Mystery of the White Indians

The Mystery of the White Indians

A Second Article, Giving the Scientific Explanations That Have Been Suggested to Account for This Tribe of Blond Savages in Eastern Panama [First Article]

By Richard O. Marsh

From The World's Work, April 1925, Vol. XLIX, No. 6. Digitized March 2014 by Doug Frizzle

Golden Yellow Hair and Hazel Eyes

“A canoe came toward us, and in the bow stood a naked savage with a white body, whose yellow hair, falling to his shoulders, was held in order by a gold chaplet two inches wide encircling his head at the brow. He was of medium height, but magnificently developed about the chest and arms; and he stood as erect as a king. Behind him were a girl of ten and a boy of four, and in the stern his wife wielded a steering paddle. Not one of the four gave a start when they came suddenly upon us, and the man and woman did not vary a heart-beat in the rhythm of their strokes as they plied the canoe to pass directly by us. The man eyed us with a truly regal pride and disdain, and passed us by without troubling to turn his head to see whether or not we intended to follow. His whole manner said more plainly than words: ‘I am king here; what are you doing in my domain?’ ”

In his first article, which was published in the World’s Work last month, Mr. Marsh told of the discovery of this tribe of White Indians. His present article provides a more complete account of their physical and mental peculiarities and their significance to the science of human origins.

 

WHEN I brought my three specimen White Indians to the United States, they interested many scientists in the government service at Washington and leading scientists elsewhere, because they led to offer a hope of solving several kinds of knotty problems.

First is the fascinating mystery of the ancient civilizations of the Western Hemisphere that disappeared under the impact with Europeans following the discovery of America by Columbus. Cortez found Mexico flourishing under Montezuma, with a highly organized political life, well-developed arts in precious stones and metals and in architecture, a literature of historical records as advanced as that of the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians, and an astronomical science comparable with that of the ancient Egyptians. Pizarro found the Incas of Peru enjoying an equally high civilization, with the additional blessing of a science of medicine as highly developed as any in Europe and in many respects superior for the Incas had originated the use of quinine, a drug of more general value than any in the Caucasian pharmacopoeia.

Within a century after Columbus’s arrival, these great civilizations had crumbled into dust. The Spaniards destroyed the political unity of these countries, killed or dispersed the men of art and learning, and enslaved the peoples in a servitude that made education impossible. The palaces and monuments fell into decay, and in modern times it is doubtful if a score of men exist who could, if they would, decipher the hieroglyphics left by the Mayas of Central America, for example, which by their variety and quantity undoubtedly hold the key to much lost history and science.

The White Indians may include some of these surviving repositories of the wisdom of the ancients, for the traditions of most of the brown Indian tribes on both continents contain the story of a miraculous white prophet who visited their ancestors, bringing with him knowledge of the arts and sciences, and who gave their people stable and wise government and all they know about nature’s laws. Cortez found White Indians in Mexico City, worshipped as superior beings. The Incas were doubtless partly of white blood. The Mayas may have been—it seems likely from the evidence. Could my White Indians belong to one of these favored tribes?

 

NOT OF MONGOLIAN ORIGIN

THE first step toward finding out was, naturally, to study the language. Dr. John P. Harrington, ethnologist of the Smithsonian Institution, and Dr. Paul Vogenitz, translator and language expert of the Post Office Department, undertook this task. The San Blas Indian interpreter, whom I brought also, was the first medium of communication. In a few weeks, the scientists had learned the language themselves. It early appeared that the language was phenomenal, because it was utterly unlike any other Indian tongue in the Western Hemisphere. All other Indians, whatever their dialect, use an agglutinative speech that suggests their Mongolian origin. But the San Blas language—the White Indians and the San Blas use the same—is not Mongolian in structure. On the contrary, it is pure Aryan, and most closely resembles Sanskrit in its syntax.

Now Sanskrit, of course, is the mother of the Aryan tongues, including not only the Greek and Latin and their modern descendent languages such as French and Italian, but also the speech of the prehistoric tribes of northern Europe, from which the Germanic and Scandinavian languages derive. The English language, with its Saxon base and its Norman and Romance superstructure, is, therefore, doubly descended from the Sanskrit. The White Indian tongue is thus more nearly related to the speech of Topeka, Kansas, than it is to the speech of aboriginal Indians who have lived for thousands of years as their neighbors in the Panamanian jungle.

MELODIOUS, NOT GUTTURAL

THE White Indians call their language Tule. It is described by Dr. Harrington as one of the most melodious and smooth sounding tongues in the world. This quality arises chiefly from the fact that no two consonants ever come together in Tule: the words are made up of an alternating flow of consonant and vowel, so that no harsh or guttural or staccato effects mar its melodious beauty. Besides the five vowel sounds and the two semi-vowels W and Y, the language contains only eleven consonant sounds, K, T, Ch, Sh, Ts, S, L, M, N, R, and P, making an alphabet of only eighteen characters in all.

Practically all other Indian languages are guttural, or “agglutinative,” and are consequently harsh by comparison. The Polynesian languages have “choky” or throaty sounds, that make them difficult for a Caucasian to speak. But Tule offers no such difficulties. It is, indeed, probably the easiest of all languages for a Caucasian to learn. The only “tricky” thing about it is this: every sound has two forms, one short and one long. In this way, the number of sounds available for the construction of words is doubled. This device, which is similar to one employed in Finnish, likewise provides the language with sufficient flexibility to furnish the necessary number of roots and affixes to give a rich vocabulary.

