Chapter 7

House of Birds at Uxmal.

UXMAL ARCH.

Arch at Uxmal.

Immediately eastward of the Casa de Monjas are several ruined structures shown in the plan, standing on terraces somewhat lower than those last mentioned. Only one of these, and which one of the four or five shown on the plan is not stated, has been more than mentioned by any visitor. This one exceptionis the House of Birds. A portion of its front is shown in the preceding cut, which sufficiently explains the origin of the appellation. The interior is remarkable for containing two rooms which are larger than any others at Uxmal, measuring fourteen by fifty-two feet, and about twenty feet in height. One of these apartments has well-preserved traces of the paint which formerly covered walls and ceiling; and the other has an arch which differs somewhat from all others in this ancient city. Its peculiarity is that the overlapping blocks of stone, instead of lying horizontally as in other cases, are slightly inclined, as isshown in the cut, forming a nearer approach to the principle of the true arch with a key-stone than has been found elsewhere in Yucatan. It will also be noticed in the cut that the blocks, instead of being all in regular cubical form, are some of them cut elbow-shaped. This is a feature, which, if it exists in other buildings, has not been particularly noticed.[V-48]

UXMAL—CASA DEL ADIVINO.

Still further eastward are the pyramid and building at D, on the plan, which have been called the Casa del Adivino, or Prophet's House; the Casa del Enano, or Dwarf's House; Tolokh-eis, or Holy Mountain, and Kingsborough's Pyramid; the first three names originating from traditions among the natives respecting the former occupants of the buildings: the latter having been applied by M. Waldeck in honor of the Irish lord who aided in his explorations. Connecting the Casa del Adivino with the Nunnery are lines of low mounds, or terraces, possibly occupied in former times by buildings, forming a courtyard which measures eighty-five by one hundred and thirty-five feet, and in the centre of which, atz, is the usual rude column, or picote.

The supporting mound, or pyramid, in this case, from a base of one hundred and fifty-five by two hundred and thirty-five feet, rounded at the corners so as to form an oval rather than a rectangular figure,[V-49]rises with very steep sides to a height of eighty-eight feet, forming at the summit a platform twenty-two by eighty-two feet. The surface of this pyramid is faced with blocks of hewn stone laid in mortar. The interior is presumably of rough stones in mortar, although little or nothing is said on this point.[V-50]Excavations prove that the structure is solid without interiorgalleries. The surface blocks are cubical, about two feet in dimensions at the base, if we may trust M. Waldeck's drawing, but diminishing toward the top. They are not laid so as to break joints, yet so solid is the structure that the powerful leverage of growing roots has caused comparatively little damage. The eastern front is shown on the following page. A stairway one hundred and two feet on the slope, seventy feet wide at the base, but narrowing toward the summit, composed of ninety steps, each step being about a foot high and five or six inches wide, leads up this side. The slope of this stairway is so steep, being inclined at an angle of about eighty degrees, that visitors have found it very difficult to ascend and descend. Padre Cogolludo was the first to complain of the steep grade. He says: 'I once did go up that of Uxumual, and when I would come down, I did repent me; because so narrow are the steps, and so many in number, that the edifice goes up exceeding straight, and being of no small height, the head swims, and there is even some peril in its descent.'[V-51]

Casa del Adivino at Uxmal.

