ANTIQUITIES OF YUCATAN.
YUCATAN, THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE -- ABUNDANCE OF RUINED
CITIES -- ANTIQUARIAN EXPLORATION OF THE STATE -- CENTRAL
GROUP -- UXMAL -- HISTORY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY -- WALDECK,
STEPHENS, CATHERWOOD, NORMAN, FRIEDERICHSTHAL, AND CHARNAY
-- CASA DEL GOBERNADOR, LAS MONJAS, EL ADIVINO, PYRAMID,
AND GYMNASIUM -- KABAH, NOHPAT, LABNÁ, AND NINETEEN OTHER
RUINED CITIES -- EASTERN GROUP; CHICHEN ITZA AND VICINITY
-- NORTHERN GROUP; MAYAPAN, MÉRIDA, AND IZAMAL -- SOUTHERN
GROUP; LABPHAK, ITURBIDE, AND MACOBA -- EASTERN COAST;
TULOOM AND COZUMEL -- WESTERN COAST; MAXCANÚ, JAÏNA, AND
CAMPECHE -- GENERAL FEATURES OF THE YUCATAN RELICS --
PYRAMIDS AND STONE BUILDINGS -- LIMESTONE, MORTAR, STUCCO,
AND WOOD -- THE TRIANGULAR ARCH -- SCULPTURE, PAINTING,
AND HIEROGLYPHICS -- ROADS AND WELLS -- COMPARISONS --
ANTIQUITY OF THE MONUMENTS -- CONCLUSIONS.
[Sidenote: PHYSICAL FEATURES OF YUCATAN.]
North of the bay of Chetumal on the Atlantic, the Laguna de Terminos
on the gulf of Mexico, and latitude 17° 50´ in the interior, lies the
peninsula of Yucatan, one of the few exceptions to the general
direction of the world's peninsulas, projecting north-eastwardly from
the continent, its form approximately a parallelogram whose sides
measure two hundred and fifty miles from north to south and two
hundred from east to west. Its whole surface, so far as known to
geographers, may be termed practically a level plain only slightly
elevated above the level of the sea. The coast for the most part, and
especially in the north, is low, sandy, and barren, with few
indentations affording harbors, and correspondingly few towns and
cities of any importance. Crossing the narrow coast region, however,
we find the interior fertile and heavily wooded. While there are no
mountains that deserve the name, yet there are not entirely wanting
ranges of hills to break up and diversify by their elevation of from
two hundred to five hundred feet the monotony of a dead level. Chief
among these is the Sierra de Yucatan, so called, an offshoot of the
southern Peten heights, branching out from the great central
Cordillera. It stretches north-eastward nearly parallel with the
eastern coast to within some twenty-five miles of Cape Catoche.
Another line of hills on the opposite gulf coast extends from the
mouth of the River Champoton, also north-eastward, toward Mérida, the
capital of the state, about thirty miles south-west of which place it
deflects abruptly at right angles from its former direction, and with
one or two parallel minor ranges extends south-eastward at least
half-way across the state. At some period geologically recent the
waves of ocean and gulf doubtless beat against this elbow-shaped
sierra, then the coast barrier of the peninsula; since the country
lying to the north and west presents everywhere in its limestone
formation traces of its comparatively late emergence from beneath the
sea. The lack of water on the surface is a remarkable feature in the
physical geography of Yucatan. There are no rivers, and the few small
streams along the coast extend but few miles inland and disappear as a
rule in the dry season. One small lake, whose waters are strongly
impregnated with salt, is the only body of water in the broad
interior, which is absolutely destitute of streams. From June to
October of each year rain falls in torrents, and the sandy, calcareous
soil seems to possess a wonderful property of retaining the stored-up
moisture, since the ardent rays of the tropical sun beating down
through the long rainless summer months, rarely succeed in parching
any portion of the surface into any approach to the sterility of a
desert. The summer temperature, although high, is modified by
sea-breezes from the east and west; consequently the heat is less
oppressive and the climate on the whole more healthful than in any
other state of the American tierra caliente. The inhabitants,
something over half a million in number, of whom a very large
proportion are full-blooded natives of the Maya race, are a quiet and
peaceful though brave people, living simply on the products of the
soil and of the forest, and each community taking but little interest
in the affairs of the world away from their own immediate
neighborhood. They made a brave but vain resistance to the progress of
foreign conquerors, and have since lived for the most part in quiet
subjection to the power of a dominant race and the priests of a
foreign faith, having lost almost completely the ambitious and haughty
spirit for which they were once noted, and forgotten practically the
greatness of their civilized ancestors. Since throwing off the power
of Spain, they have passed through four or five revolutions,--a
noteworthy record when compared with that of other Spanish American
states--by which Yucatan has passed successively to and fro from the
condition of an independent republic to that of a state in the Mexican
Republic, to which it now belongs. Except the northern central
portion, which contains the capital and principal towns, and which
itself, outside of Mérida and the route to the coast, is only
comparatively well known through the writings of a few travelers, and
except also some of the ports along the coast visited occasionally by
trading vessels of various nations, Yucatan is still essentially a
terra incognita. It was more thoroughly explored by the Spanish
soldiers and priests in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries than
at any subsequent time. The eastern interior and the southern
bordering on the Guatemalan province of Peten are especially
unexplored, little or nothing being known of the latter district away
from the trails that lead southward, one to Bacalar, the other to Lake
Peten, trodden by the feet of few but natives during the last two
centuries.
[Sidenote: A RICH ANTIQUARIAN FIELD.]
