Ancient Chinese account of the Grand Canyon, or course of the Colorado

by Alexander McAllan

CAVE DWELLINGS IN THE GRAND CANYON.

It will be noticed that the 13th term in our list is hueh, which stands for cave habitation. Are such to be seen in our Canyon?

Numerous tung (see 12th term,) in the shape of caves or holes are undoubtedly there, but in addition the old account notices hueh. Have such been found?

One explorer says: "Even more remarkable than the stupendous walls which confine the Colorado river, are the ruined cave habitations which are to be seen along the lofty and inaccessible ledges, in which a vanished race long years ago evidently sought refuge from their enemies.... They were reached by very narrow, precipitous, and devious paths, and being extremely difficult to attain by the occupants themselves, presented an impregnable front to invaders" (n. 57.)

Explorers decending into the ta-hoh come forth to-day with accounts of gardens and irrigating streams, pictured cliffs, and cave dwellings,—in complete agreement with the ancient record.

Following the term hueh we find a 14th, called han, which stands for dry, heated air; too dry; parched as by drought; crisp.

Is there han, or dry heated air down in the Canyon?

One visitor entered the Grand Canyon "in the morning while darkness yet covered the scene, but even then it was oppressively hot, and as the sun got higher I felt as though I had been thrust into a dutch oven and the mouth stopped up.... But, despite the terrible heat ... I was compelled to wonder and admire ... the gorgeous cliffs and rock walls showing all those varied colorings," etc. (n. 58).

It was the "terrible heat" which compelled the Ancients to resort to irrigation in order to raise some food for themselves and little ones. Destitute of water, the soil is scorched and barren.

It is said that "there are about 700 square miles of arable land between the mouth of the Gila and the 35th parallel of N. latitude," along the Colorado. And "in the valley" of this stream, where it is joined by the Gila, "are traces of ancient irrigating canals, which show that it has once been cultivated." And along the connected Gila are irrigating works of remarkable construction and undoubted antiquity—antedating the arrival of the Spaniards by centuries.

Where the soil is actually irrigated or cultivated the response of nature is most gratifying and encouraging. We learn with regard to the Colorado valley, that "portions are cultivated by the numerous tribes of Indians who live along its banks, affording them an abundance of wheat, maize, beans, melons, squashes," etc. (n. 59).

Such ground would be well worthy of attention; but the attitude of "the numerous tribes of Indians" along the Colorado might interfere with the plans of newcomers and even compel the latter to live in caves or on ledges easily defended. And it is certain that soil insufficiently watered presents a distressingly sterile aspect in the neighborhood of the Colorado.

One traveler, already quoted, says with regard to a wide section, that "the whole scene presented the most perfect picture of desolation I have ever beheld, as if some Sirocco had passed over the land, withering and scorching everything to crispness" (n. 60.)

Notice this word "crispness" used by our author. Turned into Chinese it becomes han (crisp)—the very term applied in the ancient record to the condition of the soil unwatered within the Canyon. It is curious how the old and new visitors agree in their descriptions of the interior of the mighty gorge, where vegetation is withered or dead.

Scorched and Crisp! say the Ancients.

Scorched and Crisp! say the Moderns.

The Canyon should be hot, and one of our own visitors says: "The sun shone directly up the Canyon, and the glare reflected from the walls made the heat intolerable (n. 61.)

The word han has, unfortunately enough, a perfect right to appear in the old record. Following it we find additional terms:

15. A compound character consisting of the signs for "Sun" (Jih) and "People" (Min.)

16. lung ("used for nagas or snake gods;" "a dragon," "imperial." "It is often used for a man.")

17. chuh ("the illumination of torches; a candle; a light; to give or shed light upon, to illumine")

The statement seems to teach that the Sun People—the men—were using torches to illumine the depth of the hot Canyon.

We have already been informed that a ju or suckling, who was yet a supreme King (like perhaps the last Chinese Emperor of the Manchu dynasty, in 1912 A. D.) and a Child of the Sun, was down in the abyss, so we are prepared to hear that his subjects—some Sun people—were down there too.

Of course, for the greater part of the twenty-four hours, the darkness, particularly in the cave dwellings should be most intense. One visitor, quoted already, tells of "darkness thicker than that of Egypt." Such gloom should be particularly and painfully felt by "Sun People," and we are not surprised to find that they made use of torches or artificial lights. Singularly enough, the chasm, as though remorsefully conscious of the blackness of its character, produces no end of dried-up vegetable stems or stalks fit to be ignited and used as firebrands. These it places convenient to your hand, as though to invite inspection.

