Central American Antiquities
IN SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM
‘YOUTH and crabbed ageCannot live together;’So they say.
On this little pageSee you when and whetherThat they may.
Age was very old—Stones from ChichimecHardly wrung;
Youth had hair of goldKnotted on her neck—Fair and young!
Age was carved with oddSlaves, and priests that slew them—God and Beast;
Man and Beast and God—There she sat and drew them,King and Priest!
There she sat and drewMany a monstrous headAnd antique;
Horrors from Peru,Huacas doubly dead,Dead cacique!
Ere Pizarro cameThese were lords of menLong ago;
Gods without a name,Born or how or when,None may know!
Now from YucatanThese doth Science bearOver seas;
And methinks a manFinds youth doubly fair,Sketching these!