Yucatan presents a rich field for antiquarian exploration, furnishing
perhaps finer, and certainly more numerous, specimens of ancient
aboriginal architecture, sculpture, and painting than have been
discovered in any other section of America. The state is literally
dotted, at least in the northern central, or best known, portions with
ruined edifices and cities. I shall have occasion to mention, and
describe more or less fully, in this chapter, such ruins in between
fifty and sixty different localities.[V-1] While these monuments,
however, are the most extensive and among the best preserved within
the limits of the Pacific States, they were yet among the last to be
brought to the knowledge of the modern world. In the voyages, made
early in the sixteenth century, which immediately preceded the
conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, Córdova, Grijalva, and Cortés
touched at various points along the Yucatan coast, and were amazed to
find there on the borders of a new world which they had supposed to be
occupied exclusively by barbarians, a civilized people who served
their gods and kept their idols in lofty stone temples. But their stay
was brief and they pursued their way northward, bent on the conquest
of the richer realms of Montezuma. The excitement of the conquest and
the new wonders beheld in Anáhuac blotted practically from the popular
mind all memory of the southern tower-temples, although their
discovery was recorded in the diaries of the expeditions, from which
and from verbal descriptions accounts were inserted in the works of
the standard historians of the Indies. Later, in the middle of the
century, when the turn came for Yucatan to be overrun with soldiers,
stone temples had become too familiar sights to excite much attention;
yet the chroniclers of the time included in their annals some brief
descriptions of the heathen temples destroyed by the Spanish invaders;
and the Yucatan historians of the following century, Landa, Cogolludo,
and Villagutierre Soto-Mayor, described and personally visited some of
the ruins. These earlier accounts have been utilized in delineating
the state of architectural art among the Mayas in a preceding volume,
and they will also be used somewhat extensively as illustrative
material in the following pages. Since these early times the ruins,
shrouded by a dense tropical vegetation, have lain untenanted and
unknown, save to the peaceful inhabitants of the northern and more
thickly settled portions of the state, who have from time to time
become aware of their existence accidentally while in search of water
or a favorable locality for a milpa, or cornfield. Only a few of the
forty-four ruined towns explored by Mr Stephens were known to exist by
the people of Mérida, the state capital.
[Sidenote: EXPLORATION OF MAYA RUINS.]
[Sidenote: STEPHENS AND CATHERWOOD.]
Since 1830 the veil has been lifted from the principal ruins of
ancient Maya works by the researches of Zavala, Waldeck, Stephens,
Catherwood, Norman, Friederichsthal, and Charnay. A general account of
the antiquarian explorations and writings of these gentlemen is given
in the appended note,[V-2] details and notices of additional visitors
to particular localities being reserved until I come to speak of those
localities. It will be noticed that all the authors mentioned who
write from actual observation, have confined their observations to
from one to four of the principal ruins, whose existence was known
previous to their visits, excepting Messrs Stephens and Catherwood.
These gentlemen boldly left the beaten track and brought to the
knowledge of the world about forty ruined cities whose very existence
had been previously unknown even to the residents of the larger
cities of the very state in whose territory they lie. With a force of
natives to aid in clearing away the forest, Mr Stephens spent ten
months in surveying, and Mr Catherwood in sketching with the aid of a
daguerrean camera, the various groups of ruined structures. The
accuracy of both survey and drawings is unquestioned. The visit of
these explorers was the first, and has thus far proved in most cases
the last. The wrecks of Maya architecture have been left to slumber
undisturbed in their forest winding-sheet. "For a brief space the
stillness that reigned around them was broken, and they were again
left to solitude and silence. Time and the elements are hastening them
to utter destruction. It has been the fortune of the author to step
between them and the entire destruction to which they are destined;
and it is his hope to snatch from oblivion these perishing, but still
gigantic memorials of a mysterious people." His hope has been fully
realized, and his book may be regarded as a model, both as a journal
of travel and personal adventure and as a record of antiquarian
research. Mr Stephens is one of the very few travelers who have been
able to gaze upon the noble monuments of a past civilization without
being drawn into a maze of absurd reasoning and conjecture respecting
their builders. His conclusions, if sometimes incorrect in the opinion
of other antiquarians entitled to a hearing in the matter, are never
groundless or rashly formed.
Notwithstanding the extent of Mr Stephens' explorations, a very large
part of Yucatan remains yet untrodden by the antiquary's foot. This is
especially true in the east, except on the immediate coast, and in the
south toward Guatemala. That extensive ruins yet lie hidden in these
unexplored regions, can hardly be doubted; indeed, it is by no means
certain that the grandest cities, even in the settled and partially
explored part of the peninsula, have yet been described; but the
uniformity of such as have been brought to our knowledge does not lead
us to expect new developments with respect to the nature, whatever may
be proved of the extent, of the Maya antiquities.
By reason of the level surface of the peninsula, uncut by rivers, and
unbroken by mountain ranges, the determination of the geographical
position of its ruins is reduced to a statement of distances and
bearings. The location of the chief cities is moreover indicated on
the map which accompanies this volume.[V-3] With respect to the order
in which they are to be described there would be little ground for
preference in favor of any particular arrangement, were they all
equally well known. But this is not the case. Two or three of the
principal cities have been carefully examined, described, and
sketched, and as for the rest, only their points of contrast with the
preceding have been pointed out. All that is known of most of the
ruins would be wholly unintelligible at the commencement of my
description, but will be found comparatively satisfactory further on.
Thus I am not only obliged to describe the best-known ruins first, but
fortunately these are also among the grandest and most typical of the
whole, being, in fact, the very ones that would be selected for the
purpose. To fully describe a few and point out contrasts in the rest
is the only method of avoiding a very tiresome monotony in attempting
to make known some hundreds of structures very like one to another in
most of their details as well as in their general features. The
similarity observed among the different monuments is a very great
advantage to the antiquarian student, since it will enable me, if I
mistake not, to give the reader in this chapter as clear an idea of
the antiquities of Yucatan, notwithstanding their great number, as of
any portion of the Pacific States.
[Sidenote: GROUPS OF RUINS.]
For convenience in description, then, I divide the ruins in the
interior of the state into four groups; the central group,--placed
first that I may begin my account with Uxmal--which, besides the
extensive ruins of Uxmal, Kabah, and Labná, embraces relics of the
past in at least nineteen other localities; the eastern group,
including little besides the famous ruins at Chichen Itza; the
northern group, in which I mention Izamal, Aké, Mérida, and Mayapan;
and the southern group, comprising five or six ruined towns in the
region of Iturbide. I shall finally treat of the antiquities
discovered at various points on the eastern and western coasts.
The parallel ranges of hills already spoken of as extending half-way
across the peninsula from north-west to south-east contain within
their enclosed valleys the ruins of the first group, more numerous
than in any other section of the state, and all comprised within a
parallelogram whose sides would measure about thirty and forty miles
respectively.
[Sidenote: RUINS OF UXMAL.]
Uxmal is the most north-western of the group, in latitude 20° 27´
30´´, thirty-five miles south of Mérida, on a hacienda belonging, by
a deed running back one hundred and forty years, thirty-five years
ago,--and very likely still, as real estate rarely changes hands in
Spanish American countries,--to the Peon family, and at one time
cultivated by its owners as a cornfield.[V-4] The derivation and
meaning of the name Uxmal,[V-5] like that of so many American cities
of the past, is unknown; it is even uncertain whether this was the
name of the city at all in the days of its original greatness, or only
an appellation derived from that of the hacienda on which it stands,
in comparatively modern times. Waldeck and some other writers take the
latter view, identifying the ruins themselves with the city of
Itzalane, ancient capital of the Itzas, although the authorities
indicate only very vaguely that a city named Itzalane ever existed.