Indians today are in the habit of using such torches. We are informed that "the custom still prevails among them of carrying a firebrand," which was noticed by Spanish explorers in the 16th Century, "and induced those discoverers to give to the river the name of Rio del Tizon" (n. 62).

It will be noticed that the ancient Chinese account connects lights, or "an illumination of Torches" (chuh), with the very stream which the Spaniards of a later age, and of their own accord christened the Rio del Tizon.

A Torch-lighted stream, say the Chinese.

A Torch-lighted stream, say the Spaniards.

The author or explorer last quoted says with reference to Indians dwelling on the banks of the Colorado, that "the custom still prevails among them of carrying a firebrand in the hand in cold weather," which was noticed by the Spaniards.

Of course the flaming brands may well be used in winter to warm those who hold them, but the Ancients who inhabited the cave or cliff houses (which they built and which are now more or less in ruin, according to exposure or original inherent strength) might have used the chuh or torches as lights. These torches are mentioned in connection with excessive heat, and it would be absurd to suppose that the Sun People of old desired a still higher temperature. But mention is made of cave dwellings, and such are actually there; and we can readily understand why the ancient dwellers in the cave houses should have frequently used the ready-to-hand torches when climbing to their dark and break-neck abodes.

Even today the chuh or torches are used as lights. The withered stalks or stems, so abundant in the Canyon, are a melancholy illustration of the scorching power of the sun within the chasm. We have not forgotten the fact that the Chinese term han is used in the ancient text and that it stands for the "crispness" of scorched or dried up plants. An actual visit to the Ta-Hoh or Great Canyon referred to, shows that it is this han—or withered, scorched and crisp—vegetation which provides no end of torches (chuh) for dwellers in the vicinity. One stumbling visitor uses the following language: "We struck for it ... through the thick night, the guide occasionally lighting a torch of grass" (n. 63). Unable to directly or steadily illumine the angles or recesses of the Canyon, the bright and clear-headed sun does the next best thing and raises a bounteous harvest of firebrands. Nature here concentrates her attention on the task of serving the necks (rather than the bellies) of her children, and presents them with a crop of seasoned and brilliant torches. Certain it is that most efficient firebrands are raised here in profusion and constitute such a unique feature of the stream that in order to distinguish it from others in the region, the Spaniards called our river the Rio del Tizon. Torches have lighted the Canyon in the past and they now throw light on the ancient record.

Mentioned in connection with withered vegetation and intense heat, the natural inference is that the torches were used to light the steps of dwellers in the Canyon. Of course they might in winter have been used, like other vegetable produce, as fuel, but the old record now before us does actually connect the chuh or torches with a high scorching temperature; and our impression or deduction is that they were used as lights amid the blackness of the chasm.

And the Torches (chuh) are used as lights still. One explorer says: "We fear that we shall have to stay here clinging to the rocks until daylight. Our little Indian gathers a few dry stems, ties them in a bundle, lights one end, and holds it up. The others do the same, and with these Torches we find a way out of trouble."

Observe that these torches (or chuh as the Chinese would call them) were not ignited to warm the explorers. They were held aloft to find or light the way among perilous cliffs. Without their aid it would have been madness for the explorers to move. Practically they were as men born blind, but the Indian guide, with knowledge derived from the depths of antiquity, obtains the necessary torches and light at his elbow. With one withered and hot stem he ties together a number, lights them and then finds the way out of trouble for both himself and his bewildered party. What have we here but a duplication of the "illumination of torches" referred to in the ancient record?

17. chuh (the illumination of torches; a candle; a torch.)

18. yuen ("to lead or take by the hand, to cling to; to pull up higher, to drag out; to put forward; to relieve, to rescue")

19. yiu (have, has; to get.)

20. Ta (Great.)

21. Hoh (Canyon.)

22. hao (a mark, classed, a signal.)

23. wei (said or declared; has; in the place of.)

24. wu (no; without; destitute of.)

25. te (bottom.)

It appears that within the bottomless Ta-hoh or Great Canyon (see words 19 to 25) there is an illumination of torches (chuh) and a pulling up higher, or a dragging about and clinging to (yuen).

