ganizations upon whose several exchange lists this library is numbered. Adjoining this room is one in which Mr. Parvin has stored a fine private collection of Iowa historical works, to obtain an unbroken series of which he has labored unceasingly since his first coming to the state, over fifty years ago. This series includes all the publications issued by state authority, and very many others by societies and individuals. This collection is large, rare, and valuable, and has been much sought after by those in charge of the libraries of our state, the state historical society, and state university, as well as some of the leading colleges, etc.

For one small octavo volume therein-one of the earliest published territorial reports-the state of Michigan recently offered the sum of $50. It is needless to say the offer was not accepted. In the large, well-lighted attic which forms the fourth story of the building is found the librarian's "workshop," where all the unbound volumes of proceedings, pamphlets, periodicals, etc., which from all quarters of the globe are constantly pouring into his hands, are assorted and arranged for the binder.

It is probable that this is Mr. Parvin's most laborious as well as most important work for the library. To know what to reject and what to preserve from out such a constant and varied stream of masonic literature in order that the rapidly filling shelves may not become encumbered with a mass of sometime useless matter, cannot fail to be difficult. By means of his long apprenticeship to masonic interests, Mr. Parvin has become thoroughly conversant with the needs of the young and struggling lodges which are constantly springing into existence throughout the newer communities, and it was to meet one of the most pressing necessities of these that, when the Bower collection with its large number of volumes duplicating those in the library came, he hit upon the plan of a circulating library, which has proven not only of great benefit to such lodges, but to authors and students as well-who for purposes of consultation and reference have been unable to visit the library in person.

One item in a recent report mentions the presentation of a full set of ten bound volumes of Grand Lodge Proceedings to the Grand Lodge of Colored Masons of Liberia; and similar sets to the British Museum, the congressional library, and the public library of the city of Toronto, Canada, which shows how the influence of this library is otherwise extending.

To an outsider not the least interesting feature of this library is its seventy-five Masonic periodicals, thirty-three of which are published in this country and forty-two in foreign countries. One comes from far-off New Zealand, one from Australia, and others from Germany, Hungary, Spain,

France, Great Britain, Cuba, South America, and Mexico, being among contemporaneous lodges what similar publications are among the churches -safeguards against the encroachments of error and schism, while aiding to cement the bonds of fraternal union.

Since masonry assumed its speculative form, it has become more or less interwoven with all general matters. Political systems, scholastic and religious culture, all its various environments, have affected it as it has them, until, as in tracing to their fountain-head the national peculiarities of victorious peoples, one has to familiarize himself also with the history of those they have subjugated; so in studying masonry must he make long excursions into those cognate but outlying fields. With this in view the librarian has enriched the collection with books of travel, of history, of poetry, and even of fiction, while in those “quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore," treating of the worship of the powers of nature, of the occult sciences, and of those thousands of "uncanny subjects on which few well-regulated minds desire to dwell," the shelves contain many rare and valuable selections.

Among the curios of this miscellaneous department it is amusing to find a number of almanacs, ranging in date from 1682 to 1693, filled as are those of the present time with antique jokes and advertisements of patent medicines. A decidedly unique collection of books is that of all the anti masonic literature of any repute ever published, and one who desired to overthrow the institution could not do better than to come here for his arguments. In the year 1885 it was decided to add an archæological department, which at once made for itself friends, and has been steadily in receipt of donations until it has already become one of the most interesting if not the most valuable features of the library. A distinguished object in this department is a magnificent collection of spar from the lead mines of Dubuque.

Independent of its worth to the order of masons everywhere, this institution will stand in all the future as a noble monument to simple personal endeavor the parallel of which the world will seldom witness. And of the one to whom its achievement has been one long labor of love, when his efforts shall have come to an end what more or better can be said than:

"He did his work, in his small sphere

That God had given him, and labored well"?

Lydia fachan Lauphere

THE STONE IMAGES OF SAN AUGUSTIN

Near the little village of San Augustin, in Tolima, a department of the republic of Colombia, are found the remains of an ancient people, which in durability and interest must be classed among the most remarkable aboriginal relics upon the continent. This region was inhabited by the Andaquies, whose nascent civilization was stifled in its very cradle by the Spanish conquest. According to Codazzi,* the religious idea had germinated powerfully among them and produced sculptures in which they endeavored to materialize or express their conception of Divinity. As. unlike the neighboring tribes, they did not possess gold in abundance from which to manufacture small images, they cut their idols, almost of heroic size, from the solid rock. Neither did they understand the art by which to remove their gods from the eyes of the vulgar, enclosing them within sacred walls: so they hid them in the dense forest of the tropics, and gave them for a temple an entire valley-isolated, mysterious, and almost impenetrable.