In the centre of the western slope of the Prophets Pyramid, toward the Nunnery, are certain structures, which M. Waldeck represents as projecting portions of the pyramid, or piers, the lower one forming a platform fifteen by forty feet, sixty feet up the slope; and the upper rising from this platform and forming asecond, twenty by twenty-five feet, continuous with the main summit platform of the pyramid. The upper projection, or pier, has since proved to be a distinct building, with richly sculptured front,[V-52]one central door, and two plain rooms in the interior; the outer one seven by fifteen feet, and nineteen feet high; the inner, four by twelve feet, and eleven feet high. The lower pier may have been a similar structure, but it is completely in ruins below the central platform, except a few slight traces of rooms near the base. Mr Stephens is disposed to believe that a broad staircase of peculiar construction, supported by a triangular arch-like stairways that will be mentioned later in a few instances in connection with other Yucatan ruins—originally led up to the front of the building on the slope; otherwise it is difficult to imagine by what means these apartments could have been reached. The stones of these projecting portions are longer than elsewhere, and laid so as to break joints. On the summit platform stands a small building, twelve feet wide, seventy-two feet long, and about sixteen feet high, leaving a promenade five feet wide at its base. This building presents no feature with which the reader is not already perfectly familiar, except that it contains only one range of rooms, having no dividing interior wall. The interior is divided into three rooms, which do not communicate with each other, and are not plastered. The central room is seven by twenty-four feet, and its door is on the west, just opposite the platform formed by the projecting pier. The end rooms are seven by nineteen feet, and open on the promenade at either side of the eastern stairway.[V-53]

Cut on the interior walls of the end rooms, seventy-two circular figures, two or three inches in diameter, have been observed. M. Waldeck, as usual, has a theory respecting these circles, or rather he has two in case one should prove unsatisfactory. He thinks they may have been made by prisoners to kill time, or they may have been a record of sacrifices consummated in this cu. The sculptured decorations of the exterior walls are described as elegant but simple. We have here the back-ground of ornamental lattice-work, and besides this the prominent feature is four full-length human figures standing on the west front, two on each side of the doorway, and overlooking the courtyard of the Casa de Monjas. They are the figures of males, and are naked, except a sort of helmet on the head, a scarf round the shoulders, and a belt round the waist. The arms are crossed high on the breast, and each hand holds something resembling a hammer. The genital organs are represented in their proper proportions, and were evidently intended by the sculptor as the prominent feature of the statues. All four had fallen from their places, even at the time of M. Waldeck's visit, but this explorer by careful search collected sufficient fragments of the four, which are precisely alike, to reconstruct one. He intended to bring these fragments away with him, but his intentions being thwarted by the emissaries of the Mexican government, he buried the statue in a locality only known to himself.[V-54]It remainsto be stated that the decorations of this Prophet's House, like that of the Nunnery, were originally painted in bright colors. Blue, red, yellow, and white, were found by M. Waldeck on the least exposed portions. There can be but little doubt that this pyramid was a temple where the sacrifices described in a preceding volume were celebrated. It has been customary with many writers to speak of it, as of all similar structures in America, as a Teocalli, the name of such temples in Anáhuac; but thus to apply an Aztec name to monuments in regions inhabited by people whose relation to the Aztecs or their ancestors is yet far from proved, is at least injudicious, since it tends to cause confusion when we come to consider the subject of aboriginal history.[V-55]

UXMAL—MISCELLANEOUS RELICS.

All the principal structures of Uxmal have now been fully described, and as all conclusions and general remarks respecting this city will be deferred until I can include in such remarks all the ruins of the state, I take leave of Uxmal with a mention of a very few miscellaneous relics spoken of by different travelers.

No water has been found in the immediate vicinity of the city, the dependence having probably been on artificial reservoirs andaguadas, possibly also on subterranean springs, orsenotes, whose locality is not known. There are several of these aguadas within a radius of a few miles of Uxmal. They resemble, in their present abandoned condition, small natural ponds, and their stagnant waters are thought to have much to do with the unhealthiness of the locality. They have no appearance of being artificial, but the inhabitants universally believe them to be so, and Mr Stephens, from his observations in other parts of the country, is inclined to agree with the general belief. I have already noticed the dome-shaped underground apartments which occur frequently among the ruins, and were probably used as cisterns, or reservoirs, for the storing up of water for the use of the city. Mr Norman states also that one of the numerous mounds, that occur in all directions, westward of the Nunnery, "is found to be an immense reservoir or cistern, having a double curb; the interior of which was beautifully finished with stucco, and in good preservation." Hefurther states that some of these mounds have been opened and "seemed to have been intended originally for sepulchres," although Mr Stephens could find no traces of sepulchral relics.