The other Indian tongues, of the agglutinative type, build complex words by putting together separate roots and word-elements. The Tule tongue proceeds quite differently: it follows the habit of other analytical languages and invents a distinct new word to express each new idea or to describe each new object.

Perhaps the most curious fact about Tule is that the men and women do not pronounce the language alike. The boys are taught a masculine pronunciation of each word, whereas the girls learn what the scientists have termed a “feminine lisp” for the same word. Thus, where Olo and Chepu, the boys under examination, use the sound Ch, Margarita, the girl, uses Ts. She uses the S sound where they use the masculine Sh, and Y and L where they use K and R. They describe the chieftain as “sakla,” while Margarita calls the word “sayla.” The boys say “chapu” when they mean “white." but Margarita says “tseppi.”

But an even more astonishing development awaited the scientists as they got deeper into the language. At least 2 dozen words turned up in the White Indian vocabulary that are identical in pronunciation and meaning with words that were used by the Norsemen at the time of the Battle of Hastings. Eleventh-century Norwegian in Central America prior to Columbus! The following is a list of these and other surprising words in the San Blas language:

MEANING                 TULE                                            NORSE

IN ENGLISH             WORD                                          WORD

Work                           Arbaedi        Norwegian               Arbeide

Both                            Bogwá          "                                Baade

Yes                              Eye               Anglo-Saxon            Yea

                                    (Ayah)

Music                          Kala              Norwegian               Kole-Kalla

Foot                             Naga             Russian                     Noga

To Throw                    Mette            "                                Metats

Colored                       Parbatti         Indo-Germanic         Parbh

Sack                            Sagi              Norwegian               Saek

Tree                             Sappi            "                                Sappe

To Say                         Soge             German- Icelandic   Sagen (Saga)

Crab                            Suga             Norwegian               Suge

Boat (Hull)                  Ulu               Anglo-Saxon            Hulu

How did the Norse get into the San Blas vocabulary? These words “belong” in these Indians’ language—they are not borrowed nor out of place. They are not modern additions caused by contact with white men, for these Indians, alone all the American tribes, have been able until now to resist the invasions of outsiders and have fiercely maintained the integrity of their race and institutions. Two or three working hypotheses have been advanced to explain the phenomenon.

First of all, it may be that the White Indians are descendants of Norsemen. It is fairly certain that Norse navigators crossed the Atlantic from Iceland to Greenland, and some scientists estimate that they led a migration of as many as one hundred thousand Scandinavians, who settled on the mainland of America, perhaps as much as a thousand years before Columbus. It may ultimately be established that some of these Norse settlers migrated westward along the northern coast of America and became the ancestors of the Blond Eskimos discovered a few ago by Vilhjálmur Stefansson. Others may have followed the Atlantic coastline southward, founding the Mayan civilization of Yucatan (from which that of Mexico was probably derived) and, continuing across the Isthmus of Panama, gone on down the Andes and founded the Incan civilization of Peru.

Remnants of the stragglers from such a migration may be represented by the White Indians, who have lived for centuries in the mountains adjoining the Atlantic shore of the Isthmus, where they would naturally be if they had dropped out of the southward march. The affinity of their language, in syntax and vocabulary, with the Norse language, is one support to this theory. Another support is their assertion (yet to be verified by further explorations that are now in contemplation) that the untouched wilderness of inner Darien contains the ruins of extensive stone cities built by their ancestors and containing hieroglyphic records of their history. If this assertion be true (and personally l have no doubt of it), it may be that among the inhabitants of that region are White Indians who have preserved the knowledge necessary to read these inscriptions. The importance of such a discovery could hardly be overestimated, as it would rival in potential scientific value the rich Mayan remains, which still await anything like complete translation, though enough has been deciphered to assure the experts in that field that these inscriptions contain priceless records of the history and arts of early America.

There is another theory of the origin of the White Indians that holds no less fascinating possibilities before the student of mankind. This theory is that the White Indians are biological “mutations” from the original brown type with which the human race began. To make clear just what this means and how important it may be to science, it is necessary to make a very brief excursion into biology.

Scientists are now pretty well agreed that Darwin’s theory of “the survival of the fittest” describes, not nature’s means for evolving new and higher forms of life, but nature’s sieve, so to speak, to strain out, from new and higher forms, those that can stand the competitive struggle of life. Since Darwin’s day, science has discovered what is probably nature’s method of creating new forms. This method is called “mutation,” and the word describes a phenomenon, frequently observed amongst plants and occasionally in the animal kingdom, whereby an individual of a fixed species suddenly throws off descendants that are strikingly different from the parent and which thereafter “breed true” to their own new characteristics, instead of following the characteristics of their ancestors. Numerous such mutations among garden plants have been observed in the last fifty years, and their authenticity is beyond question. Once these “mutants” appear, the law of survival operates upon them, and only those new forms survive that are adapted to withstand the hardships of the life into which they have been so suddenly and unexpectedly projected.

