Yucatan is the peninsula which divides the Gulf of Mexico from the
Caribbean Sea. It is comprised between the 17° 30´ and 21° 50´, of
latitude north, and the 88° and 91° of longitude west from the Greenwich
meridian.
The whole peninsula is of fossiferous limestone formation. Elevated a
few feet only above the sea, on the coasts, it gradually raises toward
the interior, to a maximum height of above 70 feet. A bird's-eye view,
from a lofty building, impresses the beholder with the idea that he is
looking on an immense sea of verdure, having the horizon for boundary;
without a hill, not even a hillock, to break the monotony of the
landscape. Here and there clusters of palm trees, or artificial mounds,
covered with shrubs, loom above the green dead-level as islets, over
that expanse of green foliage, affording a momentary relief to the eyes
growing tired of so much sameness.
About fifty miles from the northwestern coast begins a low, narrow range
of hills, whose highest point is not much above 500 feet. It traverses
the peninsula in a direction a little south from east, commencing a few
miles north from the ruined city of Uxmal, and terminating some distance
from the eastern coast, opposite to the magnificent bay of Ascension.
Lately I have noticed that some veins of red oxide of iron exist among
these hills--quarries of marble must also be found there; since the
sculptured ornaments that adorn the facade of all the monuments at Uxmal
are of that stone. To-day the inhabitants of Yucatan are even ignorant
of the existence of these minerals in their country, and ocher to paint,
and marble slabs to floor their houses, are imported from abroad. I
have also discovered veins of good lithographic stones that could be
worked at comparatively little expense.
The surface of the country is undulating; its stony waves recall
forcibly to the mind the heavy swell of mid-ocean. It seems as if, in
times long gone by, the soil was upheaved, _en masse_, from the bottom
of the sea, by volcanic forces. This upheaval must have taken place many
centuries ago, since isolated columns of _Katuns_ 1m. 50c. square,
erected at least 6,000 years ago, stand yet in the same perpendicular
position, as at the time when another stone was added to those already
piled up, to indicate a lapse of twenty years in the life of the nation.
It is, indeed, a remarkable fact, that whilst the surrounding
countries--Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba and the other West India Islands--are
frequently convulsed by earthquakes, the peninsula of Yucatan is
entirely free from these awe-inspiring convulsions of mother earth. This
immunity may be attributed, in my opinion, to the innumerable and
extensive caves with which the whole country is entirely honeycombed;
and the large number of immense natural wells, called Senotes, that are
to be found everywhere. These caves and senotes afford an outlet for the
escape of the gases generated in the superficial strata of the earth.
These, finding no resistance to their passage, follow, harmlessly, these
vents without producing on the surface any of those terrible commotions
that fill the heart of man and beast alike with fright and dismay.
Some of those caves are said to be very extensive--None, however, has
been thoroughly explored. I have visited a few, certainly extremely
beautiful, adorned as they are with brilliant stalactites depending from
their roofs, that seem as if supported by the stalagmites that must have
required ages to be formed gradually from the floor into the massive
columns, as we see them to-day.
In all the caves are to be found either inexhaustible springs of clear,
pure, cold water, or streams inhabited by shrimps and fishes. No one can
tell whence they come or where they go. All currents of water are
subterraneous. Not a river is to be found on the surface; not even the
smallest of streamlets, where the birds of the air, or the wild beasts
of the forests, can allay their thirst during the dry season. The
plants, if there are no chinks or crevices in the stony soil through
which their roots can penetrate and seek the life-sustaining fluid
below, wither and die. It is a curious sight that presented by the roots
of the trees, growing on the precipituous[TN-1] brinks of the _senotes_,
in their search for water. They go down and down, even a hundred feet,
until they reach the liquid surface, from where they suck up the fluid
to aliment the body of the tree. They seem like many cables and ropes
stretched all round the sides of the well; and, in fact, serves as such
to some of the most daring of the natives, to ascend or descend to enjoy
a refreshing bath.
These _senotes_ are immense circular holes, the diameter of which varies
from 50 to 500 feet, with perpendicular walls from 50 to 150 feet deep.
These holes might be supposed to have served as ducts for the
subterranean gases at the time of the upheaval of the country. Now they
generally contain water. In some, the current is easily noticeable; many
are completely dry; whilst others contain thermal mineral water,
emitting at times strong sulphurous odor and vapor.
Many strange stories are told by the aborigines concerning the
properties possessed by the water in certain senotes, and the strange
phenomena that takes place in others. In one, for example, you are
warned to approach the water walking backward, and to breathe very
softly, otherwise it becomes turbid and unfit for drinking until it has
settled and become clear again. In another you are told not to speak
above a whisper, for if any one raises the voice the tranquil surface of
the water immediately becomes agitated, and soon assumes the appearance
of boiling; even its level raises. These and many other things are told
in connection with the caves and senotes; and we find them mentioned in
the writings of the chroniclers and historians from the time of the
Spanish conquest.
No lakes exist on the surface, at least within the territories occupied
by the white men. Some small sheets of water, called aguadas, may be
found here and there, and are fed by the underground current; but they
are very rare. There are three or four near the ruins of the ancient
city of Mayapan: probably its inhabitants found in them an abundant
supply of water. Following all the same direction, they are, as some
suppose, no doubt with reason, the outbreaks of a subterranean stream
that comes also to the surface in the senote of _Mucuyché_. A mile or so
from Uxmal is another aguada; but judging from the great number of
artificial reservoirs, built on the terraces and in the courts of all
the monuments, it would seem as if the people there depended more on the
clouds for their provision of water than on the wells and senotes. Yet I
feel confident that one of these must exist under the building known as
the Governor's house; having discovered in its immediate vicinity the
entrance--now closed--of a cave from which a cool current of air is
continually issuing; at times with great force.
I have been assured by Indians from the village of Chemax, who pretend
to know that part of the country well, that, at a distance of about
fifty miles from the city of Valladolid, the actual largest settlement
on the eastern frontier, in the territories occupied by the SANTA CRUZ
Indians, there exists, near the ruins of _Kaba_, two extensive sheets of
water, from where, in years gone by, the inhabitants of Valladolid
procured abundant supply of excellent fishes. These ruins of Kaba, said
to be very interesting, have never been visited by any foreigner; nor
are they likely to be for many years to come, on account of the imminent
danger of falling into the hands of those of Santa Cruz--that, since
1847, wage war to the knife against the Yucatecans.