M. Waldeck barely mentions the discovery of small fragments of flint artificially shaped, but beyond this there is no record of relics in the shape of implements. Traces of pottery are nearly as rare. Mr Norman says he found fragments of broken vases on the pyramid E of the plan; and Mr Stephens found similar fragments in one of the reservoirs on the platform of the Governor's House, together with a nearly complete tripod vase, one foot in diameter, with enameled surface.

Mr Friederichsthal found on a low mound five stones lying, as he states, from north-west to south-west (?), the middle one of which was over twelve feet long and covered with carved figures.

A native reported to Sr Zavala that he had seen a stone table, painted red, located in a cellar, and indicating a place of sacrifice. This report would not be worth recording were it not for the fact that similar tables are of frequent occurrence in Chiapas, as will be seen in the following chapter.

The Abbé Domenech has something to say of Uxmal antiquities; he says that "carved figures representing Boudha of Java, seated on a Siva's head, were found at Uxmal, in Yucatan."[V-54]

One and a half hour's ride westward from Uxmal a mound surmounted with ruins, called Senuisacal, was seen at a distance; and about the same distance north-westward, not far from Muna, was found one of the typical buildings on a mound. This building was nearly entire, except that the outer walls above the cornice had fallen. Between this place and Uxmal, about five miles from the latter, is a mound with twobuildings, to which the same description will apply. These ruins were seen by Mr Stephens during a hasty trip from Uxmal, unaccompanied by his artist companion. Ruins observed still further westward will be included in another group.[V-55]

In describing the ruins outside of Uxmal which compose the central group, and which may for the most part be passed over rapidly from their similarity to each other and to those already described, I shall locate each by bearing and distance as accurately as possible, and all the principal localities are also laid down on the map. This matter of location is not, however, very important. The whole central region is strewn with mounds bearing ruined buildings; some of these have received particular attention from the natives and from travelers, and have consequently been named. I shall describe them by the names that have been so applied, but it must be noted that very few of these names are in any way connected with the aboriginal cities; they were mostly applied at first to particular structures, and later to the ruins in their immediate vicinity; consequently several of the small groups which have been honored with distinct names, may, in many instances, have formed a part of the same city.

At Sacbé,—meaning a 'paved road of white stone,' a name derived from such a paved way in the vicinity, which will be mentioned later,—four or five miles south-east of Uxmal, besides other 'old walls' is a group of three buildings. One of them is twelve and a half by fifty-three feet; none, however, present any peculiar feature, save that in one of the doorways two columns appear.[V-56]

Pyramid of Xcoch.

Nohpat Sculpture.

THE PYRAMID OF XCOCH.

SKULLS AND CROSSBONES AT NOHPAT.

Somewhat less than ten miles eastward of Uxmal is the town of Nohcacab, 'the great place of good land,' preserving the name of an aboriginal town whichformerly existed somewhere in this vicinity. In this village are several mounds; and a sculptured head, with specimens of pottery, has been dug up in the plaza. The surrounding country within a radius of a few miles abounds in ruins, two of which are particularly mentioned. The first is known as Xcoch, and consists of the pyramid shown in the cut. It is between eighty and ninety feet high, plainly visible from the Prophet's House at Uxmal, but the buildings on its summit, like its sides, are almost completely in ruins, although traces of steps yet remain. Great and marvelous stories were told by the natives concerning a senote, or well, in this vicinity; and it proved indeed to be a most wonderful cavern with branching subterranean galleries, worn by the feet of ancient carriers of water; but it was entirely of natural formation, a single block of sculptured stone, with the worn pathsbeing the only traces of man's presence. The second of the ruins is that of Nohpat, 'great lord,' three miles from Nohcacab toward Uxmal, whose buildings are plainly visible from it, and of which it may, not improbably, have been a continuation or dependency. A mound, or pyramid, two hundred and fifty feet long at the base, and one hundred and fifty feet high on the slope, with a nearly perfect stairway on the southern side, supports a portion of a dilapidated building, which overlooks the numerous ruins scattered over the plain at its foot. A single corridor, or room, is left intact, and is only three feet and five inches wide. At the foot of the stairway is a platform with a picote, as at Uxmal, in its centre. There was also lying at the foot of the steps, the flat stone represented in the cut, measuring eleven and one third feet in length by three feet ten inches in width. The human figure in low relief on its surface is very rudely carved, and was moreover much defaced by the rains to which for many years it had been exposed. Near the pyramid another platform, two hundred feet square, and raised about twenty feet, supports buildings at right angles with each other, one of which has two stories built after a method which will be made clear in describing other ruins. The only others of the many monuments of Nohpat which throw any additional light on Yucatan antiquities, are those found on a level spot, whose shape is that of a right-angled triangle with a mound at each angle. Here are many scattered blocks and fragments, two of which united formed the statue shown in the cut on the next page. It is four and a quarter feet high and a foot and a half in diameter. The face seems to be represented as looking sideways or backward overthe shoulder, and is surmounted by a head-dress in which the head of a wild beast may be made out, recalling slightly the idols which we have already seen in Nicaragua. Other statues might doubtless be reconstructed by means of a thorough search, but only the stone blocks shown in the cut are particularly mentioned. They are twenty-seven inches high and from sixteen to twenty-two inches wide, bearing alternately sculptured on their fronts the skull and cross-bones, symbols in later times—perhaps also when these carvings were made—of death. In its original condition Nohpat may not unlikely have been as grand a city as Uxmal, but it is almost completely in ruins.[V-57]

