, and the next evening they gathered in full -force,--with the exception of the Hemmenshaws and the Harvard man, who -still remained at Hilton Ranch, losing thereby two of the most -interesting of the Antiquary's papers; but "time and tide" and Saturday -clubs "stay for no man," and now came the second Aztec paper. - -"The Aztec government," began Mr. Morehouse, "in a few minor points is -said to have borne some resemblance to the aristocratic system evolved -by the higher civilization of the Middle Ages. - -"Beyond a few accidental forms and ceremonies, the correspondence was, -however, of the slightest. The legislative power both in Mexico and -Tezcuco had this feature of despotism; it rested wholly with the -monarch. The constitution of the judicial tribunals in some degree -counteracted the evil tendency of this despotism. Supreme judges -appointed over each of the principal cities by the crown had original -and final jurisdiction over both civil and criminal cases. From the -sentence of such a judge there was no appeal to any other tribunal, not -even to that of the King. - -"It is worthy of notice as showing that some sense of justice is inborn; -as even among this comparatively rude people we read that under a -Tezcucan prince a judge was put to death for taking a bribe, and another -for determining suits in his own house (a capital offence also, by law.) -According to a national chronicler, the statement of the case, the -testimony, and proceedings of the trial were all set forth by a clerk, -in hieroglyphical paintings, and handed to the court. - -"In Montezuma's day the tardiness of legal processes must have gone -miles beyond the red tape of a nineteenth-century court of justice. - -"This vivid picture of the pomp and circumstance attendant upon the -confirmation of a capital sentence by the king is presented by one of -the Mexican native chroniclers: - -"'The King, attended by fourteen great lords of the realm, passed into -one of the halls of justice opening from the courtyard of the palace, -which was called "the tribunal of God," and was furnished with a throne -of pure gold, inlaid with turquoises and other precious stones. - -"'The walls were hung with tapestry, made of the hair of different wild -animals, of rich and various colors, festooned by gold rings, and -embroidered with figures of birds and flowers. Putting on his mitred -crown, incrusted with precious stones, and holding, by way of sceptre, a -golden arrow in his left hand, the King laid his right upon a human -skull, placed for the occasion on a stool before the throne, and -pronounced judgment. No counsel was employed and no jury. The case had -been stated by plaintiff and defendant, and, as with us, supported on -either side by witnesses. The oath of the accused was, with the Aztecs, -also admitted in evidence. - -"'The great crimes against society were all made capital. - -"'Among them murder (even of a slave) was punishable with death. -Adulterers, as among the Jews, were stoned to death. Thieving, according -to the degree of the offence, was punished with slavery or death. It was -a capital offence to remove the boundaries of an estate, and for a -guardian not to be able to give a good account of his ward's property. - -"'Prodigals, who squandered their patrimony, were punished. Intemperance -in the young was punished with death; in older persons, with loss of -rank, and confiscation of property. - -"'The marriage institution was held in reverence among the Aztecs, and -its rites celebrated with formality. Polygamy was permitted; but -divorces were not easily obtainable. Slavery was sanctioned among the -ancient Mexicans, but with this distinction unknown to any civilized -slave-holding community: no one could be _born_ to slavery. The -_children_ of the slave were _free_. Criminals, public debtors, persons -who from extreme poverty voluntarily resigned their freedom, and -children who were sold by their parents through poverty, constituted one -class of slaves. These were allowed to have their own families, to hold -property, and even other slaves. Prisoners taken in war were held as -slaves, and were almost invariably devoted to the dreadful doom of -sacrifice. A refractory or vicious slave might be led into the market -with a collar round his neck, as an indication of his badness, and -there publicly sold. If incorrigible, a second sale devoted him to -sacrifice. - -"'Thus severe, almost ferocious, was the Aztec code, framed by a -comparatively rude people, who relied rather on physical than moral -means for the correction of evil. In its profound respect for the -cardinal principles of morality, and a clear perception of human -justice, it may favorably compare with that of most civilized nations.' - -"'In Mexico,' says Prescott, 'as in Egypt, the soldier shared with the -priest the highest consideration. The King must be an experienced -warrior. The tutelary deity of the Aztecs was the God of war. The great -object of their military expeditions was to gather hecatombs of captives -for his altars.' The Aztec, like the (so-called) _Christian crusader_, -invoked the holy name of religion as a motive for the perpetration of -human butchery. He, too, after his own crude fashion, had his order of -knighthood as the reward of military prowess. Whoever had not reached it -was debarred from using ornaments on his arms or on his person, and was -obliged to wear a coarse white stuff, made from the threads of the aloe, -called _nequen_. Even the members of the royal family were not excepted -from this law. As in Christian knighthood, plain armor and a shield -without device were worn till the soldier had achieved some doughty feat -of chivalry. After twenty brilliant actions officers might shave their -heads, and had, moreover, won the fantastic privilege of painting half -of the face red and the other half yellow. The panoply of the higher -warriors is thus described. Their bodies were clothed with a close vest -of quilted cotton, so thick as to be impenetrable to the light missiles -of Indian warfare. This garment was found so light and serviceable that -it was adopted by the Spaniards. - -"The wealthier chiefs sometimes wore, instead of this cotton mail, a -cuirass made of thin plates of gold or silver. Over it was thrown a -surcoat of the gorgeous feather work in which they excelled. Their -helmets were sometimes of wood, fashioned like the heads of wild -animals, and sometimes of silver, on the top of which waved a panache of -variegated plumes, sprinkled with precious stones. They also wore -collars, bracelets, and earrings of the same rich materials. - -"'A beautiful sight it was,' says one of the Spanish conquerors, 'to see -them set out on their march, all moving forward so gayly, and in so -admirable order!' - -"Their military code had the cruel sternness of their other laws. -Disobedience of orders was punished with death. - -"It was death to plunder another's booty or prisoners. It is related of -a Tezcucan prince that, in the spirit of ancient Roman, he put two of -his sons to death--after having cured their wounds--for violating this -last-mentioned law. A beneficent institution, which might seem to belong -to a higher civilization, is said to have flourished in this semi-pagan -land. - -"Hospitals, we are told, were established in their principal cities for -the cure of the sick, and as permanent homes for the disabled soldier; -and surgeons were placed over them who 'were,' says a shrewd old -chronicler, 'so far better than those in Europe that they did not -_protract the cure in order to increase the pay_.' - -"The horse, mule, ox, ass, or any other beast of burden, was unknown to -the Aztecs. Communication with remotest parts of the country was -maintained by means of couriers, trained from childhood to travel with -incredible swiftness. - -"Post-houses were established on all the great roads, at about ten -leagues distance apart. The courier, bearing his despatches in the form -of hieroglyphical painting, ran with them to the first station, where -they were taken by another messenger, and so on, till they reached the -capital. Despatches were thus carried at the rate of from one to two -hundred miles a day. - -"A traveller tells us of an Indian who, singly, made a record of a -hundred miles in twenty-four hours. A still greater feat in walking is -recorded by Plutarch. _His_ Greek runner brought the news of a victory -of a hundred and twenty-five miles in a single day! - -"In the funeral rites of this ruder people one traces a slight -resemblance to those of the more cultivated Greek. They burned the body -after death, and the ashes of their dead, collected in vases, were -preserved in one of the apartments of the home. After death they dressed -the person's body in the peculiar habiliments of his tutelar deity. It -was then strewed with pieces of paper, which operated as a charm against -the dangers of the dark road he was to travel. If a chief died he was -still spoken of as living. One of his slaves, dressed in his master's -clothes, was placed before his corpse. The face of this ill-starred -wretch was covered with a mask, and during a whole day such homage as -had been due to the chief was paid to him. At midnight the body of the -master was burnt, or interred, and the slave who had personated him was -sacrificed. Thereafter, every anniversary of the chief's birthday was -celebrated with a feast, but his death was never mentioned. - -"The Spanish chroniclers have told us (and in reading these statements -due allowance must be made for their habit of 'stretching the truth') -that to the principal temple--or Teocallis--in the capital five thousand -priests were in some way attached. These, in their several departments, -not only arranged the religious festivals in conformity to the Aztec -calendar, and had charge of the hieroglyphical paintings and oral -traditions of the nation, but undertook the responsibility of -instructing its youth. While the cruel and bloody rites of sacrifice -were reserved for the chief dignitaries of the order, each priest was -allotted to the service of some particular diety, and had quarters -provided for him while in attendance upon the service of the temple. - -"Though in many respects subject to strict sacerdotal discipline, Aztec -priests were allowed to marry and have families of their own. Thrice -during the day, and once at night, they were called to prayers. They -were frequent in ablutions and vigils, and were required to mortify the -flesh by fasting and penance, in good Roman Catholic fashion, drawing -their own blood by flagellation, or by piercing with thorns of aloes. -They also, like Catholic priests, administered the rites of confession -and absolution; but with this time-saving improvement: confession was -made but _once_ in a man's life,--the long arrears of iniquity, past and -present, thus settled, after offences were held inexpiable. - -"Priestly absolution was received in place of legal punishment for -offences. It is recorded that, long after the Conquest, the simple -natives, when under arrest, sought escape by producing the certificate -of their confession. - -"The address of the Aztec confessor to his penitent, with his prayer on -this occasion, has come down to us. As an evidence of the odd medley of -Christianity and paganism that marked this queer civilization, it is -quaintly interesting. 