. Young folks library . Son, your earthly hard-ships and sufferings are over. We are but mortal, andit has pleased the Lord to call you to himself. We hadthe privilege of being intimately acquainted with you;but now you share the abode ofthe gods, whither we shall all fol-low, for such is the destiny ofman. The place is large enoughto receive every one ; but althoughall are bound for the gloomybourn, none ever return. Thenfollowed the speech addressed tothe nearest kinsman of the dead : Toltec Sepulchral 0 son, cheer up; eat, drink, and Stone. let not your mind be cast down. Against the divine
. Young folks library . Son, your earthly hard-ships and sufferings are over. We are but mortal, andit has pleased the Lord to call you to himself. We hadthe privilege of being intimately acquainted with you;but now you share the abode ofthe gods, whither we shall all fol-low, for such is the destiny ofman. The place is large enoughto receive every one ; but althoughall are bound for the gloomybourn, none ever return. Thenfollowed the speech addressed tothe nearest kinsman of the dead : Toltec Sepulchral 0 son, cheer up; eat, drink, and Stone. let not your mind be cast down. Against the divinefiat who can contend ? This is not of mans doing; itis the Lords. Take comfort to bear up against theevils of daily life; for who is able to add a day, anhour, to his existence? Cheer up, therefore, as becomesa man. But to return to our tombstones. They are bothalike, being about five feet high, three feet five inchesbroad, and six inches and a half thick. The upper sideis smooth, the lower has some carving in the shape. 36 A Book of Famous Explorers of a cross, four big tears or drops of water, and apointed tongue in the centre, which, starting from thebottom of the slab, runs up in a line parallel to thedrops. Knowing how general was the worship of Tlalocamong the Indians I conjectured this had been a monu-ment to the god of rain, to render him propitious tothe dead; a view shared and enlarged upon by in a paper read before the Academic des Sciencesin November, 1882; and that I should be in accordwith the eminent specialist on American antiquities isa circumstance to make me proud. I may add thatthe carving of this slab is similar to that of the crosson the famous hasso-rilievo at Palenque; so that theprobability of the two monuments having been erectedto the god of rain is much strength-ened thereby. As our slabs are far more archaicthan those at Palenque, we thinkwe are justified in calling themearlier in time — the parent sam-ples of the later ones. Nor is ourass
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