Statues at Nohpat.

Skull and Crossbones.

RUINS OF KABAH.

Interior Steps at Kabah.

In the same region, some five or six miles southward from Nohcacab, and perhaps ten or twelve miles south-eastward from Uxmal, is a most extensive group of ruins, probably the remains of an ancient city, known as Kabah. Sixteen different structures are located in a space about two thousand by three thousand feet, on Mr Stephens' plan, which, however, was not formed by measurements, but by observation from the top of a pyramid. Norman is the only visitor, except Stephens and Catherwood, and his description amounts to nothing. I proceed to describe such of Kabah monuments as differ in construction and sculpture from those we have previously examined, and consequently throw additional light on Maya architecture.

A mound forms a summit platform, raised twenty feet, and measuring one hundred and forty-two by two hundred feet. Ascending the terrace from its south-western side, buildings of the ordinary type appear on the right and left; the former resting on the slope instead of on the summit of the terrace,—that is, the rear wall, of great thickness, rises perpendicularly from the base. In the centre of the platform is an enclosure seven feet high and twenty-seven feet square, formed of hewn stones, the lower tier of which was sculptured with a continuous line of hieroglyphics extending round the circumference. No picote, however, was found within the enclosure. Directly in front, or on the north-east side of the platform, a stairway of twenty steps, forty feet wide, leads up to a higher terrace, the arrangement being much like that of the northern building of the Casa de Monjas at Uxmal.But in this case the upper platform, instead of being long and narrow as usual, is nearly square, and supports a building of the same shape, whose front at the top of the stairway measures one hundred and fifty-one feet. The advanced state of ruin in which the whole structure was found, made it difficult to form an idea of its original plan, and Mr Stephens' description in this case fails to present clearly the idea which he formed on the subject. The front portion of the edifice, however, which is the best preserved of all, has two double ranges of apartments, separated by a very thick wall, and all under the same roof. Two peculiarities were noted in these rooms. The inner rooms of the front range have their floors two feet and eight inches higher than the outer, and are entered from the latter by two stone steps; while in one case at least these steps are cut from a single block of stone, the lower step taking the form of a scroll, and the walls at the sides are covered with carvings, as shown in the cut. Over the rear wall of the front range rises a structure of hewn stone four feet thick and fifteen feet high, which, like the turrets over the northern building of the Nunnery and the Casa de Palomas at Uxmal, could only have been intended as an ornament, but which from the ground beneath presents every appearance of a second story. The exterior sculpture of this front, except a small portion at the northern end, has fallen, but enough remains to indicate that the decorations were most rich and elaborate,though uniform; and, unlike those of any structure yet met with, they covered the whole surface of the front, both above and below the central cornice. The cut shows the general appearance of these decorations.[V-58]This building is called by the nativesXcoↄpoop, or 'straw hat doubled up.'