'O merciful Lord,' prayed he, 'thou who knowest -the secrets of all hearts, let thy forgiveness and favor descend, like -the pure waters of heaven, to wash away the stains from the soul. Thou -knowest that this poor man has sinned, not from his own will, but from -the influences of the sign under which he was born.' - -"In his address to the penitent he urges the necessity of instantly -procuring a slave for sacrifice to the Deity. After this sanguinary -exhortation he enjoins upon his disciple this beautiful precept of -Christian benevolence: 'Clothe the naked, feed the hungry, whatever -privations it may cost thee, for, remember, their flesh is like thine, -and they are men like thee.' - -"Sacerdotal functions (excepting those of sacrifice) were allowed to -women. - -"At a very tender age these priestess girls were committed for -instruction to seminaries of learning, in which, it is recorded, a -strict moral discipline for both sexes was maintained, and that, in some -instances, offences were punished by death itself. - -"Thus were these crafty Mexican priests (the Jesuits of their age) -enabled to mould young and plastic minds, and to gain a firm hold upon -the moral nature of their pupils. The priests had (as we are told) their -own especial calendar, by which they kept their records, and regulated, -to their liking, their religious festivals and seasons of sacrifice, and -made all their astrological calculations; for, like many imperfectly -civilized peoples, the Aztecs had their astrology. This priestly -calendar is said to have roused the holy indignation of the Spanish -missionaries. - -"They condemned it as 'unhallowed, founded neither on natural reason, -nor on the influence of the planets, nor on the course of the year; but -plainly the work of necromancy, and the fruit of a contract with the -devil.' - -"We are told that not even in ancient Egypt were the dreams of the -astrologer more implicitly referred to than in Aztec Mexico. - -"On the birth of a child he (the astrologer) was instantly summoned, and -the horoscope--supposed to unroll the occult volume of destiny--was hung -upon by the parent in trembling suspense and implicit faith. No -Millerite in his ascension robe, awaiting the general break-up of -mundane affairs, ever looked forward with more confidence to the final -catastrophe than did the ancient Mexican to the predicted destruction of -the world at the termination of one of their four successive cycles of -fifty-two years. - -"Prescott gives us this romantic account of the festival marking that -traditional epoch: - -"'The cycle would end in the latter part of December; as the diminished -light gave melancholy presage of that time when the sun was to be -effaced from the heavens, and the darkness of chaos settle over the -habitable globe, these apprehensions increased, and on the arrival of -the five "unlucky days" that closed the year they abandoned themselves -to despair. They broke in pieces the little images of their household -gods, in whom they no longer trusted. - -"'The holy fires were suffered to go out in the temples, and none were -lighted in their own dwellings. Their furniture and domestic utensils -were destroyed, and their garments torn in pieces, and everything was -thrown into disorder. On the evening of the last day, a procession of -priests moved from the capital towards a lofty mountain, about two -leagues distant. They carried with them as a victim for the sacrificial -altar the flower of their captives, and an apparatus for kindling the -new fire, the success of which was an augury for the renewal of the -cycle. - -"'On the funeral pile of their slaughtered victim, the _new fire_ was -started by means of sticks placed on the victim's wounded breast. As the -light soared towards heaven on the midnight sky, a shout of joy and -triumph burst forth from the multitudes, who covered the hills, the -terraces of the temples, and the housetops with eyes anxiously bent upon -the mountain of sacrifice. Couriers with torches lighted at the blazing -beacon bore the cheering element far and near; and long before the sun -rose to pursue his accustomed track, giving assurance that a new cycle -had commenced its march, altar and hearthstone again brightened with -flame for leagues around. - -"'All was now festivity. Joy had replaced despair. Houses were cleansed -and refurnished. Dressed in their gayest apparel, and crowned with -chaplets and garlands of flowers, the people thronged in gay procession -to the temples to offer up their oblations and thanksgivings. It was the -great secular national festival, which few alive had witnessed before, -or could expect to see again.' - -"Although we find in the counsels of an Aztec father to his son the -following assertion, 'For the multiplication of the species God ordained -_one_ man _only_ for _one_ woman,' polygamy was nevertheless permitted -among this people, chiefly among the wealthiest classes. - -"Marriage was recognized as a religious ceremony, and its obligations -strictly enjoined. Their women, we are told, were treated with a -consideration uncommon among Indian tribes. It is recorded that their -tranquil days were diversified by the feminine occupations of spinning, -feather-work, and embroidery, and that they also beguiled the hours by -the rehearsal of traditionary tales and ballads, and partook with their -lords in social festivities. - -"Their entertainments seem to have been grand and costly affairs. -Numerous attendants, of both sexes, waited at the banquet; the halls -were scented with perfumes, flowers strewed the courts, and were -profusely distributed among the arriving guests. - -"As they took their seats at the board, cotton napkins and ewers of -water were placed before them; for, as in the heroic days of Greece, the -ceremony of ablution before and after eating was punctiliously observed -by the Aztecs. The table was well provided with meats, especially game, -among which our own Thanksgiving bird, the turkey, was conspicuous. -These more solid dishes were flanked by others of vegetables, and with -fruits of every variety found on the North American Continent. - -"The different viands were skilfully prepared, with delicate sauces and -pungent seasoning, of which the Mexicans were especially fond. They were -further regaled with confections and pastry; and the whole was crowned -by an 'afterclap' of tobacco mixed with aromatic substances, to be -enjoyed in pipes, or in the form of cigars, inserted in holders of -tortoise shell or silver. The meats were kept warm by chafing-dishes. -The table was ornamented with vases of silver (and sometimes of gold) of -delicate workmanship. - -"We are told by the chroniclers that agriculture was, before the -Conquest, in an advanced state. There were peculiar deities to preside -over it, and the names of the months and of the religious festivals had -more or less reference to it. The public taxes were often paid in -agricultural produce. As among the Pueblos, Aztec women took part in -only the lighter labors of the field,--as the scattering of the seed, -the husking of the ripened corn. - -"Maize, or Indian corn, the great staple of the North American -continent, grew freely along the valleys, and up the steep sides of the -Cordilleras, to the high table-land. Aztecs were, we are told, well -instructed in its uses, and their women as skilled in its preparation as -the most expert New England or Southern housewife. - -"In these equinoctial regions, its gigantic stalk afforded a saccharine -matter which supplied them with a sugar but little inferior to that of -the cane itself (which, after the Conquest, was introduced among them). -Passing by all their varieties of superbly gorgeous flowers, of -luxuriously growing plants, many of them of medicinal value, and since -introduced from Mexico to Europe, we come to that 'miracle of nature,' -the great Mexican aloe, or _maguey_, which was, in short, meat, drink, -clothing, and writing material for the Aztec, as from its leaves was -made their paper, somewhat resembling Egyptian _papyrus_, but more soft -and beautiful. - -"Specimens of this paper still exist, preserving their original -freshness, and holding yet unimpaired the brilliancy of color in -hieroglyphical painting. It is averred that the Aztecs were as well -acquainted with the uses of their mineral as of their vegetable kingdom, -deftly working their mines of silver, lead, and tin. It has, however, -been contended by Wilson, in his 'New Conquest of Mexico,' that, in -spite of Cortez's statement to the contrary, 'it is not to be supposed -that the Spaniards found the Aztecs in the possession of silver, since -its mining requires a combination of science and mechanical power -unknown and impossible to their crude civilization.' He considerately -allows them the capability of gathering gold from their rich soil. - -"Prescott, on the contrary, tells us that 'they opened veins for the -procurement of silver in the solid rock, and that the traces of their -labors in these galleries furnished the best indications for the early -Spanish miners.' - -"Who shall decide when doctors disagree? Not, indeed, a Koshare, whose -laudable purpose it is to eschew the wearisome 'gradgrinds' of history, -and accept the infinitely more charming conclusions of the romancer. - -"Gold, say the chroniclers, was easily gleaned from the beds of their -rivers, and cast into bars, or in the form of dust, made part of the -regular tribute of the southern provinces of Montezuma's empire. They -cast, also, delicately and curiously wrought vessels of gold. Though -their soil was impregnated with iron, its use was unknown to this -people. As a substitute for this metal, they used, for their tools, a -bronze made from an alloy of tin and copper, or of itzli,--a dark -transparent metal, found in abundance in their hills. With the former -they could cut the hardest substances, such as emeralds and amethysts. - -"It has been contended that an ignorance of the use of iron must -necessarily have kept the Mexican in a low state of civilization. On the -other hand, it is urged that iron, if even known, was but little in use -among the ancient Egyptians, whose mighty monuments were hewn with tools -of bronze, while their weapons and domestic utensils were of the same -material. For the ordinary purposes of domestic life, the ancient -Mexicans made earthenware, and fashioned cups, bowls, and vases of -lacquered wood, impervious to wet, and gorgeously colored. - -"Among their dyes, obtained from both mineral and vegetable substances, -was the rich crimson of the cochineal, the modern rival of the far-famed -Tyrian purple. Later, this coloring material was introduced into Europe, -from Mexico, where the curious cochineal insect was nourished with great -care on plantations of cactus. - -"The Aztecs were thus enabled to give a brilliant coloring to their webs -of cotton, which staple, in the warmer regions of their country, they -raised in abundance. With their cotton fabrics, manufactured of every -degree of fineness, they had the original art of interweaving the -delicate hair of rabbits and other animals, which made a cloth of great -warmth as well as beauty. - -"On this they often laid a rich embroidery of birds, flowers, or some -other fanciful device. It is supposed that the Aztec 'silk,' mentioned -by Cortez, was nothing more than this fine texture of cotton, hair, and -down. - -"But the art in which they especially excelled was their plumage or -feather-work. Some few existing specimens of this ancient art (one of -them a vestment said to have been worn by Montezuma himself) have, we -are told, 'all the charm of Florentine mosaic.' - -"The gorgeous plumage of tropical birds, especially of the parrot-tribe, -afforded every variety of color, and the fine and abundant down of the -humming-bird supplied them with a finish of soft aerial tints. The -feathers pasted on a fine cotton web were wrought into dresses for the -wealthy. Hangings for apartments and ornaments for the temples were thus -fashioned. Labor was held in honorable estimation among this people. An -aged Aztec chief thus addressed his son: 'Apply thyself to agriculture, -or to feather-work, or some other honorable calling. Thus did your -ancestors before you. Else, how could they have provided for themselves -and their families? Never was it heard that nobility alone was able to -maintain its possessor.' - -"The occupation of the merchant was held by them in high respect. These -were of prime consideration in the body politic, and enjoyed many of the -most essential advantages of an hereditary aristocracy. Mexico, as their -abundant use among the Aztecs testifies, is especially rich in precious -stones. It is the