INDIAN TOMBS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 2 January 1925, Page 5

INDIAN TOMBS.

VALUABLE DISCOVERIES AT PANAMA. Tombs of Indian chieftains who were laid to rest 8000 years ago, or long before King Tutankhamen was even a crown prince, are being explored by the San Bias Indians in Panama, according to W. E. Flanagan, vice-president of the National Construction Company, who recently returned from Panama City on the liner Santa Elisa. Air Flanagan’s company (says the New York Evening Poet) is building a road from Panama City to San Carlos, a distance of 70 miles, at a cost of 4,500,000 dollars. He contracted malaria in the jungle country, and has returned to recuperate. The excavation work is being done at Baquette, described by Air Flanagan as a hidden paradise, where a white man seldom sets foot. It is 300 miles from Panama City, a sixday trip, with few roads to guide the traveller. The San Bias tribal members are believed to be the oldest inhabitants of the region. Whether their interest in the toihbs of their old chiefs was inspired by the Egyptian discoveries was not stated, but at any rate they are digging into old stone graves formed by huge rock slabs 4ft thick and sft long. They have found no bodies, for the Indians had not mastered mummification, hut they have come upon rare ornaments of the day. These include solid gold hammered vases and flaming pottery. Solid gold balls also were found, which rattled when shaken. Opened, they disclosed tiny bells, lpueh like those of to-day.