Sculptured Front at Kabah.

At a short distance from the ruin just described, in a north-easterly direction, is another group, the details of whose arrangement, in the absence of a carefully prepared plan, it is useless to attempt to describe, but three new features presented by these ruins require notice. First, one of them, from a base of one hundred and six by one hundred and forty-seven feet, is built in three receding stories. That is, the roof of each story, or range, forms a platform, or promenade, before the doors of the one above; or, in other words, the stories are built one above another on the slope of a pyramid. Second, an exterior staircase leads upfrom story to story. These staircases are supported by half of one of the regular triangular arches resting against the top of the wall of the buildings. The accompanying cut, although not representing this or any other particular building, is intended as a half section to illustrate the construction of the Maya structures in several stories, and that of the stairways which afford access to the upper stories;abeing the solid mound, or terrace;bb, the apartments or corridors;d, the staircase; andc, an open passage under the half arch of overlapping stones that supports the stairway. In this Kabah building the stairway leading to the foot of the third story is not immediately over the lower one, but in another part of the edifice. The third peculiarity is a double one, and is noticed in some of the doorways; since here for the first time we find lintels of stone, supported each by a central column, about six feet high, of rude workmanship, with square blocks serving as pedestal and capital.[V-59]

Yucatan Structure in Three Stories.

The Casa de Justicia, or Court House, is one hundred and thirteen feet long, divided into five rooms,each nine by twenty feet. The outer wall of this building is plain, except groups of three pillars each between the doorways, and four rows of short pilasters that surround it above the cornice, standing close together like the similar ornaments on the Casa de Tortugas at Uxmal.

Arch at Kabah.

The solitary arch shown in the cut stands on a mound by itself. Its span is fourteen feet, and its top fallen. "Darkness rests upon its history, but in that desolation and solitude, among the ruins around, it stood like the proud memorial of a Roman triumph."[V-60]Kabah is not without its pyramid, which isone hundred and eighty feet square at the base, and eighty feet high, with traces of ruined apartments at the foot. In one of the buildings the two principal doorways are under the stairway which leads up to the second story, and over one of them was a wooden lintel ten feet long, composed of two beams and covered with carving that seemed to represent a human figure standing on a serpent. Mr Stephens carried these carved beams, which were in almost a perfect state of preservation, to New York, where they were burned. He considered them the most important relics in the country, although his drawing does not indicate them to be anything very remarkable, except as bearing a clearly cut and complicated carving, executed on exceedingly hard wood without implements of iron or steel. The building with the sculptured lintel, and another, stand on an immense terrace, measuring one hundred by eight hundred feet. One of the apartments has the red hand in bright colors imprinted in many places on its walls. A stucco ornament, painted in bright colors, much dilapidated, but apparently having represented two large birds facing each other, was found in a room of another building. In still another edifice, a room is described as constructed on a new and curious plan, having "a raised platform about four feet high, and in each of the inner corners was a rounded vacant place, about large enough for a man to stand in." Another new feature was a doorway—the only one in the building to which it belonged—with sculptured stone jambs, each five feet eleven inches high, two feet three inches wide, and composed of two blocks one above the other. The sculptured designs are similar one to the other, each consisting of a standing and kneeling figure over a line of hieroglyphics. One of these decorated jambs is shown in the cut given on the following page. The weapon in the hands of the kneeling figure corresponds almost exactly with the flint-edged swords used by the natives of the country at the time of theconquest. This group of ruins, representing an aboriginal city probably larger and more magnificent even than Uxmal, was discovered by the workmen who made the road, or camino real, on which the ruins stand; but so little interest did the discovery excite in the minds of travelers over the road, that the knowledge of it did not reach Mérida.[V-61]

Sculptured Door-Jamb at Kabah.

In this immediate vicinity, located on the road to Equelchacan, a place not to be found on any map that I have seen, some artificial caverns are reported, probably without any sufficient authority.[V-62]

RUINS OF SANACTÉ.