On the coast, the sea penetrating in the lowlands have formed sloughs
and lakes, on the shores of which thickets of mangroves grow, with
tropical luxuriancy. Intermingling their crooked roots, they form such a
barrier as to make landing well nigh impossible. These small lakes,
subject to the ebb and flow of the tides, are the resort of innumerable
sea birds and water fowls of all sizes and descriptions; from the snipe
to the crane, and brightly colored flamingos, from the screeching sea
gulls to the serious looking pelican. They are attracted to these lakes
by the solitude of the forests of mangroves that afford them excellent
shelter, where to build their nests, and find protection from the storms
that, at certain season of the year, sweep with untold violence along
the coast: and because with ease they can procure an abundant supply of
food, these waters being inhabited by myriads of fishes, as they come to
bask on the surface which is seldom ruffled even when the tempest rages
outside.
Notwithstanding the want of superficial water, the air is always charged
with moisture; the consequence being a most equable temperature all the
year round, and an extreme luxuriance of all vegetation. The climate is
mild and comparatively healthy for a country situated within the
tropics, and bathed by the waters of the Mexican Gulf. This mildness and
healthiness may be attributed to the sea breezes that constantly pass
over the peninsula, carrying the malaria and noxious gases that have not
been absorbed by the forests, which cover the main portion of the land;
and to the great abundance of oxygen exuded by the plants in return.
This excessive moisture and the decomposition of dead vegetable matter
is the cause of the intermittent fevers that prevail in all parts of the
peninsula, where the yellow fever, under a mild form generally, is also
endemic. When it appears, as this year, in an epidemic form, the natives
themselves enjoy no immunity from its ravages, and fall victims to it as
well as unacclimated foreigners.
These epidemics, those of smallpox and other diseases that at times make
their appearance in Yucatan, generally present themselves after the
rainy season, particularly if the rains have been excessive. The country
being extremely flat, the drainage is necessarily very bad: and in
places like Merida, for example, where a crowding of population exists,
and the cleanliness of the streets is utterly disregarded by the proper
authorities, the decomposition of vegetable and animal matter is very
large; and the miasmas generated, being carried with the vapors arising
from the constant evaporation of stagnant waters, are the origin of
those scourges that decimate the inhabitants. Yucatan, isolated as it
is, its small territory nearly surrounded by water, ought to be, if the
laws of health were properly enforced, one of the most healthy countries
on the earth; where, as in the Island of Cozumel, people should only die
of old age or accident. The thermometer varies but little, averaging
about 80° _Far_. True, it rises in the months of July and August as high
as 96° in the shade, but it seldom falls below 65° in the month of
December. In the dry season, from January to June, the trees become
divested of their leaves, that fall more particularly in March and
April. Then the sun, returning from the south on its way to the north,
passes over the land and darts its scorching perpendicular rays on it,
causing every living creature to thirst for a drop of cool water; the
heat being increased by the burning of those parts of the forests that
have been cut down to prepare fields for cultivation.
In the portion of the peninsula, about one-third of it, that still
remains in possession of the white, the Santa Cruz Indians holding,
since 1847, the richest and most fertile, two-thirds, the soil is
entirely stony. The arable loam, a few inches in thickness, is the
result of the detriti of the stones, mixed with the remainder of the
decomposition of vegetable matter. In certain districts, towards the
eastern and southern parts of the State, patches of red clay form
excellent ground for the cultivation of the sugar cane and Yuca root.
From this an excellent starch is obtained in large quantities. Withal,
the soil is of astonishing fertility, and trees, even, are met with of
large size, whose roots run on the surface of the bare stone,
penetrating the chinks and crevices only in search of moisture. Often
times I have seen them growing from the center of slabs, the seed having
fallen in a hole that happened to be bored in them. In the month of May
the whole country seems parched and dry. Not a leaf, not a bud. The
branches and boughs are naked, and covered with a thick coating of gray
dust. Nothing to intercept the sight in the thicket but the bare trunks
and branches, with the withes entwining them. With the first days of
June come the first refreshing showers. As if a magic wand had been
waved over the land, the view changes--life springs everywhere. In the
short space of a few days the forests have resumed their holiday attire;
buds appear and the leaves shoot; the flowers bloom sending forth their
fragrance, that wafted by the breeze perfume the air far and near. The
birds sing their best songs of joy; the insects chirp their shrillest
notes; butterflies of gorgeous colors flutter in clouds in every
direction in search of the nectar contained in the cups of the
newly-opened blossom, and dispute it with the brilliant humming-birds.
All creation rejoices because a few tears of mother Nature have brought
joy and happiness to all living beings, from the smallest blade of grass
to the majestic palm; from the creeping worm to man, who proudly titles
himself the lord of creation.
Yucatan has no rich metallic mines, but its wealth of vegetable
productions is immense. Large forests of mahogany, cedar, zapotillo
trees cover vast extents of land in the eastern and southern portions of
the peninsula; whilst patches of logwood and mora, many miles in length,
grow near the coast. The wood is to-day cut down and exported by the
Indians of Santa Cruz through their agents at Belize. Coffee, vanilla,
tobacco, india-rubber, rosins of various kinds, copal in particular,
all of good quality, abound in the country, but are not cultivated on
account of its unsettled state; the Indians retaining possession of the
most fertile territories where these rich products are found.
The whites have been reduced to the culture of the Hennequen plant
(agave sisalensis) in order to subsist. It is the only article of
commerce that grows well on the stony soil to which they are now
confined. The filament obtained from the plant, and the objects
manufactured from it constitute the principal article of export; in fact
the only source of wealth of the Yucatecans. As the filament is now much
in demand for the fabrication of cordage in the United States and
Europe, many of the landowners have ceased to plant maize, although the
staple article of food in all classes, to convert their land into
hennequen fields. The plant thrives well on stony soil, requires no
water and but little care. The natural consequence of planting the whole
country with hennequen has been so great a deficiency in the maize crop,
that this year not enough was grown for the consumption, and people in
the northeastern district were beginning to suffer from the want of it,
when some merchants of Merida imported large quantities from New York.
They, of course, sold it at advanced prices, much to the detriment of
the poorer classes. Some sugar is also cultivated in the southern and
eastern districts, but not in sufficient quantities even for the
consumption; and not a little is imported from Habana.
