lleys. They were ruled over by five
kings; and when one of these died all their wives were burned above the
grave, and a hundred slaves sacrificed to the Sun, which they
worshipped, and called Elagabalus. These were all buried around the
body of the king, whose tomb was of rock, and a huge mound of earth
erected over them by the labor of thousands of slaves taken in battle.
Yet their chief king, in the day of their great power, she called
Palenque, placing his capital to north and east of this place, a land
journey of thirty days. Here was built a great city of wood and stone,
surrounded by an immense wall of earth, to which all the smaller kings
journeyed in state once each year to make account of their kingdoms,
and offer up slaves on the altar of the great temple in sacrifice to
the Sun. They would gather thus from noon to noon, and thousands of
captives would be slaughtered before the altar by the priests. She
told me they once possessed vast store of yellow metal and flashing
stones, with other treasures. Cities were set apart under guard to
have special care over them. Some of these have descended even unto
the present, but are kept hidden away by the priests, though she
promised later to let me view them secretly. And she related a most
strange tale of destiny--of a long, barbarous war, filled with the
names of warriors and towns sounding most uncouth to my ears; a war
lasting many years, during which the Chichimes--for so she named the
wild hordes sweeping down upon them from the northward--drove their
fathers backward from city to city, beginning far away in the kingdom
named Talapa, and pillaging clear to the banks of the great river where
Palenque reigned. Their ancestors erected vast forts of earth, thus
managing to hold their own against the invaders, so long as their
slaves remained loyal. But at last these also rose in revolt, and,
when all supplies had been cut off, the hopeless remnant of defenders
fell back down the broad river, bearing with them much of their most
valued treasure, never permitting the sacred flame, which was the gift
of the Sun, to die out upon their altars. Like flies they died in the
preservation of this symbol of their religion; for 'tis their faith,
that if it be kept burning undimmed, there will yet come to them a
great leader from the Sun to restore their lost glories. She described
to me the arts of that past, the many beautiful things the race had
made, those wondro