Front of Building at Sanacté.

Southward and south-eastward of Kabah, all included within a radius of eight or ten miles, are ruins at Sanacté, Xampon, Chack, Sabacché, Zayi, and Labná, the last two being extensive and important. At Sanacté are two buildings, which stand in a milpa, or cornfield. One has a high ornamental wall on its top, and the front of another appears as represented in the cut. It will be noticed that inthis, as in most of the structures in this region, the doorways have stone jambs, or posts, each of two pieces, instead of being formed simply by the blocks that compose the walls; the lintels are also generally of stone. At Xampon are the remains of a building that was built continuously round a rectangle eighty by one hundred and five feet; it is mostly fallen. In the immediate vicinity ruins of the ordinary type are mentioned under the names of Hiokowitz, Kuepak, and Zekilna. At Chack a two-storied building stands on a terrace, which is itself built on the summit of a natural stony hill. A very remarkable feature at Chack is the natural senote which supplies water to the modern as it did undoubtedly to the ancient inhabitants. It is a narrow passage, or succession of passages and small caverns, penetrating the earth for over fifteen hundred feet, much of the distance the descent being nearly vertical. At Sabacché is a building of a single apartment, whose front presents the peculiarity of four cornices, dividing the surface into four nearly equal portions, the lower cornice being as usual at the height of the top of the doorway. The first space above the doorway is plain, like that below; but the two upper spaces are divided by pilasters into panels, which are filled with diamond lattice-work. Three other buildings were visited, and one of them sketched by Catherwood, but they present no new features except that the red hand, common here as elsewhere, is larger than usual.[V-63]

RUINS OF ZAYI.

Casa Grande at Zayi.

At Zayi, situated in the midst of a beautiful landscape of rolling hills, the principal edifice, called the Casa Grande, is built in three receding stories, as already explained, extending round the four sides of the supporting mound, which rests on a slight natural elevation. The lower story is one hundred and twenty by two hundred and sixty-five feet; the second, sixty by two hundred and twenty feet; and the third, standing on the summit of the mound, is eighteen by onehundred and fifty feet. The cut shows the ground plan of the Casa Grande, much of which is fallen. A stairway thirty-two feet wide leads up to the third story on the front, and a narrower stairway to the second platform on the rear. Ten of the northern rooms in the second story are completely filled with stone and mortar, which for some unimaginable reason must have been put in while the structure was being built. This part of the building is known among the natives as the Casa Cerrada, or closed house. It will be noticed from the plan that the front and rear platforms are not exactly of the same width. With respect to the exterior walls, those of the lower range are nearly all fallen. The western portion of the front of the second range is shown in the cut on the following page. Ranges of pillars, or pilasters, compose the bulk of the ornamentation, both above and below the cornice. A strange if not very artistic and delicate decoration found elsewhere on this building, is the figure of a man standing on his hands with his legs spread apart. The lintels are of stone, and many of the doorways are of triple width, in which cases the lintel is supported by two rudely-formed columns, about six and a half-feet high, with square capitals, as shown in the following cut. The front of the third range appears to have been entirely plain. In another building near by "a high projectionrunning along the wall" in the interior of an apartment is mentioned. Some five hundred yards directly south of the Casa Grande is a low, small, flat-roofed building, with a wide archway extending completely through it. It is much dilapidated, and hardly noticeable in itself, but from the centre of its flat roof rises the extraordinary structure shown in the cut, which is a perpendicular wall, two feet thickand thirty feet high, pierced with ranges of openings, or windows, which give it, as the discoverer remarks, the appearance of a New England factory. The stone of which it is constructed is rough, and it was originally covered with ornaments in stucco, a few of which still remain on the rear. The only other Zayi monument mentioned is an immense terrace about fifteen hundred feet square. Most of its surface was not explored, but one building was noticed and sketched in which the floor of the inner range of rooms is raised two feet and a half above that of the front range, being reached by steps, as was the case in the building at Kabah, already described. The interior wall was also decorated with a row of pilasters. The superstitious natives, like those I have spoken of at Utatlan in Guatemala, hear mysterious music every Good Friday, proceeding from among the ruins.[V-64]

Front of Casa Grande at Zayi.