The population of the country, about 250,000 souls all told, are mostly
Indians and mixed blood. In fact, very few families can be found of pure
Caucasian race. Notwithstanding the great admixture of different races,
a careful observer can readily distinguish yet four prominent ones, very
noticeable by their features, their stature, the conformation of their
body. The dwarfish race is certainly easily distinguishable from the
descendants of the giants that tradition says once upon a time existed
in the country, whose bones are yet found, and whose portraits are
painted on the walls of Chaacmol's funeral chamber at Chichen-Itza. The
almond-eyed, flat-nosed Siamese race of Copan is not to be mistaken for
the long, big-nosed, flat-headed remnant of the Nahualt from Palenque,
who are said to have invaded the country some time at the beginning of
the Christian era; and whose advent among the Mayas, whose civilization
they appear to have destroyed, has been commemorated by calling the
_west_, the region whence they came, according to Landa, Cogolludo and
other historians, NOHNIAL, a word which means literally _big noses for
our daughters_; whilst the coming of the bearded men from the _east_,
better looking than those of the west, if we are to give credit to the
bas-relief where their portraits are to be seen, was called
CENIAL--_ornaments for our daughters_.
If we are to judge by the great number of ruined cities scattered
everywhere through the forests of the peninsula; by the architectural
beauty of the monuments still extant, the specimens of their artistic
attainments in drawing and sculpture which have reached us in the
bas-reliefs, statues and mural paintings of Uxmal and Chichen-Itza; by
their knowledge in mathematical and astronomical sciences, as manifested
in the construction of the gnomon found by me in the ruins of Mayapan;
by the complexity of the grammatical form and syntaxis of their
language, still spoken to-day by the majority of the inhabitants of
Yucatan; by their mode of expressing their thoughts on paper, made from
the bark of certain trees, with alphabetical and phonetical characters,
we must of necessity believe that, at some time or other, the country
was not only densely populated, but that the inhabitants had reached a
high degree of civilization. To-day we can conceive of very few of their
attainments by the scanty remains of their handiwork, as they have come
to us injured by the hand of time, and, more so yet, by that of man,
during the wars, the invasions, the social and religious convulsions
which have taken place among these people, as among all other nations.
Only the opening of the buildings which contain the libraries of their
learned men, and the reading of their works, could solve the mystery,
and cause us to know how much they had advanced in the discovery and
explanation of Nature's arcana; how much they knew of mankind's past
history, and of the nations with which they held intercourse. Let us
hope that the day may yet come when the Mexican government will grant to
me the requisite permission, in order that I may bring forth, from the
edifices where they are hidden, the precious volumes, without opposition
from the owners of the property where the monuments exist. Until then we
must content ourselves with the study of the inscriptions carved on the
walls, and becoming acquainted with the history of their builders, and
continue to conjecture what knowledge they possessed in order to be able
to rear such enduring structures, besides the art of designing the plans
and ornaments, and the manner of carving them on stone.
Let us place ourselves in the position of the archæologists of thousands
of years to come, examining the ruins of our great cities, finding still
on foot some of the stronger built palaces and public buildings, with
some rare specimens of the arts, sciences, industry of our days, the
minor edifices having disappeared, gnawed by the steely tooth of time,
together with the many products of our industry, the machines of all
kinds, creation of man's ingenuity, and his powerful helpmates. What
would they know of the attainments and the progress in mechanics of our
days? Would they be able to form a complete idea of our civilization,
and of the knowledge of our scientific men, without the help of the
volumes contained in our public libraries, and maybe of some one able to
interpret them? Well, it seems to me that we stand in exactly the same
position concerning the civilization of those who have preceded us five
or ten thousand years ago on this continent, as these future
archæologists may stand regarding our civilization five or ten thousand
years hence.
It is a fact, recorded by all historians of the Conquest, that when for
the first time in 1517 the Spaniards came in sight of the lands called
by them Yucatan, they were surprised to see on the coast many monuments
well built of stone; and to find the country strewn with large cities
and beautiful monuments that recalled to their memory the best of Spain.
They were no less astonished to meet in the inhabitants, not naked
savages, but a civilized people, possessed of polite and pleasant
manners, dressed in white cotton habiliments, navigating large boats
propelled by sails, traveling on well constructed roads and causeways
that, in point of beauty and solidity, could compare advantageously with
similar Roman structures in Spain, Italy, England or France.
I will not describe here the majestic monuments raised by the Mayas.
Mrs. Le Plongeon, in her letters to the _New York World_, has given of
those of UXMAL, AKE and MAYAPAN, the only correct description ever
published. My object at present is to relate some of the curious facts
revealed to us by their weather-beaten and crumbling walls, and show how
erroneous is the opinion of some European scientists, who think it not
worth while to give a moment of their precious time to the study of
American archæology, because say they: _No relations have ever been
found to have existed between the monuments and civilizations of the
inhabitants of this continent and those of the old world_. On what
ground they hazard such an opinion it is difficult to surmise, since to
my knowledge the ancient ruined cities of Yucatan, until lately, have
never been thoroughly, much less scientifically, explored. The same is
true of the other monumental ruins of the whole of Central America.
When Mrs. Le Plongeon and myself landed at Progresso, in 1873, we
thought that because we had read the works of Stephens, Waldeck,
Norman, Fredeichstal; carefully examined the few photographic views made
by Mr. Charnay of some of the monuments, we knew all about them. Alas!
vain presumption! When in presence of the antique shrines and palaces of
the Mayas, we soon saw how mistaken we had been; how little those
writers had seen of the monuments they had pretended to describe: that
the work of studying them systematically was not even begun; and that
many years of close observation and patient labor would be necessary in
order to dispel the mysteries which hang over them, and to discover the
hidden meaning of their ornaments and inscriptions. To this difficult
task we resolved to dedicate our time, and to concentrate our efforts to
find a solution, if possible, to the enigma.
