MAJOR DOMO, GLEN EYRIE.
NEEDLE ROCKS, GARDEN OF THE GODS.
The two photographs on this page furnish us additional evidence of the wonders and beauties of the scenic region embraced by the Garden of the Gods and that immediate locality. There is no other place in the world like it. Nature has run riot here in the manufacture of strange and curious things. But the names which have been bestowed by chance upon these curiosities are not always appropriate. Needle Rocks, for instance, hear a much stronger resemblance to the ruins of some ancient cathedral than they do to the useful and pointed instrument whose name has been unadvisedly bestowed upon them. It is quite probable, however, that the bold pioneer who first beheld and named them was more familiar with needles than castles and cathedrals, and we can afford to let the misnomer pass with the assurance that it was given in good faith, and it certainly does not lessen the pleasure of beholding the object.
MEDICINE ROCK, MONUMENT PARK.
In after times, a new tribe came into the valley, and finding it fruitful and inviting, they established their homes and prospered so well that they soon grew mighty. For a long while no people were so grateful and devout, so worshipful and kindly as they; but power always begets arrogance, and in time these favored people became filled with conceit and began to esteem themselves as the equals of Manitou and to defy his power. This so offended the Great Spirit that he sent a mighty host of monsters out of the north to punish the vain bigots who thus contemned him. But some of the priests of the people had remained true in their devotion, and these now interposed with Manitou and made many offerings and sacrifices to appease his wrath. They so far prevailed that many of the people also purged their hearts of all iniquity, and Manitou was propitiated. As the host of monsters came swooping down, like an army of invincible Centaurs, suddenly Pike’s Peak appeared as if on fire, and the face of the Great Spirit was visible above it, shining with a splendor greater than the sun. On the next instant that invading army of satyrs and gorgons was changed to stone, and it is their bodies that stand, and lie, and posture in strange incongruity in the Garden of the Gods, Glen Eyrie, Bear Athol and Fiddler’s Green.
Many other legends are told to account for the singular formations, but none are so old and often repeated as the one here related. The region was certainly regarded by the early people who occupied it as possessing supernatural features, a fact attested not alone by the traditions so carefully preserved, but by rude carvings found on pieces of shale dug up in the valley, and winged images carved from gypsum, which appear to be very crude representations of a conception of preternatural creatures. These relics, however, are very few, and by many are pronounced spurious, so that it would be treading on doubtful ground to attempt to introduce evidence of the faith imposed by the Toltecs in such legends, or how they sought to perpetuate them. It is sufficient, therefore, to accept the curiosities that are in this wonderful garden merely as strange freaks of nature, without considering the tales handed down from a questionable source, pretending to show that the formations are the results of supernatural causes.