Brasseur de Bourbourg, on the contrary, believes it to have been,
under its present name of Uxmal, the capital of the Tutul Xius in the
ninth century; Mr Stephens also believes that Uxmal was an inhabited
city down to the days of the conquest.[V-6] The ruins are situated in
the foothills of one of the ranges mentioned, notwithstanding which
fact the locality seems to be one of the most unhealthy in the state.
Fever and ague, especially during the rainy season, and ravenous
mosquitos have ever been the chief obstacles encountered by travelers.
The vegetation, although dense and of the usual rapid growth, has been
a lesser hindrance here than in many other localities, by reason of
the ruins' proximity to a hacienda and the frequent clearings
made.[V-7]
The exact extent of the ruins it is of course impossible to determine,
since the whole region abounds with mounds and heaps of débris
scattered in every direction through the adjoining forest,[V-8] and
belonging originally to Uxmal or to some city in its immediate
vicinity. A rectangular space, however, measuring in general terms
something over one third of a mile from north to south and one fourth
of a mile from east to west would include all the principal
structures. The annexed plan will show their arrangement within the
rectangle, as well as their ground forms and dimensions more clearly
than many pages of descriptive text. Except in a few instances I have
not attempted on the plan to represent the grades of the various
terraces, which will be made clear in the text, but have indicated the
extent of their bases by dotted lines and by the omission of the
foliage which covers their sides and platforms as well as the
surrounding country.[V-9] It will be seen at a glance by the reader
that none of the structures face exactly the cardinal points, and that
no two of them face exactly in the same direction. It is customary for
writers on American antiquities to speak of all the principal ruined
palaces and temples as exactly oriented, and all the visitors to
Uxmal, except Stephens, make the same statement respecting its
structures, or so represent them on their plans. But in this case we
are left in no uncertainty in the matter, for a photographic view of
the southern ruins from the courtyard of the building C, agrees
exactly with Stephens' plan, and proves beyond question that the
structures A and C, at least, cannot lie in the same direction.[V-10]
To prove that any of them face the cardinal points will require more
careful examination than has yet been made.
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: PLAN OF UXMAL]
[Sidenote: UXMAL--CASA DEL GOBERNADOR.]
In the southern central portion of the space comprised in the plan is
the edifice at A, known as the Casa del Gobernador, or Governor's
House. It may be remarked here that the names by which the different
structures are known have been given them, generally by the natives,
but sometimes by visitors, in accordance with what they have fancied
to have been their original use. There is only a very slight
probability that in a few cases they may have hit upon a correct
designation, although many of the names, like that of this building,
are certainly sufficiently appropriate.[V-11] The terraced mound that
supports the Governor's house demands our first attention. Its base,
with its irregularities in form on the west and south, is shown on the
plan by the dotted lines _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_: and measures on its
perfect sides, _ab_, and _bc_, about six hundred feet. At a height of
three feet from the ground a terrace, or promenade, mostly destroyed
at the time of observation and not indicated on the plan, extends
round the mound. From this rises the second terrace to a height of
twenty feet, supporting a platform whose sides measure five hundred
and forty-five feet. Somewhat west of the centre of this platform
rises the third terrace, nineteen feet high and supporting the summit
platform _e_, _f_, _g_, _h_, whose dimensions are about one hundred by
three hundred and sixty feet, and whose height above the original
surface of the ground is something over forty feet.[V-12] The material
of the body of this mound is rough fragments of limestone thrown
together without any order; the terraces are supported, however, at
the sides by solid walls built of regular blocks of hewn limestone
carefully laid in mortar nearly as hard as the rock. So far as can be
determined from the drawings, these walls are not perpendicular, but
incline slightly inward towards the top, and the corners are not
square but carefully rounded. It is not improbable that the platforms
were also paved originally with square blocks, as M. Charnay believes,
although now covered with soil and vegetation. By means of an
excavation, solid stone was found in the interior above the surface
level, showing that the builders had taken advantage of a natural
elevation as a labor-saving expedient in heaping up this massive
artificial stone mound. There are no traces of stairways by which
access was had to the second platform,[V-13] but a long inclined plane
without steps, one hundred feet wide, on the southern side, apparently
furnished the only means of ascent. From the second platform, however,
a regular stairway of thirty-five steps, one hundred and thirty feet
wide, leads up to the summit at _i_, being in the centre of the
eastern side, or front.
[Illustration: Ground Plan of the Casa del Gobernador.]
[Illustration: Section of the Casa del Gobernador.]