Upon arriving at the bridge which spans the Magdalena river on the road from Timaria, a barrier of apparently inaccessible rocks is encountered; but once scaled by a tortuous and difficult path, the little valley of San Augustin is seen in all its picturesque beauty. It is traversed by the wooded stream of the same name, and partly inclosed by the Naranjo and Granadillo, which unite to form the impetuous Sombrerillo, that in its turn soon empties into the Magdalena. On each side of the valley there rises a line of gently sloping hills, upon whose diversified summits groups. of trees blend harmoniously with the green turf, which seems to cover the earth perpetually at this altitude of six thousand feet and delicious temperature of seventy degrees Fahrenheit. These hills terminate in the ver tical scarf of the Naranjo upon the east and that of the Magdalena upon the west; while southward the view is limited by obscure and deserted forests shelving the highest ridge, which is crowned by the bleak páramo of Las Papas, and crossed by the craggy path that connects the headwaters of the Magdalena with the canton of Almoguer. From its edge rises clearly the loftiest of the peaks of Catanga, which reaches an altitude of * In the preparation of this paper the writer acknowledges the free use of Colonel Codazzi's valuable and interesting (Spanish) report of the operations of the Colombian Cosmographic Commission, the secretary of which, Señor Paz, executed upon the spot the wash-drawings from which the illustrations have been made.

more than fifteen thousand feet; while not far away and distinguished by its peculiar configuration is the cerro of Peñagrande, measuring twelve thousand feet in absolute height. Following with the eye this line of noble summits in a northerly direction, the five snowy Coconucos are discovered, distant only about thirty miles if the frozen crests of Mazamorras did not interpose; but, as if in compensation, the cañon of the river Pacz discloses, above the lowlands which contain the Plata, the majestic snowclad Huila, with its three resplendent peaks more than three hundred feet higher than El Tolima. Such is the magnificent setting in which is inclosed the valley of San Augustin.

The accompanying engravings faithfully represent the various images that are found lying in different parts of the valley. Codazzi has given them the ingenious and not unreasonable' interpretation to which reference is made in the description. This distinguished investigator believes that an examination proves conclusively that they were carved with a premeditated design and are essentially ideagraphic. There is nothing to indicate that they were the result of a simple attempt to reproduce the human figure, in its common form, according to the Andaquian type; on the contrary, there is observable a manifest intention to modify the features of the face in every idol, as if to characterize its vocation or office, thus forming, as it were, so many petrified thoughts or hieroglyphical studies. All these images, he says, differing among themselves, undoubtedly express a religious system, with a possible application to social life. If otherwise, how can we explain these complete transformations of the human face which occasionally, as in the caryatides, the same or a different artist was able to copy with such perfection? This judgment, adds Codazzi, is confirmed by the topographical plan of the valley; and besides the characteristics which bespeak it to have been a grand temple, there are likewise indications that it was a place of mysterious initiation. It is not improbable, however, that these sculptors belonged to an older and more enlightened nation than the Andaquies, who appear to have left few other relics of their civilization; and it is a remarkable fact that the stone of which the figures are carved is not found in the immediate vicinity. Belalcázar, who passed near the valley in his march from Quito to Bogotá, made no mention of it, and the discovery of the images is of comparatively recent date. As yet, a systematic investigation can scarcely be said to have taken place, and every year new and perhaps more interesting pieces are being unearthed by the indefatigable but destructive treasure-seeker.

Soon after entering the valley, three figures are encountered upon a hillock. Two of them have evidently been torn from their ancient seat,

VOL. XXII.-No. 5.-27

while the third, judging from its incomplete state, was probably never crect. All are carved out of a hard, ferruginous sandstone. The first (Fig. 1) measures four feet three inches in height. Its head, which is large and flat, is covered by a sort of calote and has neither ears nor nose. Instead of eyes and mouth, there are three rectangular cavities symmetrically placed. It seems to be seated, the chin supported upon a staff held in both hands. The trousers-for such they appear to be-are turned up as if for a journey, and behind, a cape is suspended from the head after the manner of the Indian women of to-day. Perhaps this image represents

the neophyte in his peregrination, with eyes that see not, a mouth that cannot speak, and without ears by which to receive the truth. The second (Fig. 2), three feet four inches high, is a cylindrical shaft. The head is thrust into a curious but regularly shaped covering that conceals the nose and ears but exposes the eyes, which are round and open, and a disproportionately large mouth fully armed with teeth. From between the latter projects what seems to be a tongue, terminating in a small, human head bearing an expression of death. No legs are apparent. The third (Fig. 3) is an unfinished head. As these images are placed at the very beginning of the path which crosses the valley and leads from one stone or group to another, Codazzi thinks they were designed to indicate to the pilgrim that henceforth he should endeavor to perfect his sense of sight, adding perhaps a threat of death if he loosed his tongue and spoke of what he was about to see.

From this point the path leads to the right, where upon an eminence is found a group (Fig. 4) cut in relief from the solid rock, about three feet four inches high and of equal width, representing a large monkey which shelters with its body and caresses a smaller one, as if manifesting maternal affection. Adjacent is found the half image of a naked and not ill