EMERGENCE OF THE WHITE MAN

MANY scientists believe that the white race is such a mutation from the aboriginal brown species of homo sapiens. Here is where the second theory about the White Indians enters the field of scientific interest. Have we at last an opportunity to see, repeated before our own eyes, the emergence of white men as biological “sports” from a fundamental brown race, the San Blas Indians? Heretofore it has been assumed that the original mutation of this sort transpired in prehistoric times and might never be repeated. But of course what happened once could happen again—as, indeed, in botany it has been known to happen independently in quite remotely separated parts of the world, and more than twice at that. If the San Blas Indians are a segment of the brown race nearing the end of a “life cycle of a species,” it is scientifically quite tenable to believe that they may be throwing off mutated forms, and that the White Indians are the mutants.

Color is lent to this theory by the identity of language and institutions of the two tribes, and their similarity in high intellectual powers by comparison all of their neighbors. If this theory should prove to be correct, it would be of epochal importance to science, for it would demonstrate, in the instance most convincing to the human mind, the truth of evolution as a principle of universal application and of current, continuing force. Scientists, of course, have no doubt upon this point now; but the lay mind has an instinctive aversion to accepting it as applied to the human race. But if cases of its truth in this highest field can be demonstrated before our own eyes, it should convince even the Doubting Thomases.

A WHOLE RACE OF ALBINOES?

THE third theory concerning origin of the White Indians is startling, but it is by no means without great scientific value and interest. This theory holds that they are albinoes. The most striking support of this theory lies in a very curious trait that is manifested by albinoes of other races and is common to them all. This trait is a habit of rolling the eyes and is probably associated with nervous impulses set up in the body of the albino by reasons of the irritation caused to the eyes by the actinic rays which, in normally pigmented eyes, are toned down or strained out before they touch the optic nerves. The White Indians have this trait of rolling the eyes.

On the other hand, they have pigment in the retina and cornea, as most albinoes have not. Instead of the characteristic pink eyes of the usual albino, they have hazel eyes, that is to say, blue pigmentation overlaid with patches of brown. Nevertheless, Dr. James B. Davenport, who is one of the great biologists of our time, believes that the White Indians are albinoes. He finds them unique, however, in their numbers. Nowhere else, he says, has so high a percentage of a population been albino—in this case so numerous as to amount to a quasi-race. And if, as he believes, they are an albino side-line of the San Blas Indians, they indicate an extraordinarily interesting field of scientific study of that tribe itself, offering the most favorable opportunity to learn more about a phenomenon of biology that is extremely helpful to that science. Controlled study of albinism in rats and mice and rabbits has been one of the most useful instruments that science has had in working out the laws of heredity, for this characteristic lends itself to positive experimentation capable of easy mathematical analysis. Of how much greater interest and value would it be to follow the corresponding results working out among human beings in the normal course of everyday living.

A fourth explanation of the possible cause of the white color of these Indians been advanced by Major Cuthbert Christy, of England, a specialist in tropical diseases, who thinks it may arise from a pathological physiologic condition that prevents the normal processes of pigmentation from taking place within their bodies.

These four theories cover what seem to be all the possible solutions to the puzzle. Of course I make no pretensions to scientific knowledge, and would not expect my opinion to weigh with those of any of the men quoted above; but speaking purely as a layman whose only qualifications are many years of close contact with aboriginal peoples in many parts of the world, I have from the first felt strongly that the true explanation lies either in heredity from ancient whites who once settled in America, or in biological mutation of white offspring from brown parents. Whatever the final conclusion of the scientists may be, I shall feel that my work in tracing these people to their home land and bringing them to the attention of the world has been worthwhile, especially when a scientist of such distinction as Dr. Ales Hrdlicka says that “the phenomenon deserves a thorough investigation, and Mr. Marsh deserves the thanks of American and British anthropologists for having brought to their attention a subject of considerable scientific interest and importance.”

One curious misapprehension about the San Blas Indians early gained newspaper currency. Soon after I brought the three White children and the five brown San Blas to America, some of the anthropologists who examined them noticed that the children’s heads were larger and of a  different shape from those of the dark adults. The anthropologists asked the Indians a question which the Indians misunderstood, and before the misunderstanding was cleared up and the correct answer given the story appeared in the papers that the brown San Blas Indians massage their children’s heads in infancy, with the result that they are relatively dwarfed and square when grown. A statement which I then gave to the papers corrects this misapprehension. In it I said:

(1)           The difference in size and shape between the skulls of the blond Indians and those of the standard San Blas has been attributed to artificial deformation of those of the dark infants, while those of the white infants are natural. This is wholly untrue. The San Blas Indians do not massage nor in any way alter the heads of their children. The rounder, broader, and higher crania of the whites cannot be explained in that way.

(2)           The timid demeanor of the children and the behavior of their eyes when under inspection by strangers is misleading. They are not mentally deficient or abnormal in any way. On the contrary, they are unusually alert and keen, with excellent memory. They are rapidly learning English.

(3)           The blond Indians do not spring from the normal San Blas Indians but from the larger and more robust type, which occupy the hills back from the coast.

To make clearer the full force of this statement, I should perhaps repeat the exact facts about the eight Indians I brought to America. Two were White Indian boys, aged ten and fourteen years. The other White Indian was Margarita, a girl of fourteen. Two of the five brown San Blas were Margarita's father and mother. This brown mother's mother (that is, Margarita’s maternal grandmother) was a White Indian. Margarita is one of seven children of the same parents, of whom five were white and two were dark—suggesting at once to biologists that here was a typical example of Mendelian inheritance, in which the “recessive” whiteness disappeared in Margarita’s mother but reappeared in five of her children.

