The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 2, 1902, Page 7

THE SUNDAY CALL. * ?'Strange Fact That the Best Az= tec Relics Extant Have Been Lost for Centuries in Euro- pean Libraries, Where Mrs. Nuttall Had to 1 Rediscover Them. RS. ZELTA NUTTALL is going to Mexico to-morrow. simple announcement like a stereotyped so- to the popular mind, s of both Europe » event of epoch-mak- for they know that Mrs explorer, who uresque empire g Importance is a Californian re about the Montezuma than any other world They look to her now to solve much of the mystery that surrounds the history of the once mighty race that was found and plundered and left to vanish com- pletely from the earth by the Spaniards, for they know. too, that for eighteen years Mn: has been st 1 soclological and religious s ancient Aztecs, and that for the la teen years she has been traveling in E rope, the West Indies, Canada and tn United States arthing all sorts Queer relics and picture writings of these strange people that were lost, strayed or stolen. It 1= an odd circumstance that Mexico has been utterly depleted of every rem- nant of Aztec life and civilization that could be carried away. Valuable picture writings heve been taken the great cities of FEurope and -there lost for hundreds of years, almost as com- pletely as if th had been buried under the crumbling ruins of the Indian tem- ples. And it is & strange fact, too, that the Spaniards, who should have kept for fu- ture races a perfect history of the nation they desolated and destroyed, have given us only highly colored romances about these remarksble people, with such a careless blending of fact and fancy that the archaeclogists’ greatest difficulty now is to find out what is really fact and what is only fancy. In the same way, instead of preserving as many of the relics as possible and learning the meaning of the bierogiyphics engraved thereon, they de- stroyed all but the few that were sent of to home to Spain as presents. It is these relics, rate, b ost or most of them at lieved to have been irretriev- for so many years, that Mrs. the is going to Mexico to-morrow. ears since she first ipher the mysterious ved on leathern parch- ed to be e museums in t there were none had disap- Indians, believed to hold b sup; They s com ely s the investiga- not been ng Cortez to his », when with he had sub- nation, nu: g ered to the f and no reli- The out uraging in the extreme. To ha o leave Mexico in order to study Mexico was a curious But as the missing relics were absolutely necessary to the broader re- searches sh ed there was noth- ing for it them. Without them the h the origin of the Aztecs must remain a mystery. To find them meant, perhaps, nothing more than fragmentary hints of the life and cus- toms of th ighty pebple, who had built ve forts and ing in size and impre: great temples pyramide ri m: he grandeur even the famed: pyramids of but nevertheless, she went im- tely to Europe and began a system- atic search of every library on the Conti- nent. One of the manuseripts men ventory of the gifts he in was the in Florence of r most impor- ant of the two, absolutely no clew for years, though Mrs. light ancient Mex: headdresses of the of n time the h had long & worthless, and two ces which had been lost since e to the Pea- relics r throwers, w all there was 1 the relics she found rope, and wrote many scientific vc on the subject, but there was still much to be extracted from e missing Cortez manuscript. however, persistency triumphed. e secured ev nee in Madrid that the ng of had sent the parchment 1o the monastery of San Marco in Florence. That her first clew. With this in- formation she went to Florence at once, to learn that the anclent picture ing, on account of its great value, been thirty-five years ago. traced it all over the Continent and v found it in England. It completes the Aztec relics extant of which there ecord, and it is because of this =t remarkable discovery that gists expect so much of Hher t to Mexico. was stolen script itself is even more in- n the story of its wander- is made wup of long strips of Jeather about ten inches wide and nearly ings 100 feet long, closely insoribed on both sides w colored pictures. It folds up like @ accordion-pleated pocket pano- rama of the landmarks of a big city. The pictures are gaudy creations, which bear a striking resemblance to the picture writings of the ancient Egyptians, though Mrs. Nuttall seys that they are not at all alike. To the unpracticed eye they look like the trations from a child’s the events narrated there- in are guite as simple, but though much of it is clear to Mrs. Nuttall there is muc. more of it that cannot be deciphered. Cdlored plates have been made of it and it will soon be published eomplete by the Peabody Museum, for which it was pre- pared under Mre. Nuttall's direction. She has lectured on the subject of the " Aztec codices before the students at the University of California since her return to her native State, and it is in the inter- est of the university, as well as to learn secrets contained in the manuseript has just discovered, that she is go- ing to Mexico to-morrow to begin anew the explorations she was obliged to aban- don thirteen years ago. he date on this ancient manuscript is I Acatl, which in the Aztec calendar cor- responds h the ar 1519 in our own calendar,” s s. Nuttall, “so it is evident that it was made just before the arrival of the Spaniards. So far as it can she be deciphered it is not a continual his- tory. but five or six detached fragment: covering perhaps a period of 100 years before the Spanish conquest. “Instead of being a pictorial