land of the emerald, the amethyst, the turquoise, and -the topaz; and that superbest of gems, the fire opal, is native to its -generous soil. - -"One of Cortez's wedding gifts to his second bride is thus described: -'This was five emeralds of wonderful size and brilliancy. These jewels -had been cut by the Aztecs into the shapes of flowers, and fishes, and -into other fanciful forms, with an exquisite style of workmanship which -enhanced their original value.' - -"It was gossiped at court that the Queen of Charles the Fifth had an eye -to these magnificent gems, and that the preference given by Cortez to -his fair bride had an unfavorable influence on the Conqueror's future -fortunes. Among the 'royal fifth' of the Mexican spoils sent by Cortez -to the Spanish Emperor, we are told of a still more wonderful emerald. -It was cut in a pyramidal shape, and of so extraordinary a size that the -base of it was affirmed to have been as broad as the palm of the hand. - -"This rich collection of gold and jewelry, wrought into many rare and -fanciful forms, was captured on its road to Spain by a French privateer, -and is said to have gone into the treasury of Francis the First. -Francis, we are told, looking enviously on the treasures drawn by his -rival monarch from his colonial domains, expressed a desire to 'see the -clause in Adam's testament, which entitled his brothers of Spain and -Portugal to divide the New World between them.' - -"The Aztec picture writing, rude though it was, seems to have served the -nation in its early and imperfect state of civilization. - -"By means of it, as an auxiliary to oral tradition, their mythology, -laws, calendars, and rituals were carried back to an early period of -their civilization. - -"Their manuscripts, the material for which has already been described, -were most frequently made into volumes, in which the paper was shut up -like a folding screen. With a tablet of wood at each extremity, they -thus, when closed, had the appearance of books. A few of these Mexican -manuscripts have been saved, and are carefully preserved in the public -libraries of European capitals. The most important of these painted -records, for the light it throws on the Aztec institutions, is preserved -in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The greater part of these writings, -having no native interpretation annexed to them, cannot now be -unriddled. - -"A savant who, in the middle of the seventeenth century travelled -extensively through their country, asserts that, 'so completely had -every vestige of their ancient language been swept away from the land, -not an individual could be found who could afford him the least clue to -the Aztec hieroglyphics.' - -"Some few Aztec compositions, which may possibly owe their survival to -oral tradition, still survive. These are poetical remains, in the form -of odes, or relics of their more elaborate prose, and consist largely of -prayers and public discourses, that show that, in common with other -native orators, the Aztecs paid much attention to rhetorical effect. The -Aztec hieroglyphics included both the representative and symbolical -forms of picture-writing. - -"They had various emblems for expressing such things as, by their -nature, could not be directly represented by the painter; as, for -example, the years, months, days, the seasons, the elements, the -heavens, and so on. - -"A serpent typified time, a tongue denoted speaking, a footprint -travelling, a man sitting on the ground an earthquake. - -"The names of persons were often significant of their adventures and -achievement. - -"Summing up this account of Aztec civilization, we find that, although -of the countries from which Toltec and Aztec in turn issued tradition -has lost the record, it is nevertheless affirmed, by so reliable an -historian as Humboldt, that the former introduced into Mexico the -cultivation of maize and cotton; that they built cities, made roads, and -constructed pyramids. 'They knew,' says this authoritative historian, -'the uses of hieroglyphical paintings; they could work metals, and cut -the hardest stones; and they had a solar system more perfect than that -of the Greeks and Romans.' - -"After their mysterious disappearance from the table-lands of Mexico, -the Aztecs, who succeeded them, gradually amalgamated all that was best -in their civilization, and, engrafting upon it their own, became as a -nation what they were in the time of the second Montezuma, when Cortez -and his conquering army treacherously swept their civilization from the -face of the earth. - -"A thoughtful traveller still finds in Mexico traces of this people, its -early possessors. - -"The Mexicans, in their whole aspect," he observes, "give a traveller -the idea of persons of decayed fortune, who have once been more -prosperous and formidable than now, or who had been the offshoot of a -more refined and forcible people." - - - - -CHAPTER XII - - -It was but the day after the delivery of this most interesting paper by -Mr. Morehouse, that the laggards from Hilton Ranch, who had missed it, -and the preceding one, returned to their places at the dinner-table; and -on that very afternoon Miss Paulina, with all due formality, announced -the engagement of her niece to Mr. Roger Smith. Recovered from the first -shock of surprise, the Koshare celebrated the betrothal by a pink -afternoon tea, and made such slight engagement offerings as were found -available, remote from silversmith, florist, and bric-à-brac dealer. - -The ladies gave bureau scarfs, table doilies, and centre-pieces _ad -infinitum_; the Antiquary bestowed a bit of Mexican pottery dating back -to the "cliff-dwellers." Leon framed the photographs of the handsome -pair in Mexican canes, as an engagement gift; and the most despondent -"lunger" of them all had a kindly wish for their young and happy -fellow-boarders, setting out on that beautiful life-journey to whose -untimely end he, himself, was sadly tending. - -Among the more observing of the Koshare, much wonder was expressed at -the slow mending of Roger Smith's sprained ankle. It was at the -engagement tea that Miss Paulina innocently said, in response to these -strictures, "Yes, it _did_ take a long time to cure dear Roger's sprain. -Years ago," continued the good lady, "I had the same accident; and, if I -remember rightly, in less than a fortnight after the sprain I was -walking without any crutches. One would think now," she went on, "that -in this lovely dry climate a sprain would mend rapidly; but, though I -did my very best, the result was far less prompt than I had hoped." - -"Sprains differ," interposed the audacious subject of these remarks, -unawed by the disapproving glances of his betrothed; "the surgeons tell -us that fractures are both simple and compound. Mine, dear Miss -Hemmenshaw, was undoubtedly compound." - -This he said by way of accounting to his friends for his tardy -convalescence. To himself he thought, looking at this kind, unsuspicious -new auntie, "Dear, delicious old goose!" - -This is what the niece said when, later, she got this incorrigible lover -to herself: "Roger, I am quite convinced that your conscience is seared -with a hot iron, whatever that process, supposed to indicate utter moral -callousness, may be." - -"My dear girl," laughed the unabashed culprit, "I am, as you know and -deplore, a good Catholic, and consequently hold with the astute Jesuit -Fathers that the end justifies the means." - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - - -It was in the sunny, lengthened days of early March that the Antiquary, -the Journalist, the star boarder, and the Grumbler undertook their -long-projected trip to the Sacramento Mountains, there to visit the -Government Reservation, nestled in the sheltered Mescalero Valley, which -gives its name. - -Well equipped with camping conveniences, the four Koshares set forth on -their journey of one hundred and twenty-five miles. - -It was their intention to "make haste slowly," and nothing could better -have suited the leisurely pair of Mexican horses, and the equally -easy-going Mexican driver, who, with his team, had been hired for the -expedition. The first night of their journey was passed beneath the open -sky, with the rounded moon riding clear and fair above them, and the -desert of sand and sage-brush all about them. On the second, they lodged -at the solitary dwelling of a ranchman, whose nearest neighbor was -thirty-five miles distant. - -At the journey's end, they were cordially received by Lieutenant -Stottler, Government Agent at the Mescalero Reservation, and throughout -their visit were treated by him with a kindly hospitality and a genial -courtesy beyond praise. - -Of the Apache, now transformed by the iron hand of civilization from a -blood-thirsty savage to a passably decent and partially self-supporting -member of the republic, it has been aptly said that Nature has given him -"the ear of the cat, the cunning of the fox, and the ferocious courage -and brutishness of the gray wolf." - -The whole vast realm of his native ranges, desert though they seem, are -known to teem with ever-present supplies for his savage menu. - -There are found fat prairie mice, plump angle-worms, gray meat of -rattlesnake and lizard, and of leathery bronco,--all easy-coming "grist -for that 'unpernickety' mill," his hungry stomach. - -Is he minded for a vegetable diet, for him the mescal lavishly grows; -and the bean of mesquite, reduced to meal, makes him palatable cakes. -Fruit of Spanish bayonet dried in the sun, and said thus to resemble -dates, is at hand for his dessert; and of mountain acorns alone he may -make an excellent and nutritious meal. - -From the primeval years this belligerent savage is said to have -especially harried that dismal waste in New Mexico known as _Jornado del -Muerta_, "Journey of Death." - -This awful desert is declared to be literally "the battle-ground of the -elements." In the winter it is made fearful by raging storms of wind and -snow, in which frozen men and animals leave their bodies, as carrion -prey, to the hungry mountain wolf. In later times it is "the skulking -place of unscrupulous outlaws, and many a murdered traveller makes good -the name it bears." - -It is thus finely depicted by a modern traveller: "Near the southern -boundary of New Mexico stretches a shadeless, waterless plateau, nearly -one hundred miles long, and from five to thirty miles wide, resembling -the steppes of northern Asia. Geologists tell us this is the oldest -country on the earth, except, perhaps, the backbone of Central Africa; -at least, the one which has longest been exposed to the influence of -agents now in action. The grass is low and mossy, with a wasted look; -the shrubs are soap-weed and bony cactus; the very stones are like the -scoria of a furnace. It is sought by no flight of bird; no bee or fly -buzzes on the empty air; and, save the lizard and horned frog, there is -no breath of living thing. One might fancy that this dreary waste had -served its time, had been worn out, unpeopled, and forgotten." - -In the (not long past) day of his power and might, to steal and murder, -under the show of friendship; to beat out the brains of unsuspecting -men; to carry off to captivity, worse than death, the women and larger -children, was, with the Apache, merely a question of opportunity. - -In the Apache war--ending in October, 1880, and lasting but a year and a -half,--it is estimated that more than four hundred white persons were -scalped and tortured to death with devilish ingenuity. - -The details of Indian fighting are everywhere much the same; but in -strategy and cruelty that of the Apache surpasses all the sons of men. -Victorio, the chief who led the war with his band, was surrounded at -last, and captured, and killed in the mountains of Mexico. - -With the death of Victorio (whose only son, Washington, was shot in the -fall of 1879, leaving no one to succeed him) the cause was lost. - -His wife, we are told, after Victorio's death, cut off her hair, in the -old Greek