Wall at Zayi.

RUINS OF LABNÁ.

The ruins of Labná comprise some buildings equal in extent and magnificence to any in Yucatan, but all far gone in decay. In one case a mound forty-five feet in height supports a building twenty by forty-three feet, of the ordinary type, except that its southern front is a perpendicular wall, thirty feet high above the cornice over the doorways. This front has no openings like other similar walls already noticed, but was originally covered throughout its whole surface with colossal ornaments in stucco, of which but a few small fragments remained, the whole structure being, when examined, on the point of falling. Among the figures of which sufficient portions remain to identify their original form, are: a row of death's heads, two lines of human figures in high relief, an immense seated human figure, a ball, or globe, supported by a man kneeling on one knee and by another standingat its side. All the figures were painted in bright colors still visible, and the whole structure appeared to its only visitors "the most curious and extraordinary" seen in the country. Another building, surrounding a courtyard, which was entered through a gateway, differed in its plan from those seen elsewhere, but the plan unfortunately is not given. Over each of the interior, or court, doorways, on one side at least, is a niche occupied by a painted stucco ornament supposed to represent the sun. Near by, a terrace four hundred feet long and one hundred and fifty feet wide supports a building of two receding stories with a front of two hundred and eighty-two feet. The upper story consists of a single line of apartments and its walls are perfectly plain. The lower story has a double line of rooms, and its front is elaborately sculptured, the chief peculiarity in this front being that it presents three distinct styles in as many portions of the wall. The opposite cut shows a corner of this wall in which the open mouth of an alligator or monster, from which looks out a human face, is a new and remarkable feature in Maya decoration. On the roof of the lower range is a narrow opening which leads vertically to a chamber like those found so frequently at Uxmal, except that this, instead of being dome-shaped, is like the ordinary rooms, with triangular-arched ceiling, being seven by eleven feet and ten feet high. Both sides and bottom are covered with cement, and there is nothing but its position in the mass of masonry, between the arches and over the interior apartments, to indicate that it was not originally used as a cistern for storing water. There is also in connection with the ruins of Labná an entrance to what may well be supposed to have been a subterranean senote like those noticed at Xcoch and Chack, but it could not be explored. It was noted that the natives about Labná, had much less superstitious fear respecting the spirits of the antiguos haunting the ruins than those of most other localities, althougheven they had no desire to explore the various apartments.

Corner at Labná.

At Tabi, a few leagues distant, is a heap of ruins,from which material had been taken for the construction of a modern church, and many sculptured fragments had been inserted in the walls of the hacienda buildings. A stream of water was pouring from the open mouth of a stone idol, possibly worshiped by the ancient inhabitants; "to such base uses," etc. A cave near by was the subject of much marvelous report, but its exploration led to nothing in an antiquarian point of view.[V-65]

At Kewick, seven or eight miles southward of Labná, a large space is strewn with the remains of a ruined city, the casa real itself being built on the terrace of an ancient mound. One single stone, however, among these ruins demands the attention of the reader, familiar as he now is with the general features of ancient Maya art. This stone is one of those which compose the top layer, joining the sides of the ceiling in one of the apartments. Singled out for some inexplicable reason from its fellows, it bore a painting in bright colors, chiefly red and green, representing a grotesquely adorned human form surrounded by a line of hieroglyphics. The painting measured eighteen by thirty inches and was taken out from its place by Mr Stephens for the purpose of removal, but proved too heavy for that purpose. Two fronts were sketched by Mr Catherwood at Kewick; one had a line of pillars separated by diamond-shaped ornaments on each side of the doorway; the other was decorated also with a line of pillars, or pilasters, standing close together, as on the Casa de Tortugas at Uxmal.[V-66]

XUL, SACACAL, AND CHACCHOB.