history in itself it seems to be rather a representa- tion of the lives of different chiefs—all great Aztec heroes—and was doubt made to illustrate the epic poems sung or chanted by the priests “Many of the pictures show scenes of conguest and it js a strange fact that they are always represented in the same way: the vanquished is kneeling, while the conqueror is holding him by the fore- lock. This is the universal sign of abject surrender among the Aztecs. “Another well-defined series shows the Aztec heroes in the temples holding in their hands the sacrificial bird, which is always an emblem of their religlous sac- rifices. “Still another series reveals the Aztec spear throwers crossing the water in canoes. The fish shown under the boats indicates whether it is a lagoon, a river or a lake. In the same way large cone- shaped pictures represent mountains and are used throughout each series to ind - cate the locality in which the events transpired. “They are the key to the mystery of the sce: depicted on the manuscript. and perhaps the key as well to the names of the heroes shown in each picture. When all these symbols can be deciphered we ¢ much more of the life and ot the Aztecs at the time of the Spenish conquest than we understard at présent. ‘It used to be popu ancient peoples ‘Toltecs.’ Later in- vestigation, however, that this simply means ‘builders’ or* architects’ and that the Toltecs did not constitute a dis- tinct race. There are at present few re- mains of native architecture except the gigantic pyramids, some of which have a larger base than Cheops in Egypt. “I am going to see these ruins and take photographs of them for future refer- ence, ag well as the flight of stone steps which were excavated only two months ago in the City of Mexico, though my plans are really not definite at present. In the light of what might be discovered, the archaeologist cannot begin investiga- tions with any set theories. “The work is arduous, because the Mexi- can Government has rendered little aid. partly through lack of means and partly through lack of native archaeologists. At present they have a museum, which is greatly run down because of the man- ager's absence for the last nine years in Europe. It is for these reasons that our greatest knowledge of the subjects have been gained of necessity from European museums. ““The artistic skill of the Aztecs is shown by the fact that upon Cortez’ arrival the natives sketched him and his attendants so vividly and =0 accurately that Monte- zuma, to whom the picture was forwarded, recognized their features on the arrival of the forelgners. “The cannon, ships and hounds, whose loud baying is represented by a cloud of smoke, are all shown. They lacked per- spective, however, for in a single picture we find the same person represented sev- eral times in various attitudes. This, how- ever, is not properly termed plcture-writ- ing, where pictures represent certain vocal sounds. “In their picture-writing an eye repre- sented the letter I; X a little flag; P A N a road with footsteps; OT L I, a minla- to speak of these shows B A ture mo Popoca and TE-Petl the word “While Mexico has a wealth of docu- mentary remains Central America lacks these to a great extent but abounds in monuments whose hieroglyphics vary de- cldedly from those in Mexico and have not as yet been fully identified. Indeed the relics that remain of both the Aztecs and the Incas are so few and so valuable that people in Mexico have begun to manufacture numerous frauds in imita- tion of the fine feather work and the anclent codices that are known to be authentic. This is golng to make further exploration and research a matter of great difficulty for those not exceptional- ly well versed in Mexican lore. “The famous Calendar stone dug up in the City of Mexico in 179 has, however, been of great importance In reading the hieroglyphics that are authentic. In this connection it is interesting to know that one of Mrs. Nuttan's greatest ' discoveries and the most important to the science of American archaelogy might be called a discovery in the sky. It con- sists in the recognition by her that the constellation of the Great Bear in connec- tion with the polar star, or dipper, which is so familiar to every one in this coun- try, was the constellation which regu- lated nearly all the religious ceremonies and calendar systems of the various American tribes. This furnished the first® key to the re- remarkable series of symbols which have so puzzled the archaeologist because of their resemblance to the symbols which were known to all the anclent peoples of Asia, Northern Africa and even Europe. These symbols have been found in the shell and copper ornaments contained in the mounds, they have been traced out in the carved and engraved stones in Central America, have been recognized in the myths and symbols of the northwest coast, and have been regarded as an evi- dence of contact between the continent and the Asfatic peoples and a transmis- sion to this continent by some unknown channels. The discovery was made by Mrs. Nut- tall while studying the calendar system of Mexico and Central America, and was really the result of that study, the posi- tion of the constellation in the heavens &t the different periods which marked the seasons and the solstices making in the course of the year the very figure which has been taken as a symbol by all the na- tlons of the earth, or at least by those who were so situated as to be famillar with the northern sky, the figure called the Suastika. The discovery has brought the nations of the earth close together and shows that the present condition in