fashion, and buried it,--an offering to the spirit of this -fallen chief, to whom (devil though he was) she was devoted. - -It is told of Rafael, one of Victorio's band, that when maddened by -_tiswin_ (an intoxicant made by the Indian from corn), he fatally -stabbed his wife, and, after her death, overcome with penitence, -sacrificed all his beads and most of his clothes to the "dear departed," -cut his and his children's hair short, and sheared the manes and tails -of his horses. These manifestations of anguish over, he went up into a -high hill, and howled with uplifted hands. - -Women are regarded by the Apaches as an incumbrance. They are of so -little account that they are not even given a name. Mothers _mourn_ at -their birth. - -The Indians occupying a reservation of seven hundred square miles in -southern New Mexico, and numbering, at the present writing, about four -hundred and fifty souls, are typical Apaches, and closely related by -blood to the other Apaches of Arizona and New Mexico. They exhibit the -usual race characteristics,--of ignorance, stubbornness, superstition, -cruelty, laziness, and treachery. - -In December, 1894, Lieutenant Stottler first assumed the charge of these -Indians. In spite of the fact that for many years a generous government -had supplied them annually with rations, clothing, working implements, -etc., they were then living in _tepees_, or brush shelters, on the side -hills; clad in breech-clout and blanket, wearing paint, and long hair, -and thanklessly receiving their rations of beef, flour, coffee, sugar, -salt, soap, and baking-powder. A few of them condescended to raise corn -and oats; but acres of tillable land on the reservation were still -unused. - -"They were," says Lieutenant Stottler, in an able and interesting -report, "not only contented with this order of things, but desirous and -determined to prolong it indefinitely." - -Fifty per cent of their children were in school, but the parents were -wholly opposed to their education. Among them were twenty strong, -broad-shouldered Indian adults, educated at the expense of thousands of -dollars, yet still running about the reservation in breech-clout and -blanket, wilder than any uneducated Indian on it. - -The girls were held from school, and at ten and twelve years of age were -traded for ponies, into a bondage worse than any known slavery. - -Fourteen Indian policemen are allowed the agent. Their especial duty is -to see that the herd of beef cattle for their own eating is properly -cared for. The police, each had a cabin to live in; but each, in scorn -of this civilized innovation, had carefully planted alongside of his -cabin a _tepee_ to sleep in. To get these policemen into civilized -clothing, under threat of duress, and to order all _tepees_ away from -their cabins, was the agent's first move. Next, it was decided that all -children five years old and upwards _must_ be placed in school at the -beginning of the school year, whether the parents were willing or not. -Every Indian man was ordered to select a piece of land, and put in his -posts. To break up the influence of chiefs or bands, who, claiming the -whole country, deterred the people from work, by threats, appears to -have been up-hill work; "but now," says the agent (in 1897), "there are -no chiefs, and 'work or starve' is the policy." Formerly, government -supplies of clothing, wagons, harness, and utensils, as soon as issued, -had been packed on burros and sold for a mere song to settlers about the -reservation. This abuse was promptly stopped, as also was the making of -_tiswin_. - -This native drink, made from Indian corn, is said to be more maddening -in its effect than any other known intoxicant; Indians brutalized by -_tiswin_ fought, as do our own drunkards, and often wounded or killed -each other. For corn to make this detestable beverage, an Indian would -trade away the last article in his possession. - -It was proclaimed by the agent that the maker of this poison would be -imprisoned for six months, at hard labor, in the guard-house. This -stopped its manufacture, and there are no longer drunken Indians at the -reservation. Occasionally they still get liquor at Las Cruces, when sent -there for freight. - -All supplies are hauled from the railroad over-land. The distance is one -hundred and ten miles; about one hundred thousand pounds are annually -brought in this way to the reservation, and without harm or loss. Much -of the Indian's savagery lies (like Samson's strength) in his hair; to -his long, matted tresses he clings tenaciously. As a beginning, -Lieutenant Stottler induced one old fellow--a policeman--with the -reward of a five-dollar gold piece to cut his precious locks. Thus -metamorphosed, he became "the cynosure of all eyes." His squaw made life -a burden to him; and thus badgered, he, in turn, pestered the agent to -get the entire police force to cut theirs. - -It was long before the general consent to part with these cherished -tresses could be won; and it became necessary to put some of the Indians -in the guard-house to accomplish this reform. Finally, orders were asked -from Washington, and received, compelling submission to the shearing. - -When the Indians saw the Washington order, they all gave in, with the -exception of a last man, who had to be "thumped into it." Their hair -well cut, a raid was made on breech-clout and blanket. Now they all -appear in civilized clothing. This seems to have been the turning-point -in their wildness. - -"Now," says the agent, "they come and ask for scissors and comb to cut -their hair, and volunteer the information that they were 'fools to -oppose it.'" - -About half a dozen of these Indians were found by Lieutenant Stottler -with two wives; since none others were permitted, this matrimonial -indulgence, polygamy, is, consequently, dying a natural death at -Mescalero. It is found hard to control the ancient practice of dropping -a wife and taking up another without the troublesome formality of a -divorce, which has practically the same result as polygamy. In spite of -the slip-shodness of the marriage-tie among the Indians, "they are," -says the Lieutenant, "about as badly henpecked as it is possible to -imagine. Not by the wife, however; but by that ever dreaded being, her -mother." He gives in his paper a most amusing account of the relation -between the son-in-law and this much-maligned treasure of our higher -civilization. "Just why it is," he says, "no Indian has ever been able -to explain to me, but an Indian cannot look at his mother-in-law. - -"If she enters his _tepee_, he leaves; if he enters and she is within, -he flees at once. He cannot stay in her august presence. If his wife and -he quarrel, his mother-in-law puts in an appearance, and manages his -affairs during his enforced absence so long as she pleases. Perhaps she -takes his wife to her own _tepee_, where he dare not follow. In this -dilemma, he either comes to terms, or the situation constitutes a -divorce. - -"Does the agent wish a child brought to school, or a head of a family to -take land, and try to farm it, the mother-in-law, if hostile (and she -usually is), appears on the scene. Then the head of the family hunts the -woods for refuge. - -"The sight of several stalwart bucks hiding behind doors, barrels, and -trees, because a dried-up, wizened squaw heaves in sight, is a spectacle -that would be ludicrous, were it not for its far-reaching results. As an -Indian may take, in succession, many wives, who still stand to his -credit, the agent has, practically, many mothers-in-law to contend with. -Consequently, these family magnets have been officially informed that -the guard-house awaits any of them who may be found maliciously -interfering with the families of their children. - -"Hard labor added to this sentence, it is hoped, may at length have the -effect of breaking up this absurd superstition." - -By this account it may be seen that "one of the most far-fetched notions -that ever entered into the minds of men" is found domesticated among the -Mexican aborigines. It is asserted, as a chronological fact, that the -Mexican Pueblos "invented the mother-in-law joke gray ages before it -dawned upon our modern civilization." - -The lamented Cushing, in his account of the "restful, patriarchal, -long-lonely world" of his research, tells us that he found the -mother-in-law a too pronounced factor in the Zuni family circle; and, as -we know, in our own higher civilization the mother-in-law, held in -good-natured reprobation, serves to point many a harmless jest. - -White enthusiasts--with whom the "wrongs of the Indian" are a standing -grievance--but imperfectly realize the difficulty of taming these -savages, getting them well off the warpath, and making them cleanly and -self-supporting. It may, therefore, be well to present the side shown us -by the agent in his able paper of statistical facts. - -"The Apache tribe," he tells us, "has one hundred and sixteen children -at school,--nineteen at Fort Lewis, Colorado, and ninety-seven at the -reservation boarding-school. Each child has one-half day in class and -one-half day of industrial work. The girls take their turns in the -laundry, sewing-room, and kitchen, and at dormitory work. The boys do -the heavy work in the kitchen and laundry, chop the wood, and till the -farm under the charge of the industrial teacher. All the vegetables for -their use are raised on the farm, and the surplus sold. - -"The aim of the school is to teach the rising generation of Apaches how -to make a living with the resources of the reservation, and, in time, to -become self-supporting. - -"To this end useful rather than fancy trades are taught. Boys are -detailed with the blacksmith and carpenter, to learn the use of common -tools. To do away with the inborn contempt of the aboriginal male for -the women of his tribe, boys and girls at the reservation are not only -trained to study, recite, and sit at meals with girls, but a weekly -'sociable' is held for the scholars. - -"On such nights they have games and civilized dances. Every boy is -required formally to approach and request, 'Will you dance this dance -with me?' and to offer his partner his arm when the reel, quadrille, -etc., is finished, and escorting her to her seat, leave her with a -polite 'thank you.'" - -In the agent's report for the years 1896-97, "this year," he says, "the -Indian boys raised twenty-five thousand pounds beets, twenty thousand -pounds cabbage, one thousand pounds cauliflower, five hundred pounds -turnips, one thousand four hundred pounds celery, five hundred pounds -radishes, one thousand four hundred pounds of onions, nineteen thousand -pounds of pumpkins and squash, four hundred pounds of peas, nine hundred -and sixty pounds of corn, six thousand five hundred pounds of potatoes, -besides cucumbers, pie-plant, and asparagus. - -"The school has a pen of swine, a flock of chickens, and a fine herd of -milch cows; and all the hay and fodder for them and the horses are -raised on the farm. Oats and corn are purchased from the Indians, who, -in 1895, raised one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. - -"The adult Indians," he adds, "cut this year one hundred and sixty cords -of wood for the school, for which I paid them two dollars and fifty -cents per cord. In the winter of 1896 the industry of blanket-making was -introduced into the reservation. Navajo blanket-makers were employed to -teach to the Mescalero women their incomparable method of carding, -spinning, and dyeing wool, and weaving blankets. Twenty of the -Mescaleros," boasts the agent, "can to-day make as good blankets as the -Navajos themselves. - -"The reservation is mountainous, and one of the finest sheep ranges in -the country. Government has allowed five thousand sheep for general -distribution at the reservation, and in addition, five hundred head for -the school; where a room is now set aside for the looms of the older -girls, who will, in their turn, become instructors in this useful art. -This puts into their hands another