The upper platform supports, and forms a promenade thirty feet wide
round the Casa del Gobernador, which is a building three hundred and
twenty-two feet long, thirty-nine feet wide, and twenty-six feet
high,[V-14] built of stone and mortar. A central wall divides the
interior longitudinally into two nearly equal corridors, which,
divided again by transverse partition walls, form two parallel rows of
rooms extending the whole length of the building. The arrangement of
these rooms will be best understood by a reference to the accompanying
ground plan from Mr Stephens.[V-15] The two central apartments are
about sixty feet long and twelve feet wide; the others, except the
two in the recesses, are twelve by twenty-five feet. Those of the
front corridor are twenty-three feet high, while in the rear they are
only twenty-two, authorities differing somewhat, however, on this
point. There are two doorways in the rear, one on each end, and
thirteen on the front; with nine interior doorways exactly opposite
the same number on the exterior. The rear, or western wall, except for
a short distance at each end, is nine feet thick and perfectly solid,
as was proved by an excavation; the transverse walls corresponding
with the two recesses are of about the same thickness; and all the
other walls are between two and three feet thick. The stone for the
facings of the whole building is cut in smooth blocks nearly cubic in
form and of varying but nowhere exactly stated dimensions; but the
mass of the structure, as is proven by M. Charnay's photograph, is an
agglomeration of rough, irregular fragments of stone in mortar. The
construction of the whole will be understood by a glance at the cut,
which represents a section of the building at the central doorway in
very nearly its true proportions, although the proper size and cubical
form of the blocks are not observed.[V-16] At about mid-height of each
room the side walls begin to approach each other, one layer of stones
overlapping the one below it, until they are only one foot apart, when
a number of blocks, longer than usual, are laid across the top,
serving by means of the mortar which holds them in place and the
weight of the superimposed masonry, as key-stones to this arch of the
true American type. The projecting corners of the overlapping blocks
are beveled off so that the ceiling presents two plane stone surfaces
nearly forming an acute angle at the top. Above and between these
arches all is solid masonry to the flat roof, giving to the apartments
the air of galleries excavated in the solid mass, rather than enclosed
by walls. The top of each doorway is formed by a stout beam of
zapote-wood which has to bear the weight of the stone-work above. One
of these lintels in the southern apartment, ten feet long, twenty-one
inches wide, and ten inches thick, is elaborately carved; the rest,
not only in this building, but in all at Uxmal, are plain.[V-17] Many
of them are broken and fallen. It is to the breaking of these wooden
lintels that is to be attributed nearly all the dilapidation
observable about this ruin, especially over the outer doorways. Some
special motive must have influenced the builders to use wood in
preference to the more durable stone, and this motive may be supposed
to have been the rarity and value of the zapote, which is said not to
grow in this part of the state. The only traces preserved of the means
by which these doorways were originally closed are the remains, on the
inside of some of them near the top, of rings, or hooks, which may
have served as hinges, or more probably for the support of a bar from
which to suspend curtains. The dimensions of the doorways are not
stated, but they are about ten feet high and seven feet wide. They are
the only openings into or between the apartments, there being
absolutely no windows, chimneys, or air-holes. Across the ceilings
from side to side at about mid-height stretch small wooden beams,
whose ends are built into the stone-work. The only suggestions
respecting their use are that they served to support the ceilings
while in process of construction, and that they served for the
suspension of hammocks.[V-18] The inner surface of the rooms is that
of the plain smooth stone blocks, except in one or two of them where a
very thin coating of fine white plaster is noticed. There is no trace
of painting, sculpture, or other attempt at decoration. The floors and
roof are covered with a hard cement. Nothing further worthy of
particular notice demands our attention in the interior of the
Governor's House, except the small apartments corresponding with the
recesses near each end of the building. In these the sides of the
ceiling instead of beginning to approach each other by means of
overlapping blocks at mid-height of the room, begin at or near the
floor, thus leaving no perpendicular walls whatever. The explanation
of this seems to be, so far as can be judged from Catherwood's drawing
and Charnay's photograph, that originally an open passage about twenty
feet wide at the bottom, narrowing to two or three feet at the top,
and twenty-four feet high, extended completely through the building
from front to rear at each of the recesses, and that afterwards this
passage was divided into two small apartments by three partition
walls, a small door being left in the front and rear.[V-19]
[Illustration: South End of the Governor's House.]
[Illustration: Ornament of the Casa del Gobernador.--Fig. 1.]
[Illustration: Ornament of the Casa del Gobernador.--Fig. 2.]
[Illustration: The Elephant's Trunk.--Fig. 3.]
It now only remains to notice the exterior of the walls. A cornice
just above the doorway, at something over one third of the height of
the building, surrounds the entire structure, and another cornice is
found near the top. Below the lower cornice the walls present the
plain surface of the smoothly cut cubes of limestone, no traces of
plaster or paint appearing. Above the cornice the walls are covered
with elegant and complicated sculpture. The preceding cut[V-20]
presents a view of the south end, and gives an idea of the sculptured
portion of the wall, although it must be remembered that both the ends
and rear are much less elaborately decorated than the front. The whole
surface is divided into squares, or panels, filled alternately with
frets, or grecques, and diamond lattice-work, with specially elaborate
ornaments over each doorway, in connection with some of which are
characters presumably hieroglyphic. The three cuts[V-21] show the
ornamentation over the central front doorway. The first represents
what seems to have been a human figure seated and surmounted by a
lofty plumed head-dress. These human statues occurred in several
places along the front, probably over each door, but few fragments
remained to be seen by Europeans, and most of these have long since
entirely disappeared. The second cut represents that part of the
decoration extending above that before pictured to the upper cornice
along the top of the wall. The central portion of this ornament is a
curved projection, supposed, by more than one traveler, to be modeled
after the trunk of an elephant, of which a profile view is shown in
the third cut. It projects nineteen inches from the surface of the
wall. This protruding curve occurs more frequently on this and other
buildings at Uxmal than any other decoration, and usually with the
same or similar accompaniments, which may be fancied to represent the
features of a monster, of which this forms the nose. It occurs
especially on the ornamented and rounded corners; being sometimes
reversed in its position, and having, with few exceptions, the point
broken off, probably by the natives, from superstitious motives, to
prevent the long-nosed monster from walking abroad at night.[V-22] The
ornaments are cut on square blocks, which are inserted in the wall,
one block containing only a part of the ornamental design. Of course,
a verbal description fails utterly in conveying any proper idea of
this front, whose sculptured decorations, if less elaborate and
complicated than some others in Yucatan, are surpassed by none in
elegant grandeur. I append however, in a note, some quotations
respecting this façade, and take leave of the Casa del Gobernador with
a mention of the 'red hand,' whose imprint is found on stones in all
parts of the building. Mr Stephens believes that it was made by the
pressure of a small human hand, smeared with red paint, upon the
surface of the wall.[V-23]
This magnificent palace, whose description I have given, may be
regarded as a representative, in its general features and many of its
details, of the ancient Maya structures, very few of which, however,
are so well preserved as this. Consequently, over this type of
ruins--long, low, narrow buildings, with flat roofs, divided into a
double line of small rooms, with triangular-arched ceilings, plain
interior walls, and cement floors; the whole supported by a stone
mound, ascended by a broad stairway--I shall be able in future to pass
more briefly, simply noting such points of contrast with the Casa del
Gobernador as may occur. Still some of the other buildings of Uxmal
have received more attention from visitors, and consequently will
afford better illustrations of some of the common features than the
one already described.
[Sidenote: UXMAL--CASA DE TORTUGAS.]