We began our work by taking photographs of all the monuments in their
_tout ensemble_, and in all their details, as much as practicable. Next,
we surveyed them carefully; made accurate plans of them in order to be
able to comprehend by the disposition of their different parts, for what
possible use they were erected; taking, as a starting point, that the
human mind and human inclinations and wants are the same in all times,
in all countries, in all races when civilized and cultured. We next
carefully examined what connection the ornaments bore to each other, and
tried to understand the meaning of the designs. At first the maze of
these designs seemed a very difficult riddle to solve. Yet, we believed
that if a human intelligence had devised it, another human intelligence
would certainly be able to unravel it. It was not, however, until we had
nearly completed the tracing and study of the mural paintings, still
extant in the funeral chamber of Chaacmol, or room built on the top of
the eastern wall of the gymnasium at Chichen-Itza, at its southern end,
that Stephens mistook for a shrine dedicated to the god of the players
at ball, that a glimmer of light began to dawn upon us. In tracing the
figure of Chaacmol in battle, I remarked that the shield worn by him
had painted on it round green spots, and was exactly like the ornaments
placed between tiger and tiger on the entablature of the same monument.
I naturally concluded that the monument had been raised to the memory of
the warrior bearing the shield; that the tigers represented his totem,
and that _Chaacmol_ or _Balam_ maya[TN-2] words for spotted tiger or
leopard, was his name. I then remembered that at about one hundred yards
in the thicket from the edifice, in an easterly direction, a few days
before, I had noticed the ruins of a remarkable mound of rather small
dimensions. It was ornamented with slabs engraved with the images of
spotted tigers, eating human hearts, forming magnificent bas-reliefs,
conserving yet traces of the colors in which it was formerly painted. I
repaired to the place. Doubts were no longer possible. The same round
dots, forming the spots of their skins, were present here as on the
shield of the warrior in battle, and that on the entablature of the
building. On examining carefully the ground around the mound, I soon
stumbled upon what seemed to be a half buried statue. On clearing the
_débris_ we found a statue in the round, representing a wounded tiger
reclining on his right side. Three holes in the back indicated the
places where he received his wounds. It was headless. A few feet
further, I found a human head with the eyes half closed, as those of a
dying person. When placed on the neck of the tiger it fitted exactly. I
propped it with sticks to keep it in place. So arranged, it recalled
vividly the Chaldean and Egyptian deities having heads of human beings
and bodies of animals. The next object that called my attention was
another slab on which was represented in bas-relief a dying warrior,
reclining on his back, the head was thrown entirely backwards. His left
arm was placed across his chest, the left hand resting on the right
shoulder, exactly in the same position which the Egyptians were wont, at
times, to give to the mummies of some of their eminent men. From his
mouth was seen escaping two thin, narrow flames--the spirit of the
dying man abandoning the body with the last warm breath.
These and many other sculptures caused me to suspect that this monument
had been the mausoleum raised to the memory of the warrior with the
shield covered with the round dots. Next to the slabs engraved with the
image of tigers was another, representing an _ara militaris_ (a bird of
the parrot specie, very large and of brilliant plumage of various
colors). I took it for the totem of his wife, MOÓ, _macaw_; and so it
proved to be when later I was able to interpret their ideographic
writings. _Kinich-Kakmó_ after her death obtained the honors of the
apotheosis; had temples raised to her memory, and was worshipped at
Izamal up to the time of the Spanish conquest, according to Landa,
Cogolludo and Lizana.
Satisfied that I had found the tomb of a great warrior among the Mayas,
I resolved to make an excavation, notwithstanding I had no tools or
implements proper for such work. After two months of hard toil, after
penetrating through three level floors painted with yellow ochre, at
last a large stone urn came in sight. It was opened in presence of
Colonel D. Daniel Traconis. It contained a small heap of grayish dust
over which lay the cover of a terra cotta pot, also painted yellow; a
few small ornaments of macre that crumbled to dust on being touched, and
a large ball of jade, with a hole pierced in the middle. This ball had
at one time been highly polished, but for some cause or other the polish
had disappeared from one side. Near, and lower than the urn, was
discovered the head of the colossal statue, to-day the best, or one of
the best pieces, in the National Museum of Mexico, having been carried
thither on board of the gunboat _Libertad_, without my consent, and
without any renumeration having even been offered by the Mexican
government for my labor, my time and the money spent in the discovery.
Close to the chest of the statue was another stone urn much larger than
the first. On being uncovered it was found to contain a large quantity
of reddish substance and some jade ornaments. On closely examining this
substance I pronounced it organic matter that had been subjected to a
very great heat in an open vessel. (A chemical analysis of some of it by
Professor Thompson, of Worcester, Mass., at the request of Mr. Stephen
Salisbury, Jr., confirmed my opinion). From the position of the urn I
made up my mind that its contents were the heart and viscera of the
personage represented by the statue; while the dust found in the first
urn must have been the residue of his brains.
Landa tells us that it was the custom, even at the time of the Spanish
conquest, when a person of eminence died to make images of stone, or
terra cotta or wood in the semblance of the deceased, whose ashes were
placed in a hollow made on the back of the head for the purpose. Feeling
sorry for having thus disturbed the remains of _Chaacmol_, so carefully
concealed by his friends and relatives many centuries ago; in order to
save them from further desecration, I burned the greater part reserving
only a small quantity for future analysis. This finding of the heart and
brains of that chieftain, afforded an explanation, if any was needed, of
one of the scenes more artistically portrayed in the mural paintings of
his funeral chamber. In this scene which is painted immediately over the
entrance of the chamber, where is also a life-size representation of his
corpse prepared for cremation, the dead warrior is pictured stretched on
the ground, his back resting on a large stone placed for the purpose of
raising the body and keeping open the cut made across it, under the
ribs, for the extraction of the heart and other parts it was customary
to preserve. These are seen in the hands of his children. At the feet of
the statue were found a number of beautiful arrowheads of flint and
chalcedony; also beads that formed part of his necklace. These, to-day
petrified, seemed to have been originally of bone or ivory. They were
wrought to figure shells of periwinkles. Surrounding the slab on which
the figure rests was a large quantity of dried blood. This fact might
lead us to suppose that slaves were sacrificed at his funeral, as
Herodotus tells us it was customary with the Scythians, and we know it
was with the Romans and other nations of the old world, and the Incas in
Peru. Yet not a bone or any other human remains were found in the
mausoleum.