Climbing is here referred to. The Sun people seem to have found locomotion difficult and hazardous within the chasm.

The modern explorer who reached the irrigated garden plots and houses of the ancient occupants, was himself compelled to resort to much climbing. In one place he says: "I find I can get up no farther, and cannot step back, for I dare not let go with my hands, and cannot reach foot-hold below without. I call to Bradley for help.... The moment is critical. Standing on my toes my muscles begin to tremble.... I hug close to the rock, let go with my hand, seize the dangling legs, and with his assistance, I am enabled to gain the top" (n. 64.)

It will be seen by the intelligent reader that the forgoing performance is covered by the term yuen (No. 18) used in the ancient record. There was a rescue by Bradley, and the desperate adventurer, a chief of the Ethnological Bureau, was "pulled up higher," even to "the top" of the cliff. All this constitutes yuen; and without intending it, our modern climber—calling to Bradley for help—is a most eloquent and lucid commentator on the ancient statement in the Chinese text.

But this climbing should be accomplished in connection with chuh (No. 17—the illumination of torches). Is it true that there is climbing by torchlight (not moonlight, gentle reader) within the chasm?

Light is thrown on the ancient text by a statement already in part quoted: "We fear that we shall have to stay here clinging to the rocks until daylight. Our little Indian gathers a few dry stems, ties them in a bundle, lights one end, and holds it up. The others do the same, and with these torches we find a way out of trouble. Helping each other, holding torches for each other, one clinging to another's hand until we get footing, then supporting the other on his shoulders, so we make our passage into the depths of the canyon. And now Captain Bishop has kindled a huge fire of driftwood, on the bank of the river. This and the fires in the gulch opposite, and our own flaming torches, light up little patches, that make more manifest the awful darkness below. Still, on we go, for an hour or two, and at last we see Captain Bishop coming up the gulch, with a huge torch-light on his shoulders. He looks like a fiend waving brands and lighting the fires of hell, and the men in the opposite gulch are imps lighting delusive fires in inaccessible crevices, over yawning chasms.... At last we meet Captain Bishop with his flaming torch" (n. 65). And so the brilliant description continues.

What is all this but the chuh yuen of the ancient record? Here surely is "an illumination of torches."

Torches and Climbing, say the Ancients.

Torches and Climbing, say the Moderns.

We can readily understand why the ancient occupants of the stone houses in the Grand Canyon, should have used the torches so liberally and conveniently supplied by nature throughout the region where their light is too often sadly or desperately needed. We have been informed by a modern visitor that ruined cave habitations are to be seen along "lofty and inaccessible ledges." And these dwellings "were reached by very narrow, precipitous, and devious paths, and being extremely difficult to attain by the occupants themselves, presented an impregnable front to invaders."

Surely here torches would often come in handy.

Dr. Fewkes believes that the ancient occupants of the cliff or cave houses chose hazardous sites in order to be out of the reach of enemies. He says:

"The pressure of outside tribes, or what may be called human environment, probably had much to do originally with the choice of caves for houses. The experienced archaeologist also draws attention to Jackson's remark that finger imprints answering to those of women, "may still be traced in the mortar" of the dwellings (n. 66). Many interiors indeed are covered with smooth plaster in which the impressions of small and delicate fingers appear.

Of course, women and children formerly lived on the "inaccessible ledges"; and sons, fathers, husbands, or brothers, away perhaps hunting in distant glens or forests, were comparatively free from anxiety concerning the condition of loved ones at home. And if savages with tomahawks and scalping knives came stealing through ravines to the foot of impregnable stairways, the mothers aloft, pressing children to their breasts and looking down on baffled foes, must have felt something of the emotion which throbs through the well-known lines, written indeed by a woman,—

For the strength of the hills we bless Thee,
Our God, our fathers' God!
Thou hast made Thy children mighty
By the touch of the mountain sod;
Thou hast fixed our ark of refuge
Where the spoiler's foot ne'er trod;—
For the strength of the hills we bless Thee,
Our God, our fathers' God!

And if in the darkness of night, the awaited signal or cry were heard arising from the heart of the abyss, how quickly the doors would be opened and ropes lowered and torches lighted to help the hunters to their homes on high! Torches flaming and eyes gleaming. Lights flashing in all directions. An illumination of torches. No wonder the Canyon was noted for its chuh yuen and cave dwellings.

Lights, Climbing, and Caves, say the Ancients.