On the north-west corner of the second platform of the same mound that
supports the Governor's House, and lying in a direction perpendicular
to that building, is the small structure marked B on the plan, and
known as the Casa de Tortugas, or Turtle House. It is ninety-four feet
long, thirty-four feet wide, and, as nearly as can be estimated by
Charnay's photograph, about twenty feet high. The roof, in an insecure
condition at the time of Mr Stephens' first visit, had fallen in
before the second, filling up the interior, concerning which
consequently nothing is known. The central portion of the southern
wall, corresponding with the three doorways on that side, had also
fallen, and on the northern side was ready to fall, the wooden lintel
of the only doorway being broken. At the time of Charnay's visit
neither the centre nor western end of the northern wall remained
standing. The exterior walls below the lower cornice are plain, as in
the Casa del Gobernador, but between the cornices, instead of the
complicated sculpture of the former building, there appears a simple
and elegant line of round columns standing close together and
encircling the whole edifice. Each of these columns is composed of two
or three pieces of stone one upon another, and although presenting
outwardly a half-round surface, they are undoubtedly square on the
side that is built into the wall. Above the upper cornice is a row of
turtles, occurring at regular intervals, sculptured each on a square
block which projects from the wall; hence the name of the building. It
is noted as a remarkable circumstance that no stairway leads up the
terrace to this building from the surface below, or from it to the
Governor's House above.[V-23]
At different points on the second, or grand, platform of the mound
supporting the Casa del Gobernador are traces of structures which once
stood there, but insufficient in every case, except in that of the
Tortugas, to give any idea of their original nature. Standing at the
foot of one of these old foundation walls three hundred feet long,
fifteen feet wide, and three feet high, on the south side of the
platform, at _j_, is a range of broken round columns, each five feet
high and eighteen inches in diameter.[V-24]
On the same platform, about eighty feet eastward of the central
stairway, at _k_, is a round stone standing eight feet above the
ground in a leaning position. It is rudely formed, has no sculpture on
its surface, and is surrounded by a small square enclosure two stones
high. The natives call it _picote_, 'stone of punishment,' or
'whipping-post.' Its prominent and central position in front of the
magnificent palace, indicates its great importance in the eyes of the
ancient Mayas, and Mr Stephens thinks it may be a phallus, not without
reason, since apparent traces of an ancient phallic worship will be
found not unfrequently among the Yucatan ruins.[V-25]
[Sidenote: UXMAL--PICOTE AND IDOL.]
Sixty feet further eastward, at _l_, was a circular mound of earth and
stones about sixty feet in height, opened by Mr Stephens, who brought
to light a double-headed stone animal, three feet long and two feet
high, which had been buried there, very probably for the purpose of
concealment. Being too heavy for convenient removal, it was left
standing in the same position as when buried, and has there been
noticed by several subsequent observers. Its sculpture is rude, and
but slightly damaged by time. It is shown in the cut on the next page,
with the picote, the stairway, and the front of the Governor's House
in the distance.[V-26] One hundred and thirty feet from this
two-headed idol, in a direction not stated, Mr Stephens found a
structure twenty feet square at the base, from which were dug out two
sculptured heads, apparently portraits. The only objects of interest
which remain to be noticed in connection with this platform, or the
mound-structure of which it forms a part, are two excavations,
supposed to have been originally cisterns. The entrance, or mouth, to
each is a circular opening, eighteen inches in diameter, lined with
regular blocks of cut stone, and descending three feet, vertically,
from the surface of the platform, before it begins to widen into a
dome-shaped chamber. The dimensions of the chambers could not be
ascertained because they were nearly filled with rubbish, but similar
chambers are of frequent occurrence throughout the city of Uxmal and
vicinity, several of which were found unencumbered with débris, and in
perfect preservation. They were all dome-shaped, or rather of the
shape of a well-formed hay-stack, as Mr Stevens expresses it, the
bottoms being somewhat contracted. The walls and floor were carefully
plastered. One of these cisterns measured ten and a half feet deep and
seventeen and a half feet in diameter.[V-27]
[Illustration: Two-headed Idol at Uxmal.]
[Sidenote: UXMAL--CISTERNS AND PYRAMID.]
At the south-west corner of the Casa del Gobernador, and even
intrenching on the terraces that support it, is the pyramid E, to
which strangely enough no name has been given. It has in fact received
but very slight attention; one short visit by Mr Stephens, during
which he mounted to the summit with a force of Indians, being the only
one recorded, although it is barely mentioned by others. This pyramid
measures two hundred by three hundred feet at the base, and its height
is sixty-five feet. At the top is a square platform, whose sides are
each seventy-five feet. The area of this platform is flat, composed of
rough stones, and has no traces whatever of ever having supported any
building. Its sides, however, three feet high perpendicularly, are of
hewn blocks of stone, and smooth with ornamented corners. Below this
summit platform, for a distance of ten or twelve feet, the sides of
the pyramid are faced with sculptured stone, the ornaments being
chiefly grecques, like those on the Governor's House, having one of
the immense faces with projecting teeth at the centre of the western
side. At this point Mr Stephens attempted an excavation in the hope of
discovering interior apartments, but the only result was to prostrate
himself with an attack of fever, which obliged him to quit Uxmal. Just
below this sculptured upper border, some fifteen feet below the top, a
narrow terrace extends round the four sides of the pyramid. Concerning
the surface below this terrace, we only know that it is encased in
stone, and would very probably reveal additional ornamentation if
subjected to a more minute examination.[V-28] The pyramid F, still
farther south-west, is two hundred feet long and one hundred and
twenty feet wide at the base, being about fifty feet high. These
particulars, together with the fact that a stairway leads up the
northern slope, to one of the typical Yucatan buildings, twenty by one
hundred feet and divided into three apartments, are absolutely all
that has been recorded of this structure, which, like its more
imposing companion pyramid, has not been thought worthy of a name. The
reader will be able to form a more consistent conjecture respecting
its original appearance after reading a description in the following
pages of the structure at D, which presents some points of apparent
similarity to its more modest southern neighbor.[V-29]
[Sidenote: UXMAL--CASA DE PALOMAS.]