The statue forms a single piece with the slab on which it reclines, as
if about to rise on his elbows, the legs being drawn up so that the feet
rest flat on the slab. I consider this attitude given to the statues of
dead personages that I have discovered in Chichen, where they are still,
to be symbolical of their belief in reincarnation. They, in common with
the Egyptians, the Hindoos, and other nations of antiquity, held that
the spirit of man after being made to suffer for its shortcomings during
its mundane life, would enjoy happiness for a time proportionate to its
good deeds, then return to earth, animate the body and live again a
material existence. The Mayas, however, destroying the body by fire,
made statues in the semblance of the deceased, so that, being
indestructible the spirit might find and animate them on its return to
earth. The present aborigines have the same belief. Even to-day, they
never fail to prepare the _hanal pixan_, the food for the spirits, which
they place in secluded spots in the forests or fields, every year, in
the month of November. These statues also hold an urn between their
hands. This fact again recalls to the mind the Egpptian[TN-3] custom of
placing an urn in the coffins with the mummies, to indicate that the
spirit of the deceased had been judged and found righteous.
The ornament hanging on the breast of Chaacmol's effigy, from a ribbon
tied with a peculiar knot behind his neck, is simply a badge of his
rank; the same is seen on the breast of many other personages in the
bas-reliefs and mural paintings. A similar mark of authority is yet in
usage in Burmah.
I have tarried so long on the description of my first important
discovery because I desired to explain the method followed by me in the
investigation of these monuments, to show that the result of our labors
are by no means the work of imagination--as some have been so kind a
_short_ time ago as to intimate--but of careful and patient analysis and
comparison; also, in order, from the start, to call your attention to
the similarity of certain customs in the funeral rites that the Mayas
seem to have possessed in common with other nations of the old world:
and lastly, because my friend, Dr. Jesus Sanchez, Professor of
Archæology in the National Museum of Mexico, ignoring altogether the
circumstances accompanying the discovery of the statue, has published in
the _Anales del Museo Nacional_, a long dissertation--full of erudition,
certainly--to prove that the statue discovered by me at Chichen-Itza,
was a representation of the _God of the natural production of the
earth_, and that the name given by me was altogether arbitrary; and,
also, because an article has appeared in the _North American Review_ for
October, 1880, signed by Mr. Charnay, in which the author, after
re-producing Mr. Sanchez's writing, pronounces _ex cathedra_ and _de
perse_, but without assigning any reason for his opinion, that the
statue is the effigy of the _god of wine_--the Mexican Bacchus--without
telling us which of them, for there were two.
Having been obliged to abandon the statue in the forests--well wrapped
in oilcloth, and sheltered under a hut of palm leaves, constructed by
Mrs. Le Plongeon and myself--my men having been disarmed by order of
General Palomino, then commander-in-chief of the federal forces in
Yucatan, in consequence of a revolutionary movement against Dr.
Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada and in favor of General Diaz--I went to Uxmal
to continue my researches among its ruined temples and palaces. There I
took many photographs, surveyed the monuments, and, for the first time,
found the remnants of the phallic worship of the Nahualts. Its symbols
are not to be seen in Chichen--the city of the holy and learned men,
Itzaes--but are frequently met with in the northern parts of the
peninsula, and all the regions where the Nahualt influence predominated.
There can be no doubt that in very ancient times the same customs and
religious worship existed in Uxmal and Chichen, since these two cities
were founded by the same family, that of CAN (serpent), whose name is
written on all the monuments in both places. CAN and the members of his
family worshipped Deity under the symbol of the mastodon's head. At
Chichen a tableau of said worship forms the ornament of the building,
designated in the work of Stephens, "Travels in Yucatan," as IGLESIA;
being, in fact, the north wing of the palace and museum. This is the
reason why the mastodon's head forms so prominent a feature in all the
ornaments of the edifices built by them. They also worshipped the sun
and fire, which they represented by the same hieroglyph used by the
Egyptians for the sun [sun]. In this worship of the fire they resembled
the Chaldeans and Hindoos, but differed from the Egyptians, who had no
veneration for this element. They regarded it merely as an animal that
devoured all things within its reach, and died with all it had
swallowed, when replete and satisfied.
From certain inscriptions and pictures--in which the _Cans_ are
represented crawling on all fours like dogs--sculptured on the façade of
their house of worship, it would appear that their religion of the
mastodon was replaced by that of the reciprocal forces of nature,
imported in the country by the big-nosed invaders, the Nahualts coming
from the west. These destroyed Chichen, and established their capital at
_Uxmal_. There they erected in all the courts of the palaces, and on the
platforms of the temples the symbols of their religion, taking care,
however, not to interfere with the worship of the sun and fire, that
seems to have been the most popular.
Bancroft in his work, "_The Native Races of the Pacific States_," Vol.
IV., page 277, remarks: "That the scarcity of idols among the Maya
antiquities must be regarded as extraordinary. That the people of
Yucatan were idolators there is no possible doubt, and in connection
with the magnificent shrines and temples erected by them, and rivalling
or excelling the grand obelisks of Copan, might naturally be sought for,
but in view of the facts it must be concluded that the Maya idols were
very small, and that such as escaped the fatal iconoclasms of the
Spanish ecclesiastics were buried by the natives as the only means of
preventing their desecration."
That the people who inhabited the country at the time of the Spanish
conquest had a multiplicity of gods there can be no doubt. The primitive
form of worship, with time and by the effect of invasions from outside,
had disappeared, and been replaced by that of their great men and women,
who were deified and had temples raised to their memory, as we see, for
example, in the case of _Moo_,[TN-4] wife and sister of Chaacmol, whose
shrine was built on the high mound on the north side of the large square
in the city of Izamal. There pilgrims flocked from all parts of the
country to listen to the oracles delivered by the mouth of her priests;
and see the goddess come down from the clouds every day, at mid-day,
under the form of a resplendent macaw, and light the fire that was to
consume the offerings deposited on her altar; even at the time of the
conquest, according to the chroniclers, Chaacmol himself seems to have
become the god of war, that always appeared in the midst of the battle,
fighting on the side of his followers, surrounded with flames. Kukulcan,
"the culture" hero of the Mayas, the winged serpent, worshipped by the
Mexicans as the god Guetzalcoalt,[TN-5] and by the Quichés as Cucumatz,
if not the father himself of Chaacmol, CAN, at least one of his
ancestors.
The friends and followers of that prince may have worshipped him after
his death, and the following generations, seeing the representation of
his totems (serpent) covered with feathers, on the walls of his palaces,
and of the sanctuaries built by him to the deity, called him Kukulcan,
the winged serpent: when, in fact, the artists who carved his emblems on
the walls covered them with the cloaks he and all the men in authority
and the high priests wore on ceremonial occasions--feathered
vestments--as we learned from the study of mural paintings.