opportunity to become -self-supporting." - -The visitors from Mesilla Valley were kindly admitted behind the scenes -at the reservation, to make acquaintance with its people, both old and -young; and were highly interested and entertained by the picturesqueness -of the Indian character. - -The Grumbler had brought his camera along. He was a skilled amateur -photographer, and had offered his services in that capacity to the -little party. - -To bring his household under the focus of that apparatus was no easy -task for the courteous agent. An Indian is nothing if not a believer in -witches. In his aboriginal mode of life witch-hunting and -witch-punishing are among his gravest occupations. He pursues them with -a vigorous hand, and with a superstitious zeal equal to that of the most -persistent white man in the palmiest days of Salem witch-hunting and -witch-burning. The Mescaleros, to a soul, are believers in witchcraft. -The camera, as might be seen from its effect, was plainly bewitched. -They would have none of it. - -The school children, having no choice, must needs range themselves in -scared, sullen rows, and be "took" under compulsion. - -Suspiciously eying the operator, they sullenly took their prescribed -pose, and heedless of the immemorial request, "Now look pleasant," went -sourly through the terrible ordeal. - -Some of the older girls, pleased with the novelty, submitted more -cheerfully; but the younger pupils, looking askance at the white men, -covered their faces, so far as was possible, with hair, or hands, and -were thus providentially carried safely through this process of -bewitchment. - -Some of the schoolboys had fine, intelligent faces; of others, the -Grumbler subsequently observed that "they were the kind that grow up and -scalp white settlers." - -A curious young squaw, from the opened slit of her _tepee_, watched the -approach of the party with their bedevilled machine. Her position was -excellent; but no sooner had the operator arranged his camera for a snap -shot at this picturesque subject, than, with a scared yell, the woman -bounded out of range, closing behind her the aperture--her front door. - -The result was merely an uninteresting view of an Indian _tepee_, which -is like nothing more than a mammoth ant-hill, minus the symmetry and -nice perpendicular of that more intelligently fashioned structure. - -Two incorrigible squaws in "durance vile" for making _tiswin_, as they -sullenly served their sentence of hard labor at the reservation -woodpile, looked defiantly up from their task of chopping fuel, and -scowled viciously at the witch machine and its abettors. - -They, however, succeeded in getting a fairly good picture of these -hideous-faced beings, as "withered and wild" as the uncanny sisters who -brewed "hell broth" before the appalled Macbeth, beneath the midnight -moon, on Hampton Heath. - -A mild-eyed Indian woman, whose peaceful occupation was to scrub the -reservation floors, kindly submitted to the bother of being put into a -picture, along with the insignia of her office,--a scrubbing-pail. - -Not so "Hot Stuff," a highly picturesque squaw, claiming the proud -distinction due to the "oldest inhabitant." This "contrairy" female, -impervious to moral suasion, was finally induced to pose before the -terrible "witch-thing" by the threat of having her rations withheld -until her consent to be "taken" was obtained. Scared and reluctant, she -was at last photographed; but required Lieutenant Stottler to protect -her with his arm through the perils of this unfamiliar ordeal. This he -good-naturedly did, and is immortalized along with this aged squaw. - -After an interesting visit of two nights and a day at the reservation, -the Koshare turned their faces towards Mesilla Valley, where, after two -uneventful days, they arrived in safety, full of the novelties -encountered, charmed with the courteous and gentlemanly agent, but -wearied with the long ride, and heartily glad to return to white -civilization. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - - -It was at the close of the week succeeding that of the little journey -across the mountains that the Koshare held their last Saturday evening -session. To punctuate the finality of this gathering, a variation from -the usual programme was proposed by the Antiquary. Members of the Club -were requested to supplement his brief paper by giving such written or -verbal statements, along the same line as their own research might -enable them to make. To this proposal many of the Koshare had agreed, -and had come well primed for lively discussion. - -The attendance was unusually full, nearly all the boarders, in addition -to the regular Club members, being in attendance. - -The Antiquary led with the following interesting paper, which, as he -explained, was, in a way, supplementary to those on the Aztecs. - -"As the Tezcucans were of the family of the Aztecs," began Mr. -Morehouse, "and are said far to have surpassed them in intellectual -culture and the arts of social refinement, some slight notice of their -civilization may not prove irrelevant. - -"Ixtilxochitl is the uneuphonious name of the native chronicler, -purporting to be a lineal descendant of the royal line of Tezcuco, who -has given us his highly colored narrative of the Tezcucan civilization. -It may be prefaced with the information that Ixtilxochitl (who -flourished so late as the century of the Conquest) has had his -reputation so torn to tatters by the critics of later years that he has, -figuratively, 'not a leg to stand on.' - -"But as Prescott commends his 'fairness and integrity,' and says 'he has -been followed, without misgiving, by such Spanish chroniclers as could -have access to his manuscripts,' without attempting to settle the vexed -question of the probability of its details (which are a combination of -'Munchausen' and 'Arabian Nights'), we also will follow his marvellous -story of the Tezcucan Prince Nezahualcoyotl. Passing lightly over the -fascinating chapter of that prince's romantic adventures,--his -marvellous daring, his perilous escapes from the fierce pursuit of the -usurper Maxtla, and the dethronement and violent end of that -bloody-minded monarch,--we come to the time when Nezahualcoyotl, -restored to the throne of his fathers, is firmly established in the love -and fealty of his people, and may turn his attention to the production -of the odes and addresses handed down in Castilian by his admiring -descendant Ixtilxochitl. This admirable monarch was, we are informed, -'the Solon of Anahauc.' His literary productions turn, for the most -part, on the vanity and mutability of human life, and strikingly embody -that Epicurean poetic sentiment, expressed, at a later time, by our own -English poet, Herrick, in such verses as 'Gather ye rose-buds while ye -may.' - -"'Banish care,' sings the royal Tezcucan bard; 'if there be bounds to -pleasure, the saddest life must also have an end. Then wear the chaplet -of flowers, and sing thy songs in praise of the all-powerful God; for -the glory of the world soon fadeth away. - -"'Rejoice in the green freshness of thy spring; for the day will come -when thou wilt sigh for these joys in vain. Yet the remembrance of the -just' (piously adds the poet) 'shall not pass away from the nations; and -the good thou hast done shall ever be held in honor.' And -anon,--returning to his _Epicurean_ 'muttons,'--he sings: 'Then gather -the fairest flowers in the gardens to bind round thy brow, and seize the -joys of the present ere they perish.' - -"An English translation of one of Nezahualcoyotl's odes has been made -from the Castilian. It harps upon the same old string, as also do his -prose essays, which have less literary merit than his verse. We are told -by his panegyrist that not all the time of this incomparable monarch was -passed in dalliance with the muse, but that he won renown as a warrior, -and in the interests of peace also fostered the productive arts that -made his realm prosperous, as agriculture, and the like practical -pursuits. Between times he appears to have looked well after the -well-being of his children, who, in numbers, rivalled the progeny of our -modern patriarch, Brigham Young. It is recorded that by his various -wives this monarch had no less than sixty sons and fifty daughters. (One -condones his disgust with life!) The Tezcucan crown, however, descended -to the children of his one legal wife, whom he married late in life. The -story of his wooing and winning this fair lady is almost an exact -counterpart of the Bible account of King David's treacherous winning of -Uriah's beautiful consort. - -"It is related of Nezahualcoyotl, that having been married for some -years to this unrighteously obtained wife, and not having been blest -with issue by his beautiful queen, the priests persuaded him to -propitiate the gods of his country--whom he had pointedly neglected--by -human sacrifice. He reluctantly consented; but all in vain was this -mistaken concession. Then it was that he indignantly repudiated these -inefficient Pagan deities. - -"'These idols of wood and stone,' said he, 'can neither hear nor feel; -much less could they make the heavens, and the earth, and man, the lord -of it. These must be the work of the all-powerful unknown God, creator -of the universe, on whom alone I must rely for consolation and support.' -He thereupon withdrew to his rural palace, where he remained forty days, -fasting and praying at stated hours, and offering up no other sacrifice -than the sweet incense of copal, and aromatic herbs and gums. - -"In answer to his prayer, a son was given him,--the only one ever borne -by his queen. After this, he made earnest effort to wean his subjects -from their degrading religious superstition, building a temple, which he -thus dedicated: 'To the Unknown God, the _Cause_ of _Causes_.' No image -was allowed in this edifice (as unsuited to the 'invisible God'), and -the people were expressly prohibited from profaning its altars with -blood, or any other sacrifice than that of flowers and sweet-scented -gums. In his old age the king voiced his religious speculations in hymns -of pensive tenderness. - -"In one of these, he thus piously philosophizes: 'Rivers, torrents, and -streams move onward to their destination. Not one flows back to its -pleasant source. They must onward, hastening to bury themselves in the -bosom of the ocean. The things of yesterday are no more to-day, and the -things of to-day shall cease to-morrow. The great, the wise, the -valiant, the beautiful,--alas, where are they?'" - -"The compositions of Nezahualcoyotl," observed the Grumbler, as the -Antiquary folded away his finished paper, "though strictly founded on -fact, are not exhilarating. His family was too large; and the wonder is, -not that his odes and hymns are depressing, but that he should have the -heart to 'drop into poetry' at all!" - -"We are told," rejoined the Journalist, "by his descendant with the -unpronounceable name, that once in every four months his entire family, -not even excepting the youngest child, was called together, and orated -by the priesthood on the obligations of morality, of which, by their -exalted rank, they were expected to be shining examples. To these -admonitions was added the compulsory chanting of their father's hymns." - -"Poor beggars!" pitied the Grumbler; "how they must have squirmed under -this ever-recurring royal 'wet blanket!'" - -"You forget," said Leon Starr, coming to the rescue of the poet-father, -"that in view of their inevitable mortality the bard had already advised -them to 'banish care, to rejoice in the green freshness of their spring; -to bind their brows with the fairest flowers of the garden, seize the -joys of the present, and'--in short, had given them leave to have no end -of larks, which, of course, they naturally and obediently did." - -"It is a noteworthy fact," observed Mr. Morehouse, "that many -aborigines--though but scantily supplied with clothing, as the natives -of Samoa and the Sandwich Islanders--take great delight in adorning the -body with flowers. To this liking the Tezcucan king especially appeals -in his odes and hymns. The Mexicans have from time immemorial doted on -flowers. This taste three hundred years or more of oppression has not -extinguished." - -"Do you remember, dear," asked Mr. Bixbee, turning to his wife, "the -flower market in the Plaza at Mexico?" (The pair had, a year or two -earlier, explored that city)--"that iron pavilion partly covered in with -glass, and tended by nut-brown women and smiling Indian girls?" - -"Shall I ever forget it?" was her enthusiastic response. "The whole -neighborhood was fragrant with perfume of vases of heliotrope, pinks, -and mignonette; and such poppies, and pansies, and forget-me-nots I -never elsewhere beheld!" - -"One can believe in absolute floral perfection," said the Journalist, -"in a country which embraces all climates. 