Northward from the last pyramid, and connected with it by a courtyard
one hundred feet long and eighty-five feet wide, with ranges of
undescribed ruins on the east and west, are the buildings at G, built
round and enclosing a courtyard one hundred and eighty feet long and
one hundred and fifty feet wide, entered through an archway in the
centre of the northern and southern buildings. This courtyard has a
picote in the centre, like that before the Governor's House, but
fallen. These buildings are in an advanced state of ruin and no
details are given respecting any of them except the northern one,
which presents one remarkable feature. Along the centre of the roof
from east to west throughout the whole length of two hundred and forty
feet, is a peculiar wall rising in peaks like saw-teeth. These are
nine in number, each about twenty-seven feet long at the base, between
fifteen and twenty feet high, and three feet thick. Each is pierced
with many oblong openings arranged in five or six horizontal rows, one
above another like the windows in the successive stories of a modern
building, or like those of a pigeon house, or Casa de Palomas, by
which name it is known. Traces yet remain which show that originally
these strange elevations were covered with stucco ornaments, the only
instance of stucco decorations in Uxmal. Of this group of structures,
including the two courtyards and the pyramid beyond, notwithstanding
their ruined condition, Mr Stephens remarks that "they give a stronger
impression of departed greatness than anything else in this desolate
city."[V-30]
Respecting the remains marked 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15, on
the plan, north of the Pyramid and Casa de Palomas, and west of the
Casa del Gobernador, all that can be said is embodied in the following
quotation: "A vast range of high, ruined terraces, facing east and
west, nearly eight hundred feet long at the base, and called the Campo
Santo. On one of these is a building of two stories, with some remains
of sculpture, and in a deep and overgrown valley at the foot, the
Indians say, was the burial-place of this ancient city; but, though
searching for it ourselves, and offering a reward to them for the
discovery, we never found in it a sepulchre."[V-31]
Crossing over now to the eastward of the Governor's House, we find a
small group of ruins in the south-eastern corner of the rectangle. The
one marked 6 on the plan is known as the Casa de la Vieja, or Old
Woman's House, so named from a statue that was found lying near its
front. The building stands on the summit of a small pyramid and its
walls were just ready to fall at the time of the survey. Of the other
structures of the group, 5 and 7, no further information is given than
that which may be gathered from the plan. Along the line marked 4, 4,
4, are slight traces of a continuous wall, indicating that Uxmal may
have been a walled city, since no careful search has ever been made
for such traces in other portions of the city's circumference.[V-32]
[Sidenote: UXMAL GYMNASIUM.]
To go from the Casa del Gobernador northward to the buildings at C and
D, yet to be described, we pass between two parallel walls at H. These
two parallel structures are solid masses of rough stones faced on all
four sides with smoothly cut blocks, and were, so far as can be
determined in their present condition, exactly alike. Each measures
thirty by one hundred and twenty-eight feet on the ground, and they
are seventy feet apart, their height not being given. The fronts which
face each other were covered with sculptured decorations, now mostly
fallen, including two entwined serpents; while from the centre of each
of these façades projected originally a stone ring about four feet in
diameter, fixed in the wall by means of a tenon. Both are broken, and
the fragments for the most part lost. A similar building in a better
state of preservation will be noticed among the ruins of Chichen Itza,
in describing which a cut of one of the stone rings will be given. It
is easy to imagine that the grand promenade between the northern and
southern palaces, or temples, was along a line that passed between
these walls, and that these sculptured fronts and rings were important
in connection with religious rites and processions of priests. The
chief entrance to the northern buildings is in a line with this
passage, and it seems strange that we find no corresponding stairway
leading up the southern terrace to the front of the Casa de
Tortugas.[V-33]
[Sidenote: UXMAL--CASA DE MONJAS.]
Between two and three hundred yards north from the Casa del
Gobernador, is the Casa de Monjas, or Nunnery, marked C on the plan.
This is perhaps the most wonderful edifice, or collection of edifices,
in Yucatan, if not the finest specimen of aboriginal architecture and
sculpture in America. The supporting mound, whose base is indicated by
the dotted lines _m_, _n_, _o_, _p_ is in general terms three hundred
and fifty feet square, and nineteen feet high, its sides very nearly
facing the cardinal points. The southern, or front, slope of the
mound, about seventy feet wide, rises in three grades, or terraces,
three, twelve, and four feet high, and twenty, forty-five, and five
feet wide, respectively, from the base. There are some traces of a
wide central stairway leading up to the second terrace on this side,
but none of the steps remain in place.
On this platform stand four of the typical Yucatan edifices built
round a courtyard, with unequal intervals between them at the corners.
The southern building is two hundred and seventy-nine feet long,
twenty-eight feet wide, and eighteen feet high; the northern building,
two hundred and sixty-four feet long, twenty-eight feet wide, and
twenty-five feet high; the eastern, one hundred and fifty-eight by
thirty-five feet, and twenty-two feet high; the western, one hundred
and seventy-three by thirty-five feet, and twenty feet high.[V-34] The
northern building stands on a terrace of its own, which rises about
twenty feet above the general level of the main platform on which the
others stand. The court formed by the four edifices measures two
hundred and fifty-eight by two hundred and fourteen feet. It is two
feet and a half lower than the foundations of the eastern, western,
and southern buildings, and traces of low steps may yet be seen
running the whole length of the sides. Its area is paved with stone,
much worn by long usage. M. Waldeck, by diligent research or by an
effort of his imagination, found that each of the forty-three thousand
six hundred and sixty blocks composing the pavement was six inches
square, and had the figure of a turtle sculptured on its upper
surface. Stephens could find no traces of the turtles, and believes
that the pavement was originally covered with cement.[V-35] In the
centre are the fragments of a rude column, picote, or phallus, like
those found in connection with the Casa del Gobernador and Casa de
Palomas. M. Charnay also found traces of a straight path with raised
borders leading north and south across the centre, and also two of the
dome-shaped cisterns already described.[V-36]
| SOUTH || NORTH || EAST
+----+----+----++----+----+----++----+----+----
|Long|Wide|High||Long|Wide|High||Long|Wide|High
+----+----+----++----+----+----++----+----+----
Stephens, Text |279 | | ||264 | | 25 ||158 | |
Stephens, 1st Plan |300 | 30 | ||300 | 25 | ||162 | 35 |
Stephens, 2d Plan |279 | 25 | ||260 | 25 | ||160 | 35 |
Waldeck, Text |227 | 27 | ||227 | 27 | ||176 | 34 |
Waldeck, 1st Plan |235 | 27 | ||235 | 25 | ||210 | 40 |
Waldeck, 2d Plan |264 | 28 | ||225 | 27 | ||174 | 34 |
Charnay, Text | | | ||351 | | ||210 | |
Charnay, Plan |360 | 33 | ||393 | 33 | ||262 | 33 |
Norman |200 | 25 | 16 ||246 | 25 | 26 ||140 | 34 | 25
Heller | | | ||260 | 24 | 25 ||150 | |
| WEST || COURT || TERRACE
+----+----+----++----+-----++----+------
|Long|Wide|High||Long| Wide||High|Circum
+----+----+----++----+-----++----+------
Stephens, Text |173 | | ||258 | 214 || 19 |
Stephens, 1st Plan |165 | 35 | ||240 | 185 || | 1520
Stephens, 2d Plan |165 | 35 | ||220 | 195 || | 1430
Waldeck, Text |176 | 34 | ||227 | 172 || 15 | 1116
Waldeck, 1st Plan |210 | 40 | ||222 | 205 || | 1360
Waldeck, 2d Plan |174 | 34 | ||234 | 180 || |
Charnay, Text | | | ||262 | 262 || |
Charnay, Plan |262 | 33 | ||262 | 265 || |
Norman |140 | 34 | 25 || | || 15 | 1100
Heller |170 | 34 | 25 || | || 18 | 1000
The situation of the four structures forming the quadrangle, and the
division of each into apartments, are shown in the accompanying ground
plan.[V-37]
[Illustration: Ground Plan of the Nunnery.]