In the temples and palaces of the ancient Mayas I have never seen
anything that I could in truth take for idols. I have seen many symbols,
such as double-headed tigers, corresponding to the double-headed lions
of the Egyptians, emblems of the sun. I have seen the representation of
people kneeling in a peculiar manner, with their right hand resting on
the left shoulder--sign of respect among the Mayas as among the
inhabitants of Egypt--in the act of worshiping the mastodon head; but I
doubt if this can be said to be idol worship. _Can_ and his family were
probably monotheists. The masses of the people, however, may have placed
the different natural phenomena under the direct supervision of special
imaginary beings, prescribing to them the same duties that among the
Catholics are prescribed, or rather attributed, to some of the saints;
and may have tributed to them the sort of worship of _dulia_, tributed
to the saints--even made images that they imagined to represent such or
such deity, as they do to-day; but I have never found any. They
worshiped the divine essence, and called it KÚ.
In course of time this worship may have been replaced by idolatrous
rites, introduced by the barbarous or half civilized tribes which
invaded the country, and implanted among the inhabitants their religious
belief, their idolatrous superstitions and form of worship with their
symbols. The monuments of Uxmal afford ample evidence of that fact.
My studies, however, have nothing to do with the history of the country
posterior to the invasion of the Nahualts. These people appear to have
destroyed the high form of civilization existing at the time of their
advent; and tampered with the ornaments of the buildings in order to
introduce the symbols of the reciprocal forces of nature.
The language of the ancient Mayas, strange as it may appear, has
survived all the vicissitudes of time, wars, and political and religious
convulsions. It has, of course, somewhat degenerated by the mingling of
so many races in such a limited space as the peninsula of Yucatan is;
but it is yet the vernacular of the people. The Spaniards themselves,
who strived so hard to wipe out all vestiges of the ancient customs of
the aborigines, were unable to destroy it; nay, they were obliged to
learn it; and now many of their descendants have forgotten the mother
tongue of their sires, and speak Maya only.
In some localities in Central America it is still spoken in its pristine
purity, as, for example, by the _Chaacmules_, a tribe of bearded men, it
is said, who live in the vicinity of the unexplored ruins of the ancient
city of _Tekal_. It is a well-known fact that many tribes, as that of
the Itzaes, retreating before the Nahualt invaders, after the surrender
and destruction of their cities, sought refuge in the islands of the
lake _Peten_ of to-day, and called it _Petenitza_, the _islands of the
Itzaes_; or in the well nigh inaccessible valleys, defended by ranges of
towering mountains. There they live to-day, preserving the customs,
manners, language of their forefathers unaltered, in the tract of land
known to us as _Tierra de Guerra_. No white man has ever penetrated
their zealously guarded stronghold that lays between Guatemala, Tabasco,
Chiapas and Yucatan, the river _Uzumasinta_ watering part of their
territory.
The Maya language seems to be one of the oldest tongues spoken by man,
since it contains words and expressions of all, or nearly all, the known
polished languages on earth. The name _Maya_, with the same
signification everywhere it is met, is to be found scattered over the
different countries of what we term the Old World, as in Central
America.
I beg to call your attention to the following facts. They may have no
significance. They may be mere coincidences, the strange freaks of
hazard, of no possible value in the opinion of some among the learned
men of our days. Just as the finding of English words and English
customs, as now exist among the most remote nations and heterogeneous
people and tribes of all races and colors, who do not even suspect the
existence of one another, may be regarded by the learned philologists
and ethonologists[TN-6] of two or three thousand years hence. These
will, perhaps, also pretend that _these coincidences_ are simply the
curious workings of the human mind--the efforts of men endeavoring to
express their thoughts in language, that being reduced to a certain
number of sounds, must, of necessity produce, if not the same, at least
very similar words to express the same idea--and that this similarity
does not prove that those who invented them had, at any time,
communication, unless, maybe, at the time of the building of the
hypothetical Tower of Babel. Then all the inhabitants of earth are said
to have bid each other a friendly good night, a certain evening, in a
universal tongue, to find next morning that everybody had gone stark mad
during the night: since each one, on meeting sixty-nine of his friends,
was greeted by every one in a different and unknown manner, according to
learned rabbins; and that he could no more understand what they said,
than they what he said[TN-7]
It is very difficult without the help of the books of the learned
priests of _Mayab_ to know positively why they gave that name to the
country known to-day as Yucatan. I can only surmise that they so called
it from the great absorbant[TN-8] quality of its stony soil, which, in
an incredibly short time, absorbs the water at the surface. This
percolating through the pores of the stone is afterward found filtered
clear and cool in the senotes and caves. _Mayab_, in the Maya language,
means a tammy, a sieve. From the name of the country, no doubt, the
Mayas took their name, as natural; and that name is found, as that of
the English to-day, all over the ancient civilized world.
When, on January 28, 1873, I had the honor of reading a paper before the
New York American Geographical Society--on the coincidences that exist
between the monuments, customs, religious rites, etc. of the prehistoric
inhabitants of America and those of Asia and Egypt--I pointed to the
fact that sun circles, dolmen and tumuli, similar to the megalithic
monuments of America, had been found to exist scattered through the
islands of the Pacific to Hindostan; over the plains of the peninsulas
at the south of Asia, through the deserts of Arabia, to the northern
parts of Africa; and that not only these rough monuments of a primitive
age, but those of a far more advanced civilization were also to be seen
in these same countries. Allow me to repeat now what I then said
regarding these strange facts: If we start from the American continent
and travel towards the setting sun we may be able to trace the route
followed by the mound builders to the plains of Asia and the valley of
the Nile. The mounds scattered through the valley of the Mississippi
seem to be the rude specimens of that kind of architecture. Then come
the more highly finished teocalis of Yucatan and Mexico and Peru; the
pyramidal mounds of _Maui_, one of the Sandwich Islands; those existing
in the Fejee and other islands of the Pacific; which, in China, we find
converted into the high, porcelain, gradated towers; and these again
converted into the more imposing temples of Cochin-China, Hindostan,
Ceylon--so grand, so stupendous in their wealth of ornamentation that
those of Chichen-Itza Uxmal, Palenque, admirable as they are, well nigh
dwindle into insignificance, as far as labor and imagination are
concerned, when compared with them. That they present the same
fundamental conception in their architecture is evident--a platform
rising over another platform, the one above being of lesser size than
the one below; the American monuments serving, as it were, as models for
the more elaborate and perfect, showing the advance of art and
knowledge.