'So accurately,' observes -Wilson, 'has nature adjusted in Mexico the stratas of vegetation to the -state of the atmosphere, that the skilful hand of a gardener might have -laid out the different fields, which, with their charming vegetation, -rise, one above another, upon the fertile mountain sides of the -table-land.' - -"Along with many other important vegetable growths, the cotton-plant is -supposed to be indigenous to Mexico, as Cortez, on his first landing, -found the natives clothed in cotton fabrics of their own manufacture. -Its culture continues to the present day, but with very little -improvement in method since the earlier time of the Spanish Conquest." - -"And now," asked the Harvard man, "since we are on the subject of -Mexican natural floral products, may I speak my little piece, which I -may call, 'What I have learned about the Cactus'?" - -The Koshare graciously assenting, Roger Smith thus began: - -"In Mexico the cactus is an aboriginal and indigenous production. -Several hundred varieties are identified by botanists. A beautiful sort -is Cereus grandiflora. As with us, this variety blooms only at night; -its frail, sweet flower dying at the coming of day. The cactus seems to -grow best in the poorest soil. No matter how dry the season, it is -always juicy. Protected by its thick epidermis, it retains within its -circulation that store of moisture absorbed during the wet season, and -when neighboring vegetation dies of drought is still unharmed. Several -varieties of cactus have within their flowers an edible substance, which -is, in Monterey, brought daily to market by the natives. That species -of cactus which combines within itself more numerous uses than any known -vegetable product is known as the maguey, or century plant. - -"Upon the Mexican mountains it grows wild as a weed; but as a domestic -plant it is cultivated in little patches, or planted in fields of -leagues in extent. Its huge leaf pounded into a pulp makes a substitute -both for cloth and paper. The fibre of the leaf, when beaten and spun, -forms a silk-like thread, which, woven into a fabric, resembles linen -rather than silk. This thread is now, and ever has been, the sewing -thread of the country. From the leaf of the maguey is crudely -manufactured sailcloth and sacking; and from it is made the bagging now -in common use. - -"The ropes made from it are of that kind called manila. It is the best -material in use for wrapping-paper. When cut into coarse straws, it -forms the brooms and whitewash brushes of the country, and as a -substitute for bristles it is made into scrub-brushes, and, finally, it -supplies the place of hair-combs among the common people. So much for -the cactus leaf; but from its sap arises the prime value of the plant. - -"From this is made the favorite intoxicating drink of the common people -of Mexico. This juice in its unfermented state is called honey water. -When fermented it is known as pulque. The flowering maguey, the 'Agava -American,' is the century plant of the United States. - -"In its native habitat the plant flowers in its fifteenth year, or -thereabout; and we are assured that nowhere, as is fabled, does its -bloom require a long century for its production. The juice of the maguey -is gathered by cutting out the heart of the flower of the central stem, -for whose sustenance this juice is destined. A single plant, thus -gingerly treated, yields daily, for a period of two or three months, -according to the thriftiness of the plant, from four to seven quarts of -the honey water, which, before fermentation, is said to resemble in -taste new sweet cider. - -"Large private profit accrues to the owner of maguey estates, and the -government excise derived from the sale of the liquor is large. Pulque -is the lager of the peon. It was the product of the country long before -the time of the Montezumas; and Ballou tells us that 'so late as 1890 -over eighty thousand gallons of pulque were daily consumed in the city -of Mexico.' - -"It is said to be the peculiar effect of pulque to create, in its -immoderate drinkers, an aversion to other stimulants; the person thus -using it preferring it to any and all other drinks, irrespective of -cost." - -The Minister followed Roger Smith with an account of a famous tree of -Mexico. - -"It was at Papotla," said this much-travelled invalid, "a village some -three miles from that capital, that we saw this remarkable tree, which -is called 'The Tree of the Noche Triste' (the Dismal Night), because -Cortez in his disastrous midnight retreat from the Aztec capital is said -to have sat down and wept under it. Be that as it may, the Noche Triste -is undoubtedly a tree of great age. It is of the cedar family, broken -and decayed in many parts, but still enough alive to bear foliage. - -"In its dilapidated condition it measures ten feet in diameter, and -exceeds forty feet in height. Long gray moss droops mournfully from its -decaying branches, and, taken altogether, it is indeed a dismal tree. - -"It is much visited, and held sacred and historic by the people, who -guard and cherish it with great care." - -"It calls up singular reflections," commented the Journalist, "to look -upon a living thing that has existed a thousand years, though it be but -a tree. Though so many centuries have rolled over the cypresses of -Chapultepec, they are yet sound and vigorous. - -"These trees are the only links that unite modern and ancient American -civilization; for they were in being when that mysterious race, the -Toltecs, rested under their shade; and they are said to have long been -standing, when a body of Aztecs, wandering away from their tribe in -search of game, fixed themselves upon the marsh at Chapultepec, and, -spreading their mats under these cypresses, enjoyed in their shadow -their noontide slumber. Then came the Spaniards to people the valley -with the mixed races, who respected their great antiquity, so that -during all the battles that have been fought around them they have -passed unharmed, and amid the strife and contentions of men have gone -quietly on, adding many rings to their already enlarged circumference. -'Heedless,' says Wilson, 'of the gunpowder burned over their heads and -the discharge of cannon that has shaken their roots, as one ephemeral -Mexican government succeeded another, these cypresses still remain -unharmed, and may outlive many other dynasties.'" - -"Apropos of the subject," said the Antiquary, "Nezahualcoyotl, according -to his descendant, the native historian, embellished his numerous villas -with hanging gardens replete with gorgeous flowers and odoriferous -shrubs. The steps to these charming terraces--many of them hewn in the -natural porphyry, and which a writer who lived in the sixteenth century -avers that he himself counted--were even then crumbling into ruins. -Later travellers have reported the almost literal decay of this -wonderful establishment. Latrobe describes this monarch's baths (fabled -to have been twelve feet long by eight wide) as 'singular basins, -perhaps two feet in diameter, and not capacious enough for any monarch -larger than Oberon to take a ducking in.' - -"The observations of other travellers confirm this account. Bullock -tells us that some of the terraces of this apparently mythical palace -are still entire; and that the solid remains of stone and stucco -furnished an inexhaustible quarry for the churches and other buildings -since erected on the site of that ancient Aztec city. - -"Latrobe, on the contrary, attributes these ruins to the Toltecs, and -hints at the probability of their belonging to an age and a people still -more remote. Wilson, on the other hand, positively accords them to the -Phoenicians." - -"In reading up on this famous empire, Tezcuco," said Leon Starr, "one is -inclined to believe that every vestige of this proud magnificence could -not possibly have been obliterated in the short period of three -centuries, leaving on the spot only an indifferently built village, -whose population of three hundred Indians, and about one hundred whites, -maintain themselves in summer by gardening, and sending in their canoes -daily supplies of 'herbs and _sullers_' (whatever this last may be) to -Mexico, and, in winter, by raking the mud for the 'tegnesquita,' from -which they manufacture salt." - -"Wilson," said the Grumbler, "tells us that 'the Tezcucan descendant of -an emperor "lied like a priest."' However that may be, one cannot quite -swallow his own relation 'in its entirety.'" - -"Right you are," responded the Harvard man; "and now here is Miss -Norcross, waiting, I am sure, to cram us still further with Mexican -information." - -"It is only," said this modest little lady, "some bits that I have -jotted down about Mexican gems;" and shyly producing her paper, she thus -read: - -"In enumerating the precious stones of Mexico,--the ruby, amethyst, -topaz, and garnet, the pearl, agate, turquoise, and chalcedony,--one -must put before them all that wonder of Nature,--the Mexican fire opal, -which, though not quite so hard as the Hungarian or the Australian opal, -excels either of them in brilliance and variety of color. Of this -beautiful stone Ballou has aptly said, 'It seems as if Nature by some -subtle alchemy of her own had condensed, to form this fiery gem, the -hoarded sunshine of a thousand years.' He tells us that, in his Mexican -travels he saw an opal, weighing fourteen carats, for which five -thousand dollars was refused. 