[Illustration: Interior of Room--Casa de Monjas.]
It will be noticed that the northern building of the Nunnery does not
stand exactly in the same direction as the sides of the platform or of
the other edifices, an arrangement which detracts somewhat from the
symmetry of the group. Each of the four buildings is divided
longitudinally into two parallel ranges of apartments, arranged very
much like those of the Governor's House, with doorways opening on the
interior court. The only exterior doorways are on the front of the
southern building and on the ends of the northern; these, however,
only afford access to the outer range of rooms, which do not
communicate with the interior. In only one instance do more than two
rooms communicate with each other, and that is in the centre of the
eastern building, where are two communicating apartments, the largest
in the Nunnery, each thirteen by thirty-three feet, with an ante-room
at each end measuring nine by thirteen feet. All the doorways of this
suite are decorated with sculpture, the only instance of interior
stone-carving in Uxmal. The cut on the next page shows the inside of
one of the larger rooms of this suite, and also gives an excellent
idea of the interior of all the structures of Yucatan.[V-38] The rooms
of the Casa de Monjas, eighty-eight in number, like some in the Casa
del Gobernador, are plastered with a thin coat of hard white material
like plaster of Paris. Those of the southern building average
twenty-four feet long, ten feet wide, and seventeen feet high. They
all present the same general features of construction--angular-arched
ceilings, wooden lintels, stone rings, or hinges, on the inside of the
doorways, holes in the sloping ceilings for hammock-timbers, entire
absence of any openings except the doors--that have been previously
described.[V-39] The platform on which the buildings stand forms a
narrow promenade, only five or six feet in width, round each, both
on the exterior and on the court. The entrance to the court is by a
gateway, at _v_ on the general plan, in the centre of the southern
building. It is ten feet and eight inches wide and about fourteen feet
high, the top being formed by the usual triangular arch, and the whole
being similar to the passages through the Casa del Gobernador before
the latter were walled up. Opposite this gateway, at _w_, a stairway
ninety-five feet wide leads up to the upper terrace which supports the
northern building. On each side of this stairway, at _x_, _y_, on the
slope of the terrace, is a ruin of the usual construction, in which
six small apartments may be traced. The dilapidation of these
buildings is so great that it is impossible to ascertain whether they
were independent structures or formed a part of the terrace itself, a
mode of construction of which we shall find some specimens in Yucatan,
and even at Uxmal. A noticeable peculiarity in the northern building
is that, wherever the outer walls are fallen, the sculptured surface
of an inner wall is disclosed, showing that the edifice in its present
form was built over an older structure.
Nothing remains to be said respecting the general plan and
construction of the Nunnery, or of the interior of the apartments
which compose it: and I now come to the exterior walls. The sides and
ends of each building are, like those already described, plain and
unplastered below the cornice, which extends round the whole
circumference just above the doorways. Above this cornice the whole
surface, over twenty-four thousand square feet for the four buildings,
is covered with elegant and elaborate sculptured decorations. The four
interior façades fronting on the court are pronounced by all beholders
the chef-d'œuvres of aboriginal decorative art in America, being
more chaste and artistic, and at the same time less complicated and
grotesque, than any other fronts in Yucatan. All have been carefully
studied, sketched, or photographed. No two of them are alike, or even
similar. The outer fronts received somewhat less care at the hands of
the native builders, and consequently less attention from modern
visitors, being moreover much more seriously affected by the ravages
of time and the elements.
[Illustration: Southern Court Façade--Casa de Monjas.]
[Illustration: Detail of Southern Court Façade.]
I begin with the southern building, showing in the accompanying
engraving the eastern third of its court façade, the other portions
being precisely like that which is represented. Except over the
doorways the space between the cornices is occupied by diamond
lattice-work and vertical columns, small portions being left, however,
entirely plain. Some of the columns have central moldings
corresponding nearly in form to the cornices.[V-40] The central
gateway is not shown in the engraving, but there is no special
ornamentation in connection with it, its border being of lattice-work,
according to Waldeck, or of plain blocks, according to Charnay,
contrary to what might be expected over the only entrance to so grand
a court. The next engraving shows a portion of the same façade on a
larger scale, including the ornament which is repeated over each door.
This ornament seems to represent a small house with a roof of thatch
or tiles, having a human figure seated in a niche in the wall, which
corresponds with the doorway of the house. This seated statue had
disappeared before the visits of later explorers. That a statue once
occupied the niche there can be no doubt. Whether M. Waldeck sketched
it from actual observation or from the report of the natives, is not
quite so clear. The last-named writer advances two original and
somewhat remarkable theories respecting these small houses; first,
that they may be taken as a representation of the houses actually
occupied by the common people at the time Uxmal was built; and second,
that they are identical with the Aztec sign _calli_, 'house,' from
which he derives an argument respecting the probable age of the
building, which will be noticed in its place. M. Charnay calls this
front the Façade des Abeilles, or Bee front, while M. Waldeck terms
the building the Temple of the Asterisms. The exterior, or southern,
front of this building is similar to the northern, but somewhat
plainer, having, however, the same houses and niches over the
doorways.[V-41]
[Illustration: Eastern Court Façade--Casa de Monjas.]
[Illustration: Detail of Eastern Court Façade.]
The court façade of the eastern building, which has been called the
Sun front, and also the Egyptian front, is perhaps more tasteful in
its sculptured ornaments than either of the other three. The southern
half of this façade is represented in the engraving. The ornaments
over the central doorway and at the corners consist of the immense
grotesque masks, with the curved projecting tusks noticed on the Casa
del Gobernador; but the remaining surface is covered with regular
diamond lattice-work, while in connection with each of the cornices is
a line of stone blocks with rounded faces, resembling short columns.