Margarita and her family are representatives of a type of larger frame, larger heads, and more vigorous bodies than are characteristic of the ordinary brown San Blas. I feel sure that the blond strain will be found limited to this type, which lives inland from the San Blas coast. These characteristics all relate the White Indians to the Caucasian type, and fit perfectly into the logic of the theory that they are examples of the mutation process by which the Caucasian gained his greater stature and bigger brain than his brown progenitors possessed. The larger brain is not merely a matter of physical bulk; it is the source of higher intellectual powers as well.

The superior intelligence of these Indians over their neighbors, their more complex and flexible language, their fuller vocabulary, their more humane social customs, their unique and very interesting music, their strict moral code, their well-developed system of law, and their highly organized structure of government, which is both feudal, federal, and constitutional, all evidence their exceptional intellectual capacity. These advanced powers and achievements are characteristic of the evolutionary progress of man.

If scientists finally agree that the White Indians are true examples of the process of mutation, we shall be able not only to see that biological evolution at work, but also to study the origins of our own civilization in the lives of people of our own day.

° ° °

As this article goes to press, an interesting cable has come from Mr. Marsh, who is now in Darien on his second expedition. His cable is dated at Colon, and says in part: “Dr. Harris now on San Blas coast, going into interior with us. Has already studied many White Indians. Harris says positively not albinoes. Offers two theories: first, most probable, Darien Indians formerly extensively mixed with unknown prehistoric white race; second, Darien Indians abnormally susceptible to frequent mutation from brown to white.” As Dr. Reginald Harris, referred to in this cable, is the director of the Long Island Biological Association at Cold Spring Harbor, New York, and a biologist of high repute, his opinion is an interesting and important contribution to the discussion of the origin of the White Indians.

Text from the illustrations:

ARTS OF THE SAN BLAS INDIANS The woman is mending a fish trap and the man at the water’s edge is working on his nets.

ORIGINS OF THE WHITE INDIANS From such mothers as these brown San Blas Indians the larger, White Indians may be derived. The possible explanations are discussed in the accompanying text.

A SAN BLAS VILLAGE The warlike inhabitants of the coast have been able to defend it against inroads by outsiders, and have provided a screen for the White Indians who live in the interior and were unknown till the Marsh expedition succeeded in placating the brown tribes.

SAN BLAS MOTHER AND CHILD

OLD AND NEW STYLES The girl at the right is clad in the conservative native costume of the San Blas women. The other girl wears the skirt that has come in with modern contacts with the world. The blouses are of native weave, while the skirt is made of cloth bought from the traders. The leg and arm bands and the arm rings are purely feminine adornments.

GEOMETRY IN VILLAGE PLANNING Both the San Blas and the White Indians lay out their villages upon a geometrical plan, evidencing a higher intelligence and civilization than other Indians, who build casually according to “the lay of the land.”

ALL STAGES OF SAN BLAS DRESS The woman’s skirt and the men’s hats and shirts are modern innovations. The traditional custom of San Blas attire is expressed in the old nursery rhyme, “Shoe the horse and shoe the mare, and let the little colt go bare.”

A "COMMUNITY HOUSE” IN DARIEN These tribal meeting places are frequently built on hillsides in tiers, so that at a distance they give the effect of a three-story building.

PART OF THE SAN BLAS “NAVY” These very heavy but seaworthy canoes are hollowed out of single logs, and are perfectly adapted to navigation among the islands and keys of the San Blas Coast.

FEMININE FINERY The blouses worn by these San Blas girls are of ancient origin and of great scientific interest. Though the patterns are symmetrical in mass, close scrutiny reveals that they are in no two places alike in detail. They are hieroglyphics whose origin and meaning have been forgotten, though some archaeologists believe they are nursery legends like our own “Mother Goose".

A PARADISE FOR CHILDREN This old San Blas chieftain refused to pose for his photograph until his grandchildren could be summoned to stand beside him. Mr. Marsh declares he never saw a child or a woman on the San Blas Coast who did not look happy.

A "STILL" OF A "MOVIE" OPERATOR  Mr. Charles Charlton, in a San Blas shelter. He made the motion pictures of the life of the brown and white Indians of the Darien region of Panama.

THE SAN BLAS COAST  The mountains coming down to the sea, the numerous islands, and the heavy tropical growth have all fostered the Indians’ ambition to keep strangers out of their sanctuary.

A number of people have asked for these two Richard Marsh stories on the Blond (or White) Indians, so I have now collected them both for the blog.

I believe that in the final analysis these people do have a form of albinism similar two piebald deer—I could be wrong. Certainly from Richard Marsh's writing we can see why there was a lot of excitement at that time. His book is prohibitively expensive now.

Verrill was familiar with the White Kuna as he wrote in 'Hunting the White Indians' in 1925.

The Pompeii of Ancient America

The Pompeii of Ancient America

A Vast Settlement Destroyed Centuries Before Christ

A. HYATT VERRILL

From The World’s Work, January 1927. Digitized by Doug Frizzle, January 2011.

Note: The National Museum of Natural History archives contains a few of the original Verrill drawings which are pictured in black and white images in this story. They have kindly given me permission to reproduce them.

We believe that this article stands unique among accounts of modern archaeological discoveries. It is the story of an American city which flourished and probably was destroyed by a volcano centuries before Pompeii existed. We are finding that America is not so young, after all. Moreover, the veteran explorer for the Museum of the American Indian who discovered this ancient city and who writes this article believes that he has made another most interesting discovery—that steel implements were used in America centuries ago—a theory which was scoffed at until iron was found in King Tut-Ankh-Amon's tomb in Egypt, dating back to about 1350 B. C.