'Really choice specimens,' he goes on to -say, 'are rare. The natives, notwithstanding the abundance of opals -found in Mexico, hold tenaciously to the price first set upon them. -Their value ranges from ten dollars to ten hundred.' - -"In modern times, as we all know, a superstition of the unluckiness of -the stone long prevailed. Now, the opal has come to be considered as -desirable as it is beautiful, and, endorsed by fashion, takes its -rightful place among precious gems. A London newspaper states that a -giant Australian opal, oval in shape, measuring two inches in length, an -inch and a half deep, and weighing two hundred and fifty carats, is -destined to be given to King Edward the Seventh; and that Mr. Lyons, the -giver, a lawyer of Queensland, desires that it should be set in the -King's regalia of the Australian federation. The London lapidaries -believe it to be the finest and largest opal in the world. - -"Its only rival in size and beauty is the Hungarian opal, possessed by -Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria. This gem is known as the 'Imperial -opal,' and is said, in its rainbow beauty, to display the blended colors -of the ruby, the emerald, and the amethyst. - -"What is termed the 'fire' of the gem appears to burn in its remotest -depths, with a glow and fervor which at times seem to convert the stone -from the opaque to the semi-transparent." - -"We have in our own family," said Miss Paulina Hemmenshaw, -supplementing this account, "a rare Mexican opal. Long, long ago, it was -given as an engagement ring to my mother's youngest sister, by her -lover, who, while travelling in Mexico, had secured this exquisite stone -for a betrothal pledge. On the very eve of her wedding-day my beautiful -Aunt Margaret died of an unsuspected heart-disease. The old superstition -of the unluckiness of the opal being then dominant, my aunt's superb -ring was laid by as a thing malignant as beautiful. - -"As a child I was sometimes allowed to take this sad memento of my dead -aunt from its nest of cotton wool and admire its harmful splendor. At my -mother's death it descended, along with all her own jewels, to me, her -only daughter. Now that we have outlived the foolish superstition in -respect to this precious stone, I have made up my mind," said the good -aunt, beaming kindly on her niece, "to take this ring from the Safety -Vault, on our return to Boston, and make it one of my wedding gifts to -this dear child." - -"Many thanks, dear ladies," said Mrs. Bixbee, as Miss Paulina ended, -"for your talks about the opal. It is my favorite among precious stones. -I even prefer it to the diamond, as something warmer and more alive. I -am glad that its character is looking up in these days." - -"All the same," said Mrs. Fairlee, complacently turning on her slim -white finger a superb Hungarian sapphire, "nothing would tempt me to -wear a stone even suspected of uncanniness. Trials and crosses, of -course, will befall one, but it seems to me foolhardy to wear jewels -supposed to attract misfortune, and, for my part, I am still suspicious -of opals; and were I King Edward, I shouldn't thank my loyal Australians -for the gift of an ill-omened jewel, however costly and beautiful." - -"Well," commented the Journalist, "every one for his fancy; mine, I -confess, is to 'mouse round' among musty book-shelves. Looking over my -portable store of odds and ends for something relevant to this evening's -discussion, I came upon this extract from the 'Voyages of one "Thomas -Page,"'--a black letter copy of whose long-forgotten book, printed in -London, in 1677, is still extant. As a curious picture of the times, it -is not without an especial value; and, with your approval, I will now -read it: - -"This account must be prefaced with the explanation that Thomas Page was -an English Dominican, who, as a missionary-monk, with his brother -Dominicans travelled to his destination in Manila, by the road across -Mexico, landing, by the way, at Vera Cruz, and there depositing some -illustrious fellow-voyagers. - -"'When we came to land,' says this quaintly circumstantial writer, 'all -the inhabitants of the city had congregated in the Plaza to receive us. -The communities of monks were also there, each one preceded by a large -crucifix,--the Dominicans, the San Franciscans, the Mercedarios,--in -order to conduct the Virey (the Viceroy) of Mexico as far as the -Cathedral. - -"'The Jesuits and friars from the ships leaped upon the shore from the -ships. Many of them (the monks) on stepping on shore, kissed it, -considering that it was a holy cause that brought them there,--the -conversion of the Indians, who had before adored and sacrificed to -demons; others kneeled down and gave thanks to the Virgin Mary and other -saints of their devotion, and then all the monks hastened to incorporate -themselves with their respective orders in the place in which they -severally stood. The procession, as soon as formed, directed itself to -the Cathedral, where the consecrated wafer (called in the English -original the bread God) was exposed upon the high altar, and to which -all kneeled as they entered.... The services ended, the Virey was -conducted to his lodgings by the first Alcalde, the magistrate of the -town, and judges, who had descended from the capitol to meet him, -besides the soldiers of the garrison and the ships. Those of the -religious orders that had just arrived were conducted to their -respective convents, crosses, as before, being carried at the head of -each community. - -"'Friar John presented us [his missionaries] to the Prior of the Convent -of San Domingo, who received us kindly, and directed sweetmeats to be -given us; and also there was given to each of us a cup of that Indian -beverage which the Indians call chocolate. "This," the good friar tells -us, "was but a prelude to a sumptuous dinner, composed of flesh and fish -of every description, in which there was no lack of turkeys and capons. -This feast," he naïvely apologizes, "was not set out for the purpose of -worldly ostentation, but to manifest to us the abundance of the -country." - -"'The Prior of Vera Cruz,' he informs us, 'was neither old nor severe, -as the men selected to govern communities of youthful religious orders -are accustomed to be. On the contrary, he was in the flower of his age, -and had all the manner of a joyful and diverting youth. His fathership, -as they told us, had acquired the Priory by means of a gift of a -thousand ducats, which he had sent to the Father Provincial. After -dinner he invited some of us to visit his cell, and then it was we came -to know the levity of his life.... - -"'The cell of the Prior was richly tapestried, and adorned with feathers -of birds of Michoacan; the walls were hung with various pictures of -merit; rich rugs of silk covered the tables; porcelain of China filled -the cupboards and sideboards; and there were vases and bowls containing -preserved fruits and most delicate sweetmeats. - -"'Our enthusiastic companions did not fail to be scandalized at such an -exhibition, which they looked upon as a manifestation of worldly vanity, -so foreign to the poverty of a begging friar.... - -"'The holy Prior talked to us only of his ancestry, of his good parts, -of the influence with the Father Provincial; of the love which the -principal ladies and the wives of the richest merchants manifested to -him, of his beautiful voice, of his consummate skill in music. In fact, -that we might not doubt him in this particular, he took the guitar and -sung a sonnet which he had composed to a certain _Amaryllis_. This was a -new scandal to our newly arrived _religious_, which afflicted some of -them to see such libertinage in a prelate, who ought, on the contrary, -to have set an example of penance and self-mortification, and should -shine like a mirror in his conduct and words.... In the Prior's cell of -the Convent of Vera Cruz' (concluded this character sketch) 'we listened -to a melodious voice, accompanied with a harmonious instrument, we saw -treasures and riches, we ate exquisite confectioneries, we breathed -amber and musk, with which he had perfumed his syrups and conserves. O, -that delicious Prior!' exclaims our English monk, the humor of the -situation overcoming his horror of the scandalous behavior of the -ecclesiastic." - -"And now," said the Minister, producing some leaves of sermon-like -script, "may I call your attention, my friends, to the striking -analogies found in the religious usages and belief of the -Aztec,--correspondent with those of the Christian,--some of which I have -considered in this little paper? - -"One of the most extraordinary coincidences with Christian rites may, I -think, be traced in their ceremony of naming their children,--the Aztec -baptism. An account of this rite, preserved by Sahagan, is thus put into -English: - -"'When everything,' says the chronicler, 'necessary for the baptism had -been made ready, all the relations of the child were assembled, and the -midwife, who was the person that performed the rite of baptism. After a -solemn invocation, the head and lips of the infant were touched with -water, and a name was given it; while the goddess Cioacoatl, who -presided over childbirth, was implored that "the sin which was given to -this child before the beginning of the world might not visit the child, -but that, cleansed by these waters, it might live and be born anew." -This,' continues the narrator, 'is the exact formula used: "O my child! -take and receive the water of the Lord of the world, which is our life, -and is given for the increasing and renewing of our body. It is to wash -and purify. I pray that these heavenly drops may enter into your body -and dwell there, that they may destroy and remove from you all the sin -which was given to you at the beginning of the world. - -"'She then washed the body of the child with water. This done, "He now -liveth," said she, "and is born anew; now is he purified and cleansed -afresh, and our Mother Chalchioitlyene (the goddess of water) again -bringeth him into the world." Then taking the child in both hands, she -lifted him towards heaven, and said, "O Lord, thou seest here thy -creature, whom thou hast sent into the world, this place of sorrow, and -suffering, and penitence. Grant him, O Lord, thy gifts and inspiration; -for thou art the Great God, and with thee is the great goddess." Torches -of pine illuminated this performance, and the name was given by the same -midwife, or priestess, who baptized him.' - -"The difficulty of obtaining anything like a faithful report of these -rites from the natives," said the Minister, "was complained of by the -Spanish chroniclers, and no doubt led them to color the narrative of -these (to them) heathen rites and observances with interpolations from -their own religious belief. 'The Devil,' said one of these bewildered -missionary monks, 'chose to imitate the rites of Christianity, and the -traditions of the chosen people, that he might allure his wretched -victims to their own destruction.' Leaving these monkish annalists to -their own childish conclusions, and absurd interpretations of the Aztec -religious analogies, we pass on to the tradition of the Deluge, so -widely spread among the nations of the Old World, the Hebrew account of -which was thus travestied by these semi-barbarians. Two persons, they -held, survived this historical flood,--a man named Coxcox, and his wife. -Their heads are represented in ancient paintings, together with a boat -floating on the waters. - -"Another tradition (which is credited by Humboldt) affirms that the boat -in which Typi (their Noah) weathered the flood was filled with various -kinds of animals and birds, and that, after some time, a vulture was -sent out by Typi, to reconnoitre,--as was done in the Hebrew flood,--but -remained feeding on the dead bodies of the giants which had been left on -the earth as the waters subsided. The little humming-bird, -Huitozitsilin, was then sent forth, and returned with a twig in his -mouth. The coincidence of this account with the Bible narrative is -worthy of remark. - -"On the way between Vera Cruz and the capital stands the tall and -venerable pyramidal mound called the temple of Chulola. It rises to the -height of nearly one hundred and eighty feet, and is cased with unburnt -brick. The native tradition is that it was erected by a family of giants -who had escaped the great inundation, and designed to raise the building -to the clouds; but the gods, offended by their presumption, sent on the -pyramid fires from heaven, and compelled the giants to abandon their -attempt. - -"This story was still lingering among the natives of the place at the -time of Humboldt's visit to it. The partial coincidence of this legend -with the Hebrew account of the tower of Babel cannot be denied. This -tradition has also its partial counterpart in the Hebrew Bible. -Cioacoatl, 'our lady and mother, the first goddess who bringeth forth,' -who is by the Aztecs believed to have bequeathed the sufferings of -childbirth to women as the tribute of death, by whom sin came into the -world, was usually represented with a serpent near her, and her name -signified the 'Serpent-woman.' - -"This fable, as will be seen, reminds us of the 'Eve' in the Hebrew -account of the Fall of Man. The later priestly narrators, minded to -improve upon this honest Aztec tradition, gave the Mexican Eve two sons, -and named them Cain and Abel. - -"In this Aztec rite, coming down to us through tradition, the Roman -Catholics recognized a resemblance to their especial ceremony of -Christian Communion. An image of the tutelary deity of the Aztecs was -made of the flour of maize, mixed with blood; and after consecrating by -the priests, was distributed among the people, who, as they ate it, -showed signs of humiliation and sorrow, declaring it was the flesh of -the deity. - -"We are told by a Mexican traveller, Torquemeda, a Spanish monk, that, -later on, when the Church had waxed mighty in the land, the simple -Indian converts, with unconscious irony, called the Catholic wafer 'the -bread-God.'" - -Here the discussion was, for a moment, interrupted by the withdrawal of -Miss Mattie Norcross and her invalid sister, who, wearied with long -sitting, had dropped her tired head upon her sister's shoulder and gone -quietly to sleep. - -As the Grumbler rose to open the door for the two, all present might see -the courteous air of protection and kindly sympathy which accompanied -this simple bit of courtesy. Evidently, the Grumbler had met his fate at -Alamo Ranch. - -"And now," said the star boarder, coming finally into the talk, "since -Mr. Morehouse has kindly condensed for us the history of the aboriginal -Mexican from the far-off day of the nomadic Toltec to the splendid reign -of the last Montezuma,--treacherously driven to the wall by the crafty -Cortez, when the Spaniard nominally converted the heathen, overthrew his -time-honored temples, rearing above their ruins Christian churches, and, -intent to 'kill two birds with the same stone' filled his own pockets, -and swelled the coffers of far-off Spain with Aztec riches,--I have -thought it not irrelevant to take a look at the humble native Mexican as -he is found by the traveller of to-day. - -"First, let me say that it has been asserted of Mexico that 'though -geographically near, and having had commercial relations with the world -for over three hundred years, there is probably less known of this -country to-day than of almost any other claiming to be civilized.' 