The name Maya seems to have existed from the remotest times in the
meridional parts of Hindostan. Valmiki, in his epic poem, the Ramayana,
said to be written 1500 before the Christian era, in which he recounts
the wars and prowesses of RAMA in the recovery of his lost wife, the
beautiful SITA, speaking of the country inhabited by the Mayas,
describes it as abounding in mines of silver and gold, with precious
stones and lapiz lazuri:[TN-9] and bounded by the _Vindhya_ mountains on
one side, the _Prastravana_ range on the other and the sea on the third.
The emissaries of RAMA having entered by mistake within the Mayas
territories, learned that all foreigners were forbidden to penetrate
into them; and that those who were so imprudent as to violate this
prohibition, even through ignorance, seldom escaped being put to death.
(Strange[TN-10] to say, the same thing happens to-day to those who try
to penetrate into the territories of the _Santa Cruz_ Indians, or in the
valleys occupied by the _Lacandones_, _Itzaes_ and other tribes that
inhabit _La Tierra de Guerra_. The Yucatecans themselves do not like
foreigners to go, and less to settle, in their country--are consequently
opposed to immigration.
The emissaries of Rama, says the poet, met in the forest a woman who
told them: That in very remote ages a prince of the Davanas, a learned
magician, possessed of great power, whose name was _Maya_, established
himself in the country, and that he was the architect of the principal
of the Davanas: but having fallen in love with the nymph _Hemâ_, married
her; whereby he roused the jealousy of the god _Pourandura_, who
attacked and killed him with a thunderbolt. Now, it is worthy of notice,
that the word _Hem_ signifies in the Maya language to _cross with
ropes_; or according to Brasseur, _hidden mysteries_.
By a most rare coincidence we have the same identical story recorded in
the mural paintings of Chaacmol's funeral chamber, and in the sculptures
of Chichsen[TN-11] and Uxmal. There we find that Chaacmol, the husband
of Moó[TN-12] is killed by his brother Aac, who stabbed him three times
in the back with his spear for jealousy. Aac was in love with his sister
Moó, but she married his brother Chaacmol from choice, and because the
law of the country prescribed that the younger brother should marry his
sister, making it a crime for the older brothers to marry her.
In another part of the _Ramayana_, MAYA is described as a powerful
_Asoura_, always thirsting for battles and full of arrogance and
pride--an enemy to B[=a]li, chief of one of the monkey tribes, by whom
he was finally vanquished. The celebrated Indianist, Mr. H. T.
Colebrooke, in a memoir on the sacred books of the Hindoos, published in
Vol. VIII of the "Asiatic Researches," says: "The _Soûryasiddkântu_ (the
most ancient Indian treatise on astronomy), is not considered as written
by MAYA; but this personage is represented as receiving his science from
a partial incarnation of the sun."
MAYA is also, according to the Rig-Veda, the goddess, by whom all things
are created by her union with Brahma. She is the cosmic egg, the golden
uterus, the _Hiramyagarbha_. We see an image of it, represented floating
amidst the water, in the sculptures that adorn the panel over the door
of the east facade of the monument, called by me palace and museum at
Chichen-Itza. Emile Burnouf, in his Sanscrit Dictionary, at the word
Maya, says: Maya, an architect of the _Datyas_; Maya (_mas._), magician,
prestidigitator; (_fem._) illusion, prestige; Maya, the magic virtue of
the gods, their power for producing all things; also the feminine or
producing energy of Brahma.
I will complete the list of these remarkable coincidences with a few
others regarding customs exactly similar in both countries. One of these
consists in carrying children astride on the hip in Yucatan as in India.
In Yucatan this custom is accompanied by a very interesting ceremony
called _hetzmec_. It is as follows: When a child reaches the age of four
months an invitation is sent to the friends and members of the family of
the parents to assemble at their house. Then in presence of all
assembled the legs of the child are opened, and he is placed astride
the hip of the _nailah_ or _hetzmec_ godmother; she in turn encircling
the little one with her arm, supports him in that position whilst she
walks five times round the house. During the time she is occupied in
that walk five eggs are placed in hot ashes, so that they may burst and
the five senses of the child be opened. By the manner in which they
burst and the time they require for bursting, they pretend to know if he
will be intelligent or not. During the ceremony they place in his tiny
hands the implement pertaining to the industry he is expected to
practice. The _nailah_ is henceforth considered as a second mother to
the child; who, when able to understand, is made to respect her: and she
is expected, in case of the mother's death, to adopt and take care of
the child as if he were her own.
Now, I will call your attention to another strange and most remarkable
custom that was common to the inhabitants of _Mayab_, some tribes of the
aborigines of North America, and several of those that dwell in
Hindostan, and practice it even to-day. I refer to the printing of the
human hand, dipped in a red colored liquid, on the walls of certain
sacred edifices. Could not this custom, existing amongst nations so far
apart, unknown to each other, and for apparently the same purposes, be
considered as a link in the chain of evidence tending to prove that very
intimate relations and communications have existed anciently between
their ancestors? Might it not help the ethnologists to follow the
migrations of the human race from this western continent to the eastern
and southern shores of Asia, across the wastes of the Pacific Ocean? I
am told by unimpeachable witnesses that they have seen the red or bloody
hand in more than one of the temples of the South Sea islanders; and his
Excellency Fred. P. Barlee, Esq., the actual governor of British
Honduras, has assured me that he has examined this seemingly indelible
imprint of the red hand on some rocks in caves in Australia. There is
scarcely a monument in Yucatan that does not preserve the imprint of
the open upraised hand, dipped in red paint of some sort, perfectly
visible on its walls. I lately took tracings of two of these imprints
that exist in the back saloon of the main hall, in the governor's house
at Uxmal, in order to calculate the height of the personage who thus
attested to those of his race, as I learned from one of my Indian
friends, who passes for a wizard, that the building was _in naá_, my
house. I may well say that the archway of the palace of the priests,
toward the court, was nearly covered with them. Yet I am not aware that
such symbol was ever used by the inhabitants of the countries bordering
on the shores of the Mediterranean or by the Assyrians, or that it ever
was discovered among the ruined temples or palaces of Egypt.
