46 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



description of it was, that it was the neivest known 

 to them, having been discovered but twelve years 

 before, accidentally, on clearing the ground for a 

 milpa, until which time it was as much unknown 

 to them as to the rest of the world. This intelli- 

 gence gave great weight to the consideration which 

 had often suggested itself before, that cities may 

 exist equal to any now known, buried in the woods, 

 overgrown and lost, which will perhaps never be 

 discovered. 



On the walls of this desolate edifice were prints 

 of the " mano Colorado," or red hand. Often as I 

 saw this print, it never failed to interest me. It was 

 the stamp of the living hand ; it always brought me 

 nearer to the builders of these cities, and at times, 

 amid stillness, desolation, and ruin, it seemed as if 

 from behind the curtain that concealed them from 

 view was extended the hand of greeting. These 

 prints were larger than any I had seen. In several 

 places I measured them with my own, opening the 

 fingers to correspond with those on the wall. The 

 Indians said it was the hand of the master of the 

 building. 



The mysterious interest which, in my eyes, always 

 attached to this red hand, has assumed a more defi- 

 nite shape. I have been advised that in Mr. Cat- 

 lin s collection of Indian curiosities, made during a 

 long residence among our North American tribes, 

 was a tent presented to him by the chief of the pow- 

 erful but now extinct race of Mandans, which ex- 



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