Travels amongst American Indians - their ancient earthworks and temples - including a journey in Guatemala, Mexico and Yucatan, and a visit to the ruins of Patinamit, Utatlan, Palenque and Uxmal (14780332321)

Identifier: travelsamongstam00brin (find matches)

Title: Travels amongst American Indians : their ancient earthworks and temples : including a journey in Guatemala, Mexico and Yucatan, and a visit to the ruins of Patinamit, Utatlan, Palenque and Uxmal

Year: 1894 (1890s)

Authors: Brine, Lindesay, 1834-1906

Subjects: Indians -- Antiquities Guatemala -- Antiquities Mexico -- Antiquities North America -- Description and travel

Publisher: London : S. Low, Marston & Company

Contributing Library: Brown University Library

Digitizing Sponsor: Brown University

Text Appearing Before Image:

sed in the mysteries andconclusions of scientific geology, no other explanationcould have been satisfactory. It lies upon a levelspace of land, upon the top of a bluff, commandingmagnificent views over the valleys of the Mississippiand Minnesota. The confluence of these great riverscan be seen, and the steep water-worn cliffs belowthe falls of St. Anthony. Whilst standing upon the promontory, and lookingat this wide f)rospect, I was joined by a priest, whohad been fulfilling his duties at a neighbouringsettlement. We remained near the Spirit rock,*looking at the solitary mass of granite, glittering inthe sunshine, and thought that it was not surprisingthat the Indians believed this strange rock to be themanifestation of a great unknown power, and shouldhave invested with supernatural attributes whatmust have seemed to them to be marvellous. The boulder is polygonal in form, and stands about *The accompanying illustration is drawn from a pencil sketch-made by the author near this spot.

Text Appearing After Image:

Spirit Rock. CONFLnENCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI AND MINNESOTA. SPIRIT ROCK. 119 seven feet high above the ground. In the otherdimensions, it averages a thickness from nine totwelve feet. It is composed chiefly of grey granite,and its weight must exceed seventy tons. Faribaultsaid that, when he was a young man, wanderingbands of Sioux occasionally came to this Spirit rockand encamped near it. They usually stopped abouta week, but sometimes during a whole moon. Itwas their custom during this period to continuallyoffer sacrifices, dance round the stone, and f)aint itwith various colours, red, blue or white. Finally,before taking down their tents, they covered it withtheir best furs or skins, and left them there as pro-pitiatory offerings. The falls of the Mississippi were also worshippedby the Indians, through whose territories that greatriver flowed in its upper course, and the manner inwhich adoration was made to the Power, which wasmanifested in the movements of these cataracts, iswell des

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1894

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