ALTHOUGH the prehistoric graves or guacas of Panama have been known since the time of the Spanish Conquest, and have yielded countless thousands of pieces of pottery and stone artifacts and innumer­able gold ornaments, yet, strange as it may seem, no scientific investigation of these archaeological remains has ever been undertaken until the last year. The results of the first six months' work, carried on by the author in the interests of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, of New York, have proved absolutely astounding, wholly unexpected, and of such scientific value and interest that, as one of our foremost authorities phrased it, the discoveries have "written a new history of Central American archaeology."

An entirely new and hitherto undreamed of culture has been revealed, and although a vast amount of research, study, and comparative investigation must be made, and intensive field work carried on for several years before definite conclusions can be established regarding the archaeological status and relationship of this new culture, yet, from the material already obtained, it is possible to establish many facts which are almost as fascinatingly interesting to the layman as to the scientist.

Like many another important discovery, the existence of these remains was revealed by accident. In 1924, while I was collecting ethnological specimens among the Coclé Indians, a few pieces of prehistoric pottery were brought to me by the natives. These were strikingly different from anything ever found before in Panama. Every object was absolutely unique and indicated the existence of a wholly unknown and unsuspected culture in the district. But even then, neither Mr. Heye, Professor Saville, nor myself had the slightest conception of the truly remarkable results, or the vast extent of the remains, which my investigations of the past year were destined to reveal.

The district where investigations have been conducted is a level alluvial plain or llano lying between the Pacific Coast and the Cordillera, a district cut by many streams and several good-sized rivers, broken by occasional small hills or knolls, and, with the exception of the river bottom lands, almost sterile and wholly unfit for agriculture. It is, therefore, rather remarkable that a teeming, vast population should have occupied this territory, especially as the prehistoric denizens of the area were evidently preeminently agricultural. the only explanation is that in the days when the prehistoric people dwelt here conditions were very different from the present. During the rainy months the district is transformed into a veritable swamp, the rivers overflowing their banks and flooding the llanos, while during the dry months the plains become baked, the streams disappear or dwindle to mere rills and mud holes, the vegetation dies, and the district is transformed into a parched, almost desert country, so that excavatory work is practicable only during a few months of the year.

Standing boldly from the inland edge of the llanos towers the volcano of Guacamayo. The broken-down crater contains vast sulphur deposits and the mountain still rumbles and emits steam and hot water from its fumaroles. There is every evidence that, at no very distant date, Guacamayo was in violent eruption and covered what had hitherto been a fertile land with ashes and mud which have not yet had time to decompose thoroughly and form arable soil.

My statement that the area supported a vast and teeming population is based on several obvious facts. First, the immense number of burials, ceremonial monuments, village sites, and mounds. Second, the incredible number of potsherds, stone artifacts, and other manufactured articles scattered over an immense area. Third, the enormous size and great number of stone stelai, monuments, etc., which could have been moved and erected only by thousands of hands. The remains of this newly discovered culture have already been found over an area approximately fifty miles in length and ten to twelve miles in width, or roughly about five hundred square miles. By this I do not mean that every square mile of the immense area is covered with remains, but over this entire area, remains of the same prehistoric race occur, sometimes widely separated, at other times thickly covering hundreds of acres. Among the remains are kitchen middens, village sites, burials, ceremonial or temple sites, and mounds. In places, along some of the rivers, village sites, marked by potsherds and stone artifacts, extend for miles. In other places burials are so numerous that it is practically impossible to dig anywhere over an area of several acres without disclosing a grave.

Ceremonial monuments of stone are numerous and there are hundreds of low, rounded mounds where excavations yield innumerable potsherds and stone implements. But by far the most interesting and extensive remains, the spot which so far has yielded the finest and most surprising results, and the nucleus of the whole culture is a huge temple or ceremonial site which may well be called the "Temple of a Thousand Idols." Lying between the Rio Grande and the Rio Carlo, the remains of this great prehistoric place of worship cover a level plain of more than one hundred acres, although only a small portion—about ten acres—has been cleared of jungle and partly excavated. This portion, however, appears to be the most interesting and important part of the whole, the central and probably most sacred portion.

Despite the jungle, my first visit to the temple site revealed enough to convince me that the place was a veritable treasure trove of archaeology. Scattered here and there were immense squared monoliths, some prone and half-buried in the soil, others erect and projecting several feet above the earth, and still others sagging drunkenly to one side. Clearing of a portion of the area revealed rows of immense stone phallic columns arranged in the form of an almost geometrically perfect quadrangle, with rows of monoliths running due east and west and north and south. At the northern edge of the cleared area stood a row of thirty-one phallic columns of basaltic rock spaced from eight to twelve feet apart and extend­ing due east and west. One hundred feet east of these and one hundred feel south were two immense basaltic columns, both of which had broken off at the surface of the earth and had fallen to one side. One hundred and fifty feet south of these, and running due north and south, was a row of twenty-seven phallic monuments, many of which had fallen, while others had sagged to one side. Two hundred and fifty feet south of these, and directly in line with them, were two more immense columns nearly three feet square, and both of which had broken off and fallen. Three hundred feet west of these was a semicircular row of small columns twenty-five in number. Three hundred feet north of these and three hundred and fifty feet from the first row of thirty-one columns was a row of twenty-one columns running north and south, two of which were sculptured.