Lights, Climbing, and Caves, say the Moderns.

The account continues thus:

26. Leang (the principal, the chief; a bridge, a beam.)

27. kien (official writing; to mark; a slip of bamboo for making notes on; a classifier of folios or sheets.)

28. wan (strokes, lines, literature, literary; a despatch.)

29. Ta (Great.)

30. Hoh (Canyon.)

31. fu (to spread abroad as decrees; to exact; to demand.)

A leang or chief is here referred to in connection with the Great Canyon. The ruler is not exactly called the King or supreme head (chwen suh). Indeed, we have been already informed that the head ruler was a mere nurseling (at the time when he abandoned his Lute in the Canyon) and such an infant carried about by the mother who had just brought him into the world, among the cliffs and canyons, would evidently have been unable to either write or issue decrees. Of course, however, a nominally subordinate chief (or leang) might have attended to the details of government and ruled or directed the movements of the Sun people in the name of the infant King. Such a minister might have spread abroad decrees or commands within the Canyon.

Are any writings to be seen on its walls?

An explorer already in part quoted, says: "At last we meet Captain Bishop with his flaming torch.... On a broad shelf we find the ruins of an old stone house, the walls of which are broken down, and we can see where the ancient people who lived here—a race more highly civilized than the present—had made a garden, and used a great spring, that comes out of the rocks, for irrigation. On some rocks near by we discover some curious etchings" (n. 67).

Here are cliff writings.

Again, on the brink of a rock 200 feet high stands an old house. Its walls are of stone, laid in mortar, with much regularity.... On the face of the cliff, under the building and along down the river for 200 or 300 yards, there are many etchings."

Here are writings "spread abroad" within the Ta-hoh or Great Canyon. Not painted on the cliffs, but cut into the stone! Beyond the reach or malice of savage tribes, they doubtless furnished directions to friendly clans, telling where certain companies had moved, and so forth.

"On many of the tributaries of the Colorado I have heretofore examined their deserted dwellings.... Sometimes the mouths of caves have been walled across and there are many other evidences to show their anxiety to secure defensible positions. Probably the nomadic tribes were sweeping down upon them, and they resorted to these cliffs and canyons for safety.... Here I stand where these now lost people stood centuries ago, and look over this strange country."

The former chief of the Ethnological Bureau also says that at the mouth of the Colorado Chiquito he discovered some curious remains, such as ruins and pottery, also "etchings and hieroglyphics on the rocks."

Some of the cliff or cave dwellings are singularly impressive. Baron Nordenskiold, says of one, called the "Cliff Palace," that it well deserves its proud name, "for with its round towers and high walls ... deep in the mysterious twilight of the cavern, and defying in their sheltered site the ravages of time, it resembled at a distance an enchanted castle."

And Chapin exclaims: "Surely its discoverer had not overstated the beauty and magnitude of this strange ruin. There it was, occupying a great oval space under a grand cliff wonderful to behold, appearing like an immense ruined castle with dismantled towers" (n. 68).

And yet Dr. Fewkes very rationally refuses to regard it as a "palace"—occupied merely by a king and servants or else officers of state managing an empire. Of course some nook within sheltered its ruler. But it is merely a pueblo—set within a cave. One French visitor says: "Il est probable que Cliff-Palace n'abritait pas moins de 500 personnes" (n. 69).

At this rate it would have required forty such structures (or equivalent clusters of apartments) to shelter, say, 20,000 individuals.

There is mention of cave dwellings in connection with the Great Canyon; and as Sun people with a supreme ruler (although but a suckling) are represented as climbing within the chasm, with the aid of torches, we expect to find curious remains in connection with the caverns. Nor are we disappointed. Here are mouths of caves walled up for defensive purposes. Here are ramparts, towers, and fortified structures classed with castles.

We are informed that decrees were spread abroad in the Canyon; and searching for the ancient inscriptions, we find that they are cut into the cliffs. This shows that the former dwellers were able to cut and work stone; and abundant remains of masonry are at hand to sustain this deduction.

The personality of the ju, or suckling ruler, remains to be investigated, and should yield curious—most surprising—results; but, of course, reasonable, logical critics will not for an instant confound such an inquiry with that just finished. Even absolute failure to unearth the facts with regard to the Prince and his royal mother, can not shake the plain fact that we have actually found an account of the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River, and the Gulf of California, in an ancient Chinese book.