which we find ourselves was anticipated thousands of years ago, even by rude people and those Who had no means of studying the heav- ens except with thelr naked eye. Every separate tribe and nation had its own sys- tem of astrology and religlous symbolism, but there was the same common basis. This fact has given rise to much con- troversy as to the origin of the Aztecs and the Incas. Some writers advance much evidence to show that the ancestors of the Aztecs were really Mongols, who crossed from China at the Bering Sea, centuries ago, and swept down through the valléys of North America until they settled in Mexico. Other writers have found stronger proof that they came from Egypt. On this point Mrs. Nuttall has written: “Considering that it would be premature to formulate a final conclusion on a sub- ject which demands so much more inves- tigation, T merely observe that, as far as I can see, the conditlons which existed and survive among the aborigines of ‘America would be fully accounted for by the assumption that they received certain elements of culttre and civilization from Mediterranean seafarers who, at widely separated, critical, perieds of Old World history, may have transported refugees and would-be colonists or founders of ideal republics and ‘divine polities’ to dif- ferent parts of the hidden or divine land of ‘the west,’ the existence of which was known by tradition to the Egyptian priest- hood. “Under such circumstances it is ap- parent how the American continent could have become an isolated area of preserva- tion where primitive forms of civilization, religlous cult, symbolism and industries, drawn at different epochs from various more or less important centers or from the outposts of the Old World, would have been handed down transformed through the active and Increasing influence of the native element. “The latter must always have been markedly predominant since it must be assumed if at all that the number of in- dividuals who reached America and the subsequent duration of their lives must have been extremely limited. “What is more, as Montezuma related that the colonists, from whom he de- scended, married native women, it s ob- vious that from the outset foreign and native influences were combined.” All this is strange work for a woman, though Mrs. Nuttall says that Mexican exploration has interested her since early girlhood. To her it is a fascinating study offering infinite possibilities, for the old ruins of these anclent people may still contain the most startling evidence of the development of the whole American con- tinent through long ages. Mrs. Nuttall has already found the key to many things that were thought im- THE THE VANQUISHED ACCORDING possible of solution only a few years ago. Where others had failed she rediscover- ed in the Castle of Ambras, in Tyrol, the finest ancient Mexican feather work shield in existence and a fan, both of which had figured among the presents sent by Cortez to the King of Spain, after they had been reported “lost” for years by the Vienna Museum authorities. ‘Where others had passed it by as of no importance Mrs. Nuttall first identl- fied as a specimen of sixteenth century Mexican feather-mosaic made by native artists after designs furnished by the Spanish conquergrs a beautiful miter pre- served at the Pitti Palace, Florence, and also a large shield, preserved in the Royal Armory of Madrid, which she showed to have been a present from Charles V to Philip II, when the latter was an infanta. Many other manuscripts have been brought to light by her from the recesses of old libraries, where they have been lost to s ght for centuries. She thus dis- covered an extremely valuable anony- mous Hispano-American manuscript of which her publication in fac-simile with translation, notes and commentary is now in the press and will soon appear under the auspices of the Peabody Mu- seum; bearing the title, “The Life of the Ind.ans.” She has lectured before King Oscar II anu other crowned heads, in Europe on the marvels of the Aztecs, and for all her wide researches she has been honored by the greatest scientific bodies in the world. Here are just a few of the special deco- TO-AZTEC PICTORIAL HISTORY rations which will serve to show what distinction this brilliant California woman has won at home and sbread: Honorary special assistant of the Pea- body Museum; fellow of the American Assoclation for the Advancement of Sci- ence; member of the Philosophical So- clety, Philadelphia; honorary member of the Archaeological Association, Untver- sity of Pennsylvania; corresponding mem- ber of the Antiquarian and the Numis- matic Soclety of Washington; of the So- clete Itallana &' Antropologea; of the So- clete de Geographie de Geneve; of the So- cleded Clentifico, “Antonio Alzate,” Mex- ico; of the Societe des Americanistes de Parls, ete. And now after unearthing all manner of lost relics in the libraries of the 0ld World, and extracting from them all the secrets they have to offer and giving them to the great sclentific institutions of both hemispheres in several very com- plete and interesting volumes, she is go- ing back to Mexico to take up the work of exploration which she was obliged to abandon thirteen years ago. Who knows what new honors she may gain? She has succeeded before where other archaeclogists have falled, and en this her second visit to the land of the Aztec she may make some wonderful dfs- coveries. It would be a glorious achievement for a California woman to tell the world what Columbus and the Spanish conquer- ors who followed him did not take the trouble to find out about the strange American tribes they discovered.