RUINS
Mexico is pre-eminently the land of mystery of the Western World. It
contains abundant traces of a civilization far older than any other
on this continent, and now that a key to the Maya inscriptions has
been found, it is reasonable to expect that systematic exploration
will result in reconstructing, at least partially, the history of a
vanished race, and throw some light on the interesting question of its
antiquity as well as of its origin and with it give us some knowledge
of what is now the prehistoric period of North America. It is scarcely
possible to overestimate the importance of Mexico’s movement to have
the archæological treasures of the country properly investigated. A
bill has been passed by Congress to empower American scientists to make
excavations in this country, provided the objects found be divided
equally between the two nations.
The ruins of Mitla are situated in the State of Oaxaca. They cover
many acres of ground and are the best preserved ruins in Mexico. Where
vandalism has not destroyed them, the walls are as perfect as when
erected.
[Illustration: RUINS AT MITLA.]
[Illustration: SEPULCHRE, NEAR MITLA, OAXACA.]
The buildings are very extensive, and are magnificent in the skill and
art shown in their construction. They were so designed as to face a
central square. They were not connected at the corners, but the centre
court was projected by a wall of rock and mortar which filled the
spaces. Each building had only three openings, all facing the court.
There were no windows or other means of lighting the interior. The
walls were made of a very tenacious adobe, veneered both within and
without with finely cut stone laid in regular courses and interspersed
with panels that are filled with what may be denominated herringbone
work, in a profusion of patterns each cut to fill its particular
place, whether a square or a scroll, and the joints are so perfect
that only the thinnest kind of cement could be used, and, after
centuries of earthquakes, these joints are so perfect as to call forth
the admiration of all who behold them. The lintels over the doorways
are each of one solid stone, and with all our modern appliances and
engineering skill, it would be considered a great triumph to place them
in their position.
[Illustration: ARCH OF THE “GOVERNMENT HOUSE,” UXMAL,
YUCATÁN.]
Recently there have been some excavations made on the Island of
Sacrificios by Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, a native of California and a member
of many archæological societies. Until this interesting woman explored
these parts no knowledge of prehistoric edifices existed. But her
discoveries of pottery and the remains of a fallen city have added
another ruin to those already explored in Mexico.
Among the ruins which have most frequently attracted the attention of
explorers in Mexico is a monument which Baron von Humboldt designated
the “Military Entrenchments of Xochicalco.” It is a few miles from
Cuernavaca in the State of Morelos. The walls of this pyramid and the
exterior are sculptured with what is supposed to be chronological
hieroglyphics. These are in a state of decay but under the clinging
moss one may distinguish serpents and warriors in oriental posture
with adornments and plumes on the head. Animals of all kinds are
distinguishable in these unique carvings. Several caves of great
importance have been discovered, chief of these is the _Cueva de los
Amates_.
The venerable pyramids of San Juan Teotihuacan are the most remarkable
remnants of ancient American civilization. They were found by the
Aztecs, according to their traditions, on their entrance into the
country. The two principal pyramids were dedicated to Tonatiuh, the
sun, and Mextli, the moon. They are not inferior to those of some of
the kindred monuments of Egypt. They were divided into four stories,
three of which are now discernible. The interiors are composed of clay
mixed with pebbles, encrusted on the surface with the light, porous
stone tetzontli, so abundant in the neighboring quarries. Over this
was a thick coating of stucco, resembling in its reddish color that
found in the ruins of Palenque. According to tradition, the pyramids
are hollow, but hitherto the attempt to discover the cavity in that
dedicated to the sun has been unsuccessful. These monuments were
devoted to religious uses, and it would be only conformable to the
practice of antiquity on the eastern hemisphere that they should have
served for tombs as well as temples.
These ruins cover an area very nearly as large as that of the present
city of Mexico and the streets are distinctly marked by the ruins of
the houses.
[Illustration: CHICHEN-ITZA, YUCATÁN.]
It has been said that America is a land without traditions, without
poetry, and without castles. Ignorance is the only excuse for those
under this impression; for in Mexico are ancient ruins of buildings
that were hoary with age when the famous castles of the Rhine and the
comparatively young strongholds of England were in process of erection.
Away back in the Middle Ages, when the romance of Europe is supposed to
have originated, there was a civilization in Mexico that was even then
historic. It is an ignorance that may, perhaps, be pardoned, since
even our wisest archæologists and deepest scientific students of modern
times cannot yet determine the age or origin of the most ancient of
these landmarks.
[Illustration: RUINS AT MITLA, OAXACA.]
[Illustration: PYRAMID OF THE SUN, SAN JUAN TEOTIHUACAN.]
No more interesting people for the modern student ever existed than the
Aztecs, who seem to have been the equal in intelligence and advancement
of any tribe in the world at the time. The Aztecs were most sincere
in the practice of their religious rites. They believed in a supreme
creator, invisible yet omnipresent, but requiring numerous assistants
to perform his will, each of whom presided over some special natural
phenomenon or phase of human existence. They had thirteen principal and
several hundred inferior deities. The dread Huitzilopochtli, the war
god of the Aztecs, was the patron divinity of the race, and myriads of
human victims were sacrificed to him yearly in countless pyramidal
temples throughout the realm. Quetzalcoatl, a more beneficent deity,
was described by the natives as a tall white man, with a large forehead
and flowing beard, who taught his favored people the art of government
and the various arts of peace, forbade bloody sacrifices and permitted
only those of bread, roses, and perfumes. This god of the air, as he
was named, having incurred the displeasure of one of the other chief
deities, was compelled to leave the country, but on quitting the shores
of the gulf, he promised to return, and the Mexican always looked
forward to the auspicious day.
[Illustration: RUINS OF PALENQUE, CHIAPAS.]
The ruins of Uxmal, Chichen, Izamal, Mayapan, and Labna have been
explored by Stephens and other archæologists. Those of Uxmal, the
most remarkable, are situated about fifty miles southwest of Merida.
They comprise numerous massive limestone structures built on broad
terraced platforms, and all highly ornamented. The largest single
building, called “the government house,” has a front of three hundred
and twenty-two feet, and contains twenty-four rooms. The most beautiful
structure is the “house of the nuns,” composed of four ranges
enclosing a large courtyard, with eighty-eight apartments. The “house
of the dwarf,” on a very steep mound eighty-eight feet high was a
teocalli for human sacrifices. But little definite is known of the use
of the temples and other vast edifices, which, from their size and
profuse ornamentation in carved and colored figures and bas-relief,
are, even in their ruined state, among the most wonderful architectural
relics of the Western World.
Equally interesting are the ruins of Chichen-Itza, which are perhaps
the most remarkable in Yucatán. They have the distinguishing feature
common to all--the impossibility of ascertaining the purposes or uses
of the extraordinary structures which still stand in testimony of the
high degree of civilization of a people long since forgotten.
In Campeche, where many wild animals and enormous serpents abound, the
ruins of Hôch-ob stand in a retreat of tropical verdure. Though small
in proportion to those of Yucatán, the construction has been pronounced
even superior by scientists who have braved great dangers to explore
them.
[Illustration: “HOUSE OF THE DOVES,” UXMAL, YUCATÁN.]
Transcriber’s Notes:
1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been
corrected silently.
2. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have
been retained as in the original.
3. Italics are shown as _xxx_.