Thus the three rows of phallic monuments, with the two corner groups, formed a quadrangle approximately three hundred by seven hundred feet in area. This in itself was a surprising discovery and spoke eloquently of the herculean labor of the people who had erected the huge stone columns. At that time, however, only fractional portions of the monoliths were visible, and as work progressed and new wonders and surprising discoveries were brought to light I became more and more impressed by the immensity of the work the prehistoric race had undertaken.

Many of the columns were from fifteen to eighteen feet in length and from fifteen to thirty inches square. With few exceptions all had been hand-tooled to oval, rectangular, pentagonal, or octagonal section, and many had been worked to cylindrical forms almost as true and perfect as if turned on a lathe. No stone of the same character existed near the site, and later investigations revealed the quarry on a basaltic hill several miles distant, on the farther side of a large river. To have quarried and cut these huge stone columns—even though in the rough they were merely natural cleavages of basalt—to have transported them overland for miles, to have ferried them across the river seemed an almost superhuman feat.

To accomplish the same results with modern devices and equipment would be no mean undertaking and would require months of labor, and yet the primitive men who cut and dragged the columns to this long-buried place of worship must have been limited to hand labor, to ropes and perhaps rollers, to the crudest of tools. Even though thousands toiled and labored, years, decades, perhaps centuries, must have been required to transport the hundreds of great monoliths from the distant quarry to the temple, and one marvels at the sublime faith, the sincerity, the belief in their gods that led these ancient people to this task; that kept them at it month after month, year after year, until their temple was complete.

At times, too, their task must have seemed almost hopeless. Many of the columns were cracked or broken in transit and still lie where they were discarded by the wayside. But even after the great stones were safely brought to their destination the work was only begun. Even the smaller columns are so heavy that eight or ten husky peons found it difficult to lift or move them, and we can scarcely conceive how or by what means the forgotten builders of the temple raised the immense monoliths to a perpendicular position and secured them firmly in place to form the straight rows of monuments that still stand.

But even more remarkable, more interesting, and necessitating even more in­explicable labor, were the innumerable stone idols which the excavations brought to light. These, like the columns, were arranged in regular rows running north and south, and, in every case, with the faces toward the east. To the east of the group of twenty-seven columns were two rows of these images. Six feet west of the same row of columns was a second line of idols mainly of animal forms. Six feet west of these was a row of idols of human forms. Thirty feet west of these and twelve feet from the sculptured columns was another line of human figures, and six feet west of these, and equidistant from the sculptured columns, was still another row of animal forms.

Originally, it was evident, these idols had been fairly evenly spaced, about six feet apart, but through countless centuries many had fallen and were out of line, others had sagged far to one side, many were broken and their various fragments scattered, while all which had been exposed above the surface of the earth had been broken off or destroyed. Buried under many feet of soil in the very center of the area, and midway between the inner rows of idols was a great stone column more than fifteen feet in length and two feet square, and carefully cut and tooled. The lower portion still stood firmly perpendicular, but the upper portion had been broken in three places, and the three sections were widely separated.

Standing at this central column, at whose base were four idols—one a man, another a woman and child, another a jaguar, and the fourth a bird—one quickly grasped the ground plan of the entire site, for the idols and columns had been so placed and spaced as to form radiating lines with the central column as a nucleus, probably symbolizing the sun. At the base of this central column, and at the base of every other column and idol, were large stones or river boulders of quartz or jasper, in nearly every case artificially smoothed and flattened on the upper side, and which evidently served the dual purpose of sacrificial altars and supports to the columns or idols. At the extreme northern end of one row of idols the stone at the base was of huge size and, in addition to being cut and smoothed on the faces, was elaborately sculptured with human figures and conventional designs about the circumference. In the same position on the neighboring row of images was a still larger stone slightly hollowed out on one surface and with the raised edge beautifully carved to represent an alligator or lizard.

Americans Worshipped Here Before the Trojan War

From four to twelve feet of soil have accumulated during the years since the temple was in use, an accumulation that bespeaks an enormous period of time, for while we may have no definite data as to the rate of deposit in the locality we can form some idea of the ages that must have passed since the prehistoric race first worshipped and offered sacrifices at this spot. We know that the temple has not been in use since the arrival of Europeans, and hence the thin layer of mold that covers the last or uppermost potsherds must represent the debris of at least four hundred years. Of course fires have destroyed much of the decaying vegetation which accumulated on the surface, but even if we allow for 50 per cent, destroyed annually in this way the accumu­lation would not have exceeded two or three inches in a century. At this rate it would require four hundred years to deposit a foot of soil, and an accumulation of ten feet would mean that some four thousand years have passed since the first monuments and idols were erected. I say "since the first monuments," for it is evident that the temple was not built in a year or in a century, but in all probability was formed little by little through perhaps thousands of years. It has been stated that the Mayas erected a stele every twenty years, and if the denizens of Coclé followed the same system, then their temple must have been in use for at least two thousand years. Of course, this is merely theory, but there is undeniable proof that this site was in use for a very long period.