Over this lattice-work, but not entirely concealing it, are six
peculiar and graceful ornaments, placed at regular intervals, four of
them surmounting doorways. One of these, precisely like all the rest,
is shown on an enlarged scale in the engraving. It consists of eight
parallel horizontal bars, increasing in length as they approach the
upper cornice, and each terminating at either end in a serpent's or
monster's head with open jaws. A human face with a peculiar
head-dress, large ear-pendants, and tongue hanging from the mouth,
looks down from the centre of the upper bars. This face is fancied by
Waldeck to represent the sun, and something in its surroundings
strikes Charnay as partaking of the Egyptian style; hence the names
that have been applied to this façade. M. Viollet-le-Duc attempts to
prove the development of the architectural ideas embodied in the Maya
edifices from an original structure of wood. His use of this claimed
peculiarity will be more appropriately spoken of hereafter, but his
illustration of the idea in connection with this eastern front, is
certainly striking as shown in the annexed cut.[V-42] The southern end
of this building is shown in one of Charnay's photographs, and,
together with a small portion of the western front, in a drawing by
Catherwood. These views show that the ends, and probably all of the
rear, are made up of plain wall and lattice-work, with elaborate
ornaments at each of the corners.[V-43]
[Illustration: Trace of Original Structure in Wood.]
[Illustration: Western Court Façade--Casa de Monjas.]
I now pass on to the opposite, or western building, known as the
Serpent Temple, whose court façade is shown in the engraving. At the
time of the visits of Catherwood and Charnay a large portion of this
front had fallen, and the standing portions only were represented in
their drawings and photographs, no attempt being made in the former at
restoration. In 1835, however, according to the testimony of both M.
Waldeck and Sr Peon, proprietor of Uxmal, it was standing nearly
intact; I have consequently preferred to reproduce Waldeck's drawing
of a portion of this façade, especially as the portions shown by
Catherwood and Charnay agree almost exactly with this drawing and
prove its accuracy. But slight justice can be done to this, the most
magnificent and beautiful front in America, by an engraving on so
small a scale as I am obliged to employ. Two serpents, each with a
monster's head between the open jaws of which a human face appears,
and the tail of a rattlesnake placed near and above the head at either
end of the building, almost entirely surround the front above the
lower cornice, dividing the surface by the folds and interlacing of
their bodies into square panels. That is, it seems to have been the
aim of the builders to form these panels by the folds of these two
mighty serpents, and the work is so described by all visitors, but it
appears from an examination of the folds, as shown in the engraving,
that the serpent whose head and tail are shown on the right only
encloses really the first panel, and that each other panel is
surrounded by the endless body of a serpent without head or tail. The
scales or feathers on the serpent's body are somewhat more clearly
defined than is indicated in the engraving, as is proved by Charnay's
photograph. The surface of this wall is filled with grecques and
lattice-work similar to those of the Governor's House, but much more
complicated; and each panel has one or more human faces among its
decorations, while several of them have full-sized standing human
figures. Over each doorway and on the rounded corners of the building,
are the usual grotesque decorations, bearing some likeness to three
distorted faces or masks placed one above another, and all furnished
with the projecting curves, or hooks, previously compared to
elephants' trunks.[V-44] Respecting the ends and rear of this building
nothing whatever has been recorded.
The northern building, standing on a terrace twenty feet above the
platform which supports the other structures, and consequently
overlooking them all, was very probably intended by the builders as
the crowning feature of the Casa de Monjas. Its court façade was
crowded with sculptured designs, grander, perhaps, and more imposing,
but at the same time much less elegant and refined than those of the
fronts already described. Apparently from no other motive than to
obtain more space on which to exercise their talent for decorative
art, and thus to render this front more striking, the builders
extended the front wall at regular intervals above the upper cornice,
forming thirteen turrets seventeen feet high and ten feet wide,
placed generally above the doorways. These turrets, towering about
eighty feet above the site of the city, and loaded with elaborate
sculpture, must have been a prominent feature of the aboriginal Uxmal.
Only four of the turrets remained standing at the time of Stephens'
visit, and the wall was otherwise much dilapidated. The only view is
that given in Charnay's photographs, none of the turrets being
complete at the time of his visit. The background of the sculpture is
divided into panels filled with grecques and ornamented lattice-work
very similar to that of the Serpent front. Half the doorways are
surmounted by niches like those in the southern façade; while over the
alternate doorways and on all the corners are seen the immense mask
ornaments with the elephant-trunk projection.[V-45] A peculiarity of
this building not noticed by any authority, but clearly shown in
Charnay's photograph, is that not only are the corners rounded as in
the other buildings, but the walls at the corners are not
perpendicular either above or below the cornice, inclining inward
toward the top at an angle of about seven degrees. Several human
figures are noted among the decorations, of ruder execution than
others at Uxmal, two of which seem to be playing on musical
instruments resembling somewhat a guitar and harp; while a third is
sitting with his hands crossed on his breast, and bound by
cords.[V-46] All that is known of the exterior front of this northern
building is that among its decorations, which are comparatively plain
and simple, are two naked male figures, the condition of whose genital
organs indicates the existence of the same phallic rites of which
traces have been already noted. With the additional remark that traces
of bright-colored paint are still visible in sheltered portions of the
sculptured façades, I conclude my description of the so-called
Nunnery.[V-47]
[Illustration: House of Birds at Uxmal.]
[Sidenote: UXMAL ARCH.]
[Illustration: 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 exception is 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 is shown 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]
[Sidenote: 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, at _z_, 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 interior galleries. 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]
[Illustration: 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 a second, 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 remains to 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]
[Sidenote: 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 and
_aguadas_, possibly also on subterranean springs, or _senotes_, 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." He further 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 two
buildings, 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]
[Illustration: Pyramid of Xcoch.]
[Illustration: Nohpat Sculpture.]
[Sidenote: THE PYRAMID OF XCOCH.]
[Sidenote: 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 which formerly 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 paths being 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 over the 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]
[Illustration: Statues at Nohpat.]
[Illustration: Skull and Crossbones.]
[Sidenote: RUINS OF KABAH.]
[Illustration: 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 natives _Xco=c=poop_, or 'straw hat doubled up.'
[Illustration: 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 up from 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; _a_ being the solid mound, or terrace;
_bb_, the apartments or corridors; _d_, the staircase; and _c_, 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]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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 is one 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 the conquest. 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]
[Illustration: 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]
[Sidenote: RUINS OF SANACTÉ.]
[Illustration: 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 in this,
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]
[Sidenote: RUINS OF ZAYI.]
[Illustration: 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 one
hundred 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 projection running 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 thick and 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]
[Illustration: Front of Casa Grande at Zayi.]
[Illustration: Wall at Zayi.]
[Sidenote: 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 standing at 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, although even they had no desire to explore
the various apartments.
[Illustration: Corner at Labná.]