'To -the Mexicans themselves,' declares an observing traveller, 'Mexico is -not fully known; and there are hundreds of square miles in South Mexico -that have never been explored; and whole tribes of Indians that have -never been brought in contact with the white man.' - -"Mexico may well be called the country of revolutions, having passed -through thirty-six within the limit of forty years. In that -comparatively short period of time no less than seventy-three rulers, -'drest in a little brief authority,' have played their parts upon the -Mexican stage until the curtain dropped (too often in blood) upon their -acts, and they were seen no more. - -"Humboldt, in the seventeenth century, pronounced the fairy-like -environs of the city of Mexico 'the most beautiful panorama the eye ever -rested upon.' On the table-land of this country the traveller is, at -some points, eight thousand feet above the level of the sea. At such -heights the air is so rarefied that the least physical effort well-nigh -deprives the traveller of breath. 'Through this rarefied atmosphere all -the climates and productions of the world,' it has been affirmed, 'are -embraced within the scope of a single bird's-eye view.' In portions of -the country the _vomito_ renders the climate especially unkindly to the -alien. - -"We are told that three quarters of the present Mexican population can -neither read nor write, possess little or no property, and can form no -intelligent ideas of political liberty, or of constitutional government. - -"The degraded condition of the laboring classes is imputed in a measure -to the constitutional inertia of a race who have no climatic conditions -to contend with in their life-struggle; whose simple wants are easily -satisfied, and who (it may be inferred) never know that 'divine -discontent' which is the fulcrum on which the higher civilization turns. -The manner of living, among this class, is thus described by Wells: - -"'Their dwellings in the cities are generally wanting in all the -requirements of health and comfort, and consist mostly of rooms on the -ground-floor, without proper light or ventilation, often with but the -single opening for entrance. In such houses there is rarely anything -answering to the civilized idea of a bed, the occupants sleeping on a -mat, skin, or blanket, on the dirt floor. There are no chairs or tables. -There is no fireplace or chimney, and few or no changes of raiment; no -washing apparatus or soap, and in fact no furniture whatever, except a -flat stone with a stone roller to grind their corn, and a variety of -earthen vessels to hold their food and drink, and for cooking, which is -generally done over a small fire within a circle of stones outside, and -in front of the main entrance to the dwelling. - -"'Their principal food is _tortillas_,--a sort of mush made of soaked -and hand-ground Indian corn, rolled thin, and then slightly baked over a -slow fire. Another staple of diet is boiled beans (_frijoles_). Meat is -seldom used by laborers; but when it is attainable, every part of the -animal is eaten. Should one be so fortunate as to have anything else to -eat, the _tortilla_ serves as plates, after which service the plates are -eaten. When their simple needs are thus satisfied,' says this observing -traveller, 'the surplus earnings find their way into the pockets of the -pulque or lottery-ticket sellers, or into the greedy hands of the -almost omnipresent priest.' - -"These lotteries are, we are told, operated by the Church, and form one -of its never-failing sources of income, proving even more profitable -than the sale of indulgences. - -"The idolatrous instinct, inherited from far-off Aztec ancestors, -decidedly inclines the native Mexican to a worship that has its pictures -and images, and its bowings before the Virgin and countless hosts of -saints, and the priest finds him an easy prey. - -"'While we were in the country,' says Ballou, 'a bull-fight was given in -one of the large cities on a Sunday, as a benefit towards paying for a -new altar-rail to be placed in one of the Romish churches.' - -"Religious fanaticism takes root in all classes in Mexico, even among -the very highest in the land. It is recorded of the Emperor -Maximilian--a man of elegant manners, and of much culture and -refinement--that he walked barefoot on a day of pilgrimage to the shrine -of the Virgin of Guadaloupe,--distant some two or three miles from the -city of Mexico, over a dusty, disagreeable road. - -"It is but fair to add, in conclusion," said Leon Starr, "that it is -asserted of the cultivated classes of Mexico that they are not at all in -sympathy with the extortions and other irregularities of their -priesthood." - -With these interesting statistics ended the last effort of the New -Koshare to combine improvement and entertainment. - -Hard upon this more solid delight-making followed the last afternoon -tea, the lighter Thursday evening entertainment, and the final -shooting-match. All these gatherings took on a tinge of sadness from the -certainty that the little winter family, brought together by Fate at -Alamo Ranch, were so soon to separate. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - - -Spring had now well come. In the shade it was already more than summer -heat. Fortunately there is, in New Mexico, no such thing as sun-stroke; -and one moves about with impunity, though the mercury stands at fervid -heights. - -It was on All Fools' day that the star boarder, accompanied by a little -party of the Koshare,--made up to escort him as far on his homeward way -as El Paso,--turned his back upon the loveliness of Mesilla Valley. - -Through all this "winter of their discontent" Leon had lent himself -heartily to the work of delight-making; and the saddest of them all had -been cheered by his genial atmosphere. What wonder if to these it was -but a dolorous leave-taking; and that amid the general hand-shaking some -eyes were wet, and some partings said with big lumps that would rise in -swelling throats! A good face was, however, put upon it all; and even -Fang, Dennis, and the chore-boy, sent a blessing and a cheery good-bye -in the wake of the favorite boarder. - -As for the small Mexican herd-boy,--who, with his best clean face, had -come up to the ranch to look his last upon the adored white man under -whose tuition he had become "a mighty hunter before the Lord,"--he -simply "lifted up his voice and wept." - -Following hard upon this departure came the general break-up of the -Koshare circle. The Hemmenshaws, with the bridegroom elect, Roger Smith, -were the next to depart. Miss Paulina, as may be inferred, turned her -face Bostonward with her heart in her mouth, in view of that account of -her chaperonage to be rendered to the father whose daughter she had, as -it were, handed over to the grandson of a tanner. - -And here the historian, asking leave to interrupt for a moment the -routine of the narrative, informs the gentle reader that that august -personage, Col. Algernon Hemmenshaw, was ultimately placated; and that -if a tanner's descendant bearing the non-illustrious name of Smith was -not altogether a desirable graft for the Hemmenshaw ancestral tree, a -fortune of more than a round million tipped the balance in his favor, -and the permitted engagement came out in early May-time. Beacon Hill, at -its announcement, threw up its hands in amazement and distaste. "To -think," it exclaimed, "that Louise Hemmenshaw, who might have had her -pick among our very oldest families, should take up with the grandson of -a tanner!" - - * * * * * - -Out on the mesa it is early nightfall. The little day-time flutter and -stir of moving things has, with the setting sun, given place to silence -and rest. - -A rounded moon looks serenely down upon the grey sage-brush, the -mesquite-bushes, on the lonely stretch of sandy desert. The last gleam -of day has faded from the Organ Mountains, leaving them to dominate, in -sombre grandeur, the distant landscape. In the warm, haunted silence of -this perfect night two lovers saunter slowly along the mesa. - -These happy beings are not unknown to us. The lady is from Marblehead; -the other has before-time been dubbed the Grumbler. - -The name no longer fits the man. His defective lung has righted itself -in this fine New Mexican atmosphere. No more is he at odds with fate; he -has become sincerely in love with life, with the climate, and, most of -all, with the sweet little teacher from Marblehead. They are to be -married early in June. - -The climate admirably suits the invalid sister, and it is hoped that in -this fine dry air her well lung may remain intact, and so serve her for -years to come. The Grumbler, having money enough to order his residence -to his liking, has determined to settle permanently in New Mexico. - -To that end he has, for the time, rented the Hilton place. Later, he -intends to lay out "as a gift for his fair" the ranch of her dreams. -Here, in the beautiful Mesilla Valley, we may predict that the married -pair, like the enchanting couples of fairyland, will "live happy ever -after." - -And now it but remains for the chronicler of the New Koshare to take -leave of "the land of sunshine." - -A backward glance at the half-deserted Alamo shows us a dreary handful -of incurables still tilting their piazza-chairs against its adobe front, -warming their depleted blood in the grateful sunshine, and each, as best -he may, accepting the inevitable. - -Long, long ago it was that the Pueblos made that traditional journey -"from Shipapu to the centre of their world" with the heaven-provided -Koshare, in particolored attire, and fantastic head-dress of withered -corn-husks, jesting and dancing before them to lift and lighten the -weary road. Yet since then, through all the centuries, the -"Delight-Maker," in one shape or another, has been in requisition in -every land beneath the sun. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Alamo Ranch, by Sarah Warner Brooks - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALAMO RANCH *** - -***** This file should be named 40471-8.txt or 40471-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/4/7/40471/ - -Produced by sp1nd, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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