Finally, we have the quality and workmanship displayed on stone work and potsherds as corroborative evidence. The more recent idols are wonderful examples of sculpture, often cut from the hardest rock, beautifully finished, true in form, and of large size—one or two human figures being nearly life size and with the pedestals more than seven feet in length. But in certain places where the idols are the most deeply buried they are of the crudest, most primitive workmanship, and of archaic type, and are so badly decomposed as to be almost unrecognizable. The same evolution or transition is shown in the ceramic ware. That in the lower stratas and about the archaic figures is, with few exceptions, of a coarse, plain or rudely decorated character with painted designs, incised designs, or designs in poorly exe­cuted appliquéd relief. But by far the greater portion of the potsherds and vessels, and those in the upper strata, are marvelous in form, design, coloring, and decorations.

Indeed, the beauty and unique characters of this pottery are perhaps the most surprising and interesting features of the discoveries. One has only to glance at the specimens to realize to what a high degree of perfection the ceramic art had been carried by these ancient people of Coclé. Many pieces might well have come from Mexico, others are remarkably similar to specimens from Ecuador and Peru, while by far the greater portion are wholly distinct from anything hitherto known, and represent a culture peculiar to the locality. Many of the forms represent conventionalized birds, animals, or human beings; others are unquestionably portrait vessels similar to those so common in Peru, and many are figurines of birds, quadrupeds, and human beings. Occasionally square or rectangular forms occur, while plates, bowls, saucers, and plaques are very numerous.

Several teapot-like jars with spout and handle have been secured, graceful vases and incense burners have been found, some with aromatic gum still within them; while among the most unusual pieces are many strange, flat, frying-pan-like utensils with three short legs and a fish-tail-shaped handle, perhaps used for baking tortillas. By far the greater number of pieces are graceful urn, jar, and carafe-shaped vessels so evenly and perfectly turned that it seems impossible that they could have been produced without the aid of a potter's wheel. Another peculiarity of the Coclé pottery is the large percentage of vessels with annu­lar bases, but by far the most strik­ing features of the ceramics of the district are the coloring and decorative designs. The most typical form of decoration is the scroll, which is used in endless forms and combinations, and is frequently cleverly wrought into easily recognized animal, insect, bird, and human forms.

Ornaments are very scarce. The few obtained are clay ear plugs, a nose-ring, labrets of some black material, and beads of earthenware and stone. Perhaps, however, the clay figurines and miniature stone effigies might be classed as ornaments. Many of the clay figurines are made on a sand mold and are hollow with a thin shell. Oddly enough, no gold or copper objects have been found, although the race was evidently familiar with gold and were experts at working the metal, for a nose-ring of bloodstone beautifully cut and polished is capped at the extremities with wonderfully wrought and fitted gold tips.

Comparing the wonderful pottery and the splendid stone carving with the crude, almost unrecognizable stone implements and weapons, one finds it hard to be­lieve that both could have been produced by the same people. The stone tools and weapons are almost wholly of a most primitive, almost Chellan, type, often merely chunks of stone slightly chipped or ham­mered into rude form. Apparently, however, the race was improving in the art of making stone implements, for now and then axes, chisels, celts, etc., are found which are fairly well shaped and have been rubbed to a smooth surface, still fewer have been secured which were really beautifully made, and several bodkin and chisel-like implements are truly remarkable examples of workmanship. But not a single really fine spear or arrow head has been found. This may be explained on the supposition that the race was peaceful and agricultural and was not given to warfare or the chase, but this would not account for the poor quality of the majority of the stone implements.

It seems almost preposterous to believe that a race which had developed stone sculpture to such a high degree should not have equally developed stone implements if, according to the generally accepted theory, the prehistoric artisans depended upon stone tools. To have cut out and sculptured a huge stone block into the form of a human figure of the character found at the temple site would have required a lifetime. In order to determine what could be done by the use of stone implements, I selected several dozen of the best and, marking a simple design on one of the softer stone columns, instructed three of the native laborers to chip out the pattern with the stone tools. Although they worked industriously for several days, and wore out most of the tools, they made scarcely any impression on the column. When they had finished no one ignorant of their labor would have dreamed that there had been any attempt made to sculpture the stone.

I am thoroughly convinced that these people, as well as many other prehistoric races, possessed iron or steel tools, and I do not know of a single argument or fact to disprove this. The fact that no iron or steel tools have ever been found proves nothing. Iron is the most perishable of metals, and, except under most unusual or peculiar conditions, all traces of small iron or steel tools would disappear completely in a few centuries. No doubt archaeologists will scoff at this theory and pooh-pooh the idea, but scientists as well as laymen have a habit of scoffing at every theory until proof is forthcoming to place them in the wrong.

The discovery of a steel or tempered iron dagger in King Tut-Ankh-Amon's coffin is a case in point. Despite hundreds, thousands, of ancient Egyptian mummies which have been disinterred, this was the first iron weapon found. We must now admit that the Egyptians of King Tut's time used hardened iron or steel and yet until definite proof of this was forthcoming archaeologists would not have admitted the possibility. If, in a country like Egypt, where even flowers are perfectly preserved in burials thousands of years old, only one iron implement has been discovered, what chances of finding iron tools would we have in a tropical land, where burials were in the earth?

Indeed, less than two years ago, I was scoffed at for suggesting that an entirely new and unknown culture of great antiquity had existed in Panama, but we now have undeniable proofs of the fact. Moreover, at a depth of five and one half feet below the surface, at the temple site, among broken pottery and embedded in charcoal, I found a steel or hardened iron implement. The greater portion is almost completely destroyed by corrosion, but the chisel-shaped end is in good condition. It is so hard that it is scarcely touched by a file and will scratch glass, and with such an implement it would be a simple manner to cut and carve the hardest stone.

