Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

with something of the same intensity; but it is an added, not a transferred, affection. A year after Marie Hager's death he was taken back to Nice,' and set down in a street,-closely watched, of course. He trotted straight off to the house in which she died, and lay down on the doorstep, whining piteously.

[blocks in formation]

MY NATIVE LAND-GOOD NIGHT!-BYRON, 1788-1824.

(For notice of Byron, see page 14.)

"ADIEU, adieu! my native shore

Fades o'er the waters blue;

The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar,

And shrieks the wild sea-mew.

Yon sun that sets upon the sea

We follow in his flight;

Farewell a while to him and thee,
My native land-good night!

"A few short hours, and he will rise
To give the morrow birth;
And I shall hail the main and skies,
But not my mother earth.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

"Enough, enough, my yeoman good;

Thy grief let none gainsay;
But I, who am of lighter mood,
Will laugh to flee away.

"For pleasures past I do not grieve,

Nor perils gathering near;
My greatest grief is, that I leave

No thing that claims a tear.
And now I'm in the world alone,
Upon the wide, wide sea:
But why should I for others groan,
When none will sigh for me?

"With thee, my bark, I'll swiftly go
Athwart the foaming brine;

Nor care what land thou bear'st me to,
So not again to mine.

Welcome, welcome, ye dark blue waves!
And when you fail my sight,
Welcome, ye deserts, and ye caves!
My native land-good-night!"

THE RUINS AT COPAN.

COPAN is a ruined Indian city of Honduras, in Central America. It was already desolate when the Spaniards arrived in America, and wild traditions alone survived as to its origin. Such cities abound in Central America. In Yucatan alone there are 45, whose extent and greatness astonish the visitor. The builders of Copan were, no doubt, a branch of the same Indian tribes as afterwards founded the great Empires of Mexico and Peru, overthrown by Cortes and Pizarro. It had been destroyed by an invasion of these related tribes.

1. AFTER passing on our left a "hacienda"" which stood in a large clearing, our path turned abruptly to the right, and we soon arrived at the first obelisk. In a small open space, covered with low brushwood and surrounded by forest trees, stood a richly-carved monolith. Its height was over eleven feet, its width three and a-half feet, its thickness three feet. The front represented the figure of a man-probably the deity in whose honour it was erected-with strange and complicated head-dress and breast-plate, the knees shielded, sandals on the feet, the hands pointing towards the breast. The whole was deeply cut, and sur rounded by florid carvings. The back of the monolith consisted of sixteen tablets, cach containing emblematic figures. The

sides, as well as the front and back, were also richly carved. In front of the idol stood an altar stone about four feet in height, heavily sculptured, and with grooves on the top, probably intended for the blood of the sacrifice.

2. At short distances from one another were eight or nine other spaces containing similar monoliths, some erect, some fallen, some almost buried in the ground, and partly concealed by weeds and underwood. Though the obelisks were similar in appearance, each idol differed in expression and dress, and the emblem and hieroglyphics varied greatly; the latter were in all cases beautifully and distinctly sculptured, but the lower extremities of the figures were unshapely and unfinished.

3. Our attendant Indians were very anxious to arrive at one of the monoliths, which proved to be engraven with the finest hieroglyphics, and to show my appreciation of their good taste I asked Don Pedro to find out from them if they could decipher the inscriptions. They shrugged their shoulders and laughed, as they pointed to the pedestal on which was carved in bold characters, "J. Higgins." Leaving these "side chapels," as it were, we approached what may be called the main building, which consisted of three large quadrangles, or amphitheatres. Here we had to dismount, and climb over the fragments of the surrounding stone wall.

4. Entering the first, we saw numerous remains of sculptured idols ranged near the base of the pyramidal stone wall that separated the quadrangles. In shape this space was rectangular, and its size about one hundred yards by fifty; large trees grew in it, but it was remarkably free from brushwood. The intervening walls sloped up in terrace-like steps to a height of more than one hundred feet. The stone work and masonry forming this vast mound was all broken and displaced by the bushes and huge roots of the trees that grew all over it.

5. Assisted by the dislodged but finely-cut stone steps, we ascended the wall, and then descended into the second smaller quadrangle. Here were fragments of sculpture and a colossal head, which at first looked very awe-inspiring, but on acquaintance gave the idea of a comedy mask. The Indians at this spot busied themselves by replacing and setting up several fallen carved stones; and one great head, that we could hardly roll into position, I christened after our guide, much to his amusement.

6. The most curious object in this quadrangle was a deep pit, in the side of which was a small opening to a long narrow covered

passage, which overlooked the river. At this point, the wall, which rises from the river bank, is 70 or 80 feet in height, but like the others, much broken and disturbed. The passage can be seen from the river, and on that account the ruined hill is called "the hill with the windows." When this pit was first opened and explored, it was found to contain a great number of red earthenware jars, which held human bones buried in lime. A death's head beautifully carved out of rare green stone, was also found in one of the funeral vases.

7. From this quadrangle we passed into the third, which con.. tained more and better-executed pieces of sculpture than we had yet seen. The most notable was an altar six feet square and five feet high; the top was covered with hieroglyphics, and each side was adorned with four cross-legged Egyptian-looking figures, seated on a hieroglyphic, and each holding something in his hand. Some enormous stone skulls formed steps up one of the sides of this quadrangle, and besides these were fragments of animals and reptiles. In a pit here were some magnificent maiden-hair ferns, and from the trees hung many creepers and twisted leaves.

8. Outside these rectangular areas were the remains of pyramids and terraces, extending for some distance into the forest, and indicating the probable enclosure at one time of the whole by stone walls. There was no ruined house, nor was there the smallest evidence that the ruins had ever contained a habitation.

9. Copan, I think, may be likened to a sculptured Stonehenge. It can hardly be doubted that this place was a great centre of priestly power, and used merely for sacrificial and other religions ceremonies. That the sacrifices were human is only too probable, as Prescott states that up to the time of the Spanish Conquest the practice of human sacrifice was so rife in Mexico that scarcely any author pretends to estimate the yearly sacrifices throughout the kingdom at less than 20,000, and some carry the number as high as 50,000.

10. As the ruins present no traces of a city, the question naturally arises where could the town of Copan have been that Hernan'dez was sent to subdue in 1530. It seems to me highly probable that the ancient city occupied the site of the present village. The position answers exactly to the description given by a Spanish historian. "On one side, defended by a range of mountains, and on the other by a deep fosse and an entrenchment formed of strong beams of timber with loop holes and

L

« AnteriorContinuar »