Xul, a modern village near by, stands also on the site of an aboriginal town, and the cura's residence is built of material from an ancient mound, many sculptured stones occupying prominent places in the walls; the church moreover contains sixteen columns fromthe neighboring ruins of Nohcacab. Two leagues from Xul where some ruins were seen, two apartments had red paintings on the plastered walls and ceilings. A row of legs, suggesting a procession, heads decorated with plumes, and human figures standing on their hands, all well-drawn and natural to the life, were still visible, and interesting even in their mutilated state. The rancho buildings at Nohcacab—a second place of the same name as the one already mentioned towards Uxmal—are also decorated with relics from the 'old walls,' but nothing of interest was seen in connection with the ruins themselves, except one room in which the ceiling formed an acute angle at the top instead of being united by a layer of horizontal stones as in other places.[V-67]

Some leagues further eastward, in the neighborhood of the town of Tekax, ruins are mentioned at Sacacal, Ticum, Santa María, and Chacchob. At Sacacal is a chamber with an opening at the top, as at Labná, only much larger; and this one has also three recesses, about two feet deep, in the sides. An apartment here has a painted stone in the top layer as at Kewick; and one building has its wall rounded instead of straight, although this is only on the exterior, the inner surface being straight as usual. The remains at Ticum were only reported to exist by the Cura of San José. At Santa María a high mound only was seen.[V-68]At Chacchob ruins of the usual type are represented, by a Spanish writer in a Yucatan magazine, to be enclosed within a wall, straight from north to south, the rest of the circumference of over six thousand feet being semi-circular. The only entrance is in the centre of the straight side. A well occupies the centre of the enclosure, the chief pyramid is on the summit of a natural elevation, and in one room a door was noticed which was much wider at the top than at the bottom. On the edge of a wall eight hundred varasdistant, grooves worn by the ropes formerly used in drawing water are still to be seen.[V-69]

Further north, in the north-eastern corner of the rectangle which contains our central group of ruins, are Akil and Mani, the relics of the former locality, so far as known, being chiefly built into the walls of modern buildings. Mani was a prominent city at the time of the conquest, and the modern village stands on the remains of the aboriginal town, mounds and other relics not described being yet visible. Mr Stephens here found some documents, dating back to the coming of the Spaniards, which are of great importance in connection with the question of the antiquity of the Yucatan ruins, and will be noticed when I come to speak of that point. The only monuments of the central group remaining to be mentioned are those of Chunhuhu, in the extreme south-western corner of the rectangle. These are very extensive, evidently the remains of a large city, and several of the buildings were sketched by Mr Catherwood, being of one story, and having grotesque human figures as a prominent feature in their exterior decoration. One is plastered on the outside, as Mr Stephens thinks all the Yucatan buildings may have been originally—that is, on the plain portions of their walls. One front has the frequently noticed line of close-standing pilasters, with full-length human figures at intervals, which stand with uplifted hands, as if supporting the weight of the upper cornice.[V-70]

RUINS OF CHICHEN ITZA.

The next, or eastern, group of Yucatan antiquities includes little beside the ruined city of Chichen Itza,[V-71]a city which was famous in the ancient traditionary annals of the Mayas, whose structures served both natives and Spaniards as fortifications at the time of the conquest, and whose ruins have been more or less known to the inhabitants of the country since that epoch. The ruins lie twenty miles west of Valladolid, the chief town of the eastern portion of the state, on a public road in plain view of all travelers by that route. In this case the original Maya name has been retained, Chichen meaning 'mouth of wells,' and Itza being the name of a branch of the Maya people, or of a royal family, which played a most prominent part in Yucatan history. The name Chichen comes probably from two great senotes which supplied the ancient city with water, and which differ from the complicated underground passages noted in other parts of the state, being immense natural pits of great depth, with nearly perpendicular sides, the only traces of artificial improvement being in the winding steps that lead down to the water's surface, and slight remains of a wall about the edge of the precipice. So far as explored, the remains may be included in a rectangle measuring two thousand by three thousand feet, and their arrangement is shown in the plan on the next page, made by Mr Catherwood.[V-72]

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