No doubt many will discredit this, or will claim that the implement is modern and found its way beneath the surface via some hole or crevice, or will claim that some junk-collecting snake or centipede carried the object to its resting place in a compact mass of semi-fossilized carbon packed in the midst of broken prehistoric pottery. But how can they explain the evidence of tool marks on much of the stone work? Not the irregular indentations which might, and very likely were, made by pecking with a stone hammer, but clearly cut delicate lines and chisel marks. However, we shall leave this for the archae­ological experts to decide, for, to the average man, the stonework and idols are far more interesting than the question of how they were made.

Among the idols or images are both human and animal forms, as I have before mentioned, and while the sculptured animals vary greatly in treatment and other details the human figures bear a striking similarity. Some, to be sure, are better made than others; some are better proportioned and more evidently portrait figures; but in all, the features, the headdresses, and the general type are almost identical. One figure shows an amulet or charm suspended by a cord about the neck; another represents a man with hand stroking or holding a rectangular object below the chin which is strikingly like the beard so typical of Assyrian sculptures but which might be intended for a flute, and while some figures are seated others are squatting or standing erect.

As a rule the erect figures are shown with one hand on the breast and the other on the abdomen, but in others the hands are at the sides or rest on the knees. They vary from practically life size to miniatures a few inches in length, but in no case is there any indication of a single scrap of clothing. Not even a G string or breech cloth is shown, which would seem to indicate that these people wore no gar­ments, although the presence of clay spindle weights proves that they used cotton, if not as cloth at least as thread or twine.

Among the female figures is one representing a mother with child on her back; one figure is seated on a throne-like chair supported by human figures; another is seated upon a coiled serpent, and another surmounts a crocodile and dancing human figures. The crocodile appears frequently, as does the owl, and was perhaps considered sacred, but it is no commoner than the jaguar, which is shown by itself, with a human being in its mouth and with one paw resting on a prone human being. Armadillos and anteaters are represented, as well as birds, turtles, lizards, and monkeys, and one very fine piece shows a kinkajou poised on the top of a tree and licking up honey with its tongue.

But perhaps the most interesting and remarkable find of all was a large sculptured stone figure thoroughly elephantine in form and detail. Hitherto the so-called "elephants" found in prehistoric (and modern) American ceramics and stone work have been generally accepted as conventionalized ant bears or tapirs with exaggerated snouts. But in this case it is scarcely possible to account for the creature on this hypothesis. Not only is the body elephantine, but the large leaf-like ears could belong to no other known creature, while the hind knees bend forward, a character peculiar to the elephant. It is difficult to believe that any man unfamiliar with the elephant could have conventionalized a tapir or ant bear to the extent of adding broad fan-shaped ears and legs bending forward, while, as a final touch, the creature is represented carrying a load or burden upon its back!

Why, it may be asked, did the denizens of these villages and the worshippers of the temple disappear? What destroyed the teeming population so completely that no descendants have been left, that no traditions nor records have remained to tell us who they were or whence they came?

The answer, I think, is simple. Only by the theory of a severe, a most destructive series of earthquakes and an accompany­ing volcanic eruption can we account for the condition of the ruins and remains. Nothing but an earthquake could have tossed the great stone columns and idols about. By no other means could these have been broken and the pieces thrown in various directions for many feet. In many cases the largest stone columns are broken squarely off, the bases remaining firmly fixed and perpendicular, while the upper portions are thrown to one side. In many cases, too, the largest idols are found turned end for end, with the base of the pedestral uppermost and, in the case of the central column at the temple, the apex close to the base, while the portions between have been thrown or moved bodily for from twenty to forty feet to either side. Moreover, in many places a thin layer of volcanic ash covers the potsherds at the village sites and the burials, and in one spot I obtained some entire vessels and many potsherds from under a layer of ash more than nine feet thick, which had evidently been hot when deposited, as it is burned or cemented firmly to the pottery.

To my mind, it is evident that these prehistoric people were driven out and largely annihilated by an eruption of Guacamayo volcano. Such an eruption would most certainly have been accom­panied by terrific earthquakes, and we can imagine the terror-stricken people, those who escaped the scalding mud and red hot ashes of the eruption, rushing madly from their homes to their temple. We can picture them striving to placate their gods by sacrifices, by the wholesale destruction of their possessions about the stone monuments and the stone idols. And we can visualize their utter despair as the awful tremors shook the very earth and the ground rose and fell and the sacred idols and great stone columns were broken and thrown down.

Perchance every human being in the district was destroyed by the blasting heat, the blinding dust, and the noxious gasses emitted by the volcano barely six miles distant. Or again, perhaps the survivors, finding that even their gods were powerless to aid them and were being destroyed, sought refuge in flight, and in canoes and afoot rushed from the accursed spot, and, scattered far and wide, reverted to primitive savages or, mingling with other races, lost their identity while yet influencing the culture of their neighbors by the arts they had acquired in Coclé.

But whatever the ultimate fate of the people, there can be little doubt that the frowning volcano at the edge of the plain was the cause of the destruction of a vast population whose only records are the truly remarkable ceramics and stone work that have endured through countless centuries.

For colour images of some of these pictures go here.