The meaning of the red hand used by the aborigines of some parts of
America has been, it is well known, a subject of discussion for learned
men and scientific societies. Its uses as a symbol remained for a long
time a matter of conjecture. It seems that Mr. Schoolcraft had truly
arrived at the knowledge of its veritable meaning. Effectively, in the
2d column of the 5th page of the _New York Herald_ for April 12, 1879,
in the account of the visit paid by Gen. Grant to Ram Singh, Maharajah
of Jeypoor, we read the description of an excursion to the town of
Amber. Speaking of the journey to the _home of an Indian king_, among
other things the writer says:--"We passed small temples, some of them
ruined, some others with offerings of grains, or fruits, or flowers,
some with priests and people at worship. On the walls of some of the
temples we saw the marks of the human hand as though it had been steeped
in blood and pressed against the white wall. We were told that it was
the custom, when seeking from the gods some benison to note the vow by
putting the hand into a liquid and printing it on the wall. This was to
remind the gods of the vow and prayer. And if it came to pass in the
shape of rain, or food, or health, or children, the joyous devotee
returned to the temple and made other offerings." In Yucatan it seems to
have had the same meaning. That is to say: that the owners of the house
if private, or the priests, in the temples and public buildings, called
upon the edifices at the time of taking possession and using them for
the first time, the blessing of the Deity; and placed the hand's
imprints on the walls to recall the vows and prayer: and also, as the
interpretation communicated to me by the Indians seems to suggest, as a
signet or mark of property--_in naá_, my house.
I need not speak of the similarity of many religious rites and beliefs
existing in Hindostan and among the inhabitants of _Mayab_. The worship
of the fire, of the phallus, of Deity under the symbol of the mastodon's
head, recalling that of Ganeza, the god with an elephant's head, hence
that of the elephant in Siam, Birmah[TN-13] and other places of the
Asiatic peninsula even in our day; and various other coincidences so
numerous and remarkable that many would not regard them as simple
coincidences. What to think, effectively, of the types of the personages
whose portraits are carved on the obelisks of Copan? Were they in Siam
instead of Honduras, who would doubt but they are Siameeses.[TN-14] What
to say of the figures of men and women sculptured on the walls of the
stupendous temples hewn, from the live rock, at Elephanta, so American
is their appearance and features? Who would not take them to be pure
aborigines if they were seen in Yucatan instead of Madras, Elephanta and
other places of India.
If now we abandon that country and, crossing the Himalaya's range enter
Afghanistan, there again we find ourselves in a country inhabited by
Maya tribes; whose names, as those of many of their cities, are of pure
American-Maya origin. In the fourth column of the sixth page of the
London _Times_, weekly edition, of March 4, 1879, we read: "4,000 or
5,000 assembled on the opposite bank of the river _Kabul_, and it
appears that in that day or evening they attacked the Maya villages
situated on the north side of the river."
He, the correspondent of the _Times_, tells us that Maya tribes form
still part of the population of Afghanistan. He also tells us that
_Kabul_ is the name of the river, on the banks of which their villages
are situated. But _Kabul_ is the name of an antique shrine in the city
of Izamal. Cogolludo, in the lib. IV., cap. VIII. of his History of
Yucatan, says: "They had another temple on another mound, on the west
side of the square, also dedicated to the same idol. They had there the
symbol of a hand, as souvenir. To that temple they carried their dead
and the sick. They called it _Kabul_, the working hand, and made there
great offerings." Father Lizana says the same: so we have two witnesses
to the fact. _Kab_, in Maya means hand; and _Bul_ is to play at hazard.
Many of the names of places and towns of Afghanistan have not only a
meaning in the American-Maya language, but are actually the same as
those of places and villages in Yucatan to-day, for example:
The Valley of _Chenar_ would be the valley of the _well of the woman's
children_--_chen_, well, and _al_, the woman's children. The fertile
valley of _Kunar_ would be the valley of the _god of the ears of corn_;
or, more probably, the _nest of the ears of corn_: as KÚ, pronounced
short, means _God_, and _Kuu_, pronounced long, is nest. NAL, is the
_ears of corn_.
The correspondent of the London _Times_, in his letters, mentions the
names of some of the principal tribes, such as the _Kuki-Khel_, the
_Akakhel_, the _Khambhur Khel_, etc. The suffix Khel simply signifies
tribe, or clan. So similar to the Maya vocable _Kaan_, a tie, a rope;
hence a clan: a number of people held together by the tie of parentage.
Now, Kuki would be Kukil, or Kukum maya[TN-15] for feather, hence the
KUKI-KHEL would be the tribe of the feather.
AKA-KHEL in the same manner would be the tribe of the reservoir, or
pond. AKAL is the Maya name for the artificial reservoirs, or ponds in
which the ancient inhabitants of Mayab collected rain water for the time
of drought.
Similarly the KHAMBHUR KHEL is the tribe of the _pleasant_: _Kambul_ in
Maya. It is the name of several villages of Yucatan, as you may satisfy
yourself by examining the map.
We have also the ZAKA-KHEL, the tribe of the locust, ZAK. It is useless
to quote more for the present: enough to say that if you read the names
of the cities, valleys[TN-16] clans, roads even of Afghanistan to any of
the aborigines of Yucatan, they will immediately give you their meaning
in their own language. Before leaving the country of the Afghans, by the
KHIBER Pass--that is to say, the _road of the hawk_; HI, _hawk_, and
BEL, road--allow me to inform you that in examining their types, as
published in the London illustrated papers, and in _Harper's Weekly_, I
easily recognized the same cast of features as those of the bearded men,
whose portraits we discovered in the bas-reliefs which adorn the antæ
and pillars of the castle, and queen's box in the Tennis Court at
Chichen-Itza.
On our way to the coast of Asia Minor, and hence to Egypt, we may, in
following the Mayas' footsteps, notice that a tribe of them, the learned
MAGI, with their Rabmag at their head, established themselves in
Babylon, where they became, indeed, a powerful and influential body.
Their chief they called _Rab-mag_--or LAB-MAC--the old person--LAB,
_old_--MAC, person; and their name Magi, meant learned men, magicians,
as that of Maya in India. I will directly speak more at length of
vestiges of the Mayas in Babylon, when explaining by means of the
_American Maya_, the meaning and probable etymology of the names of the
Chaldaic divinities. At present I am trying to follow the footprints of
the Mayas.
On the coast of Asia Minor we find a people of a roving and piratical
disposition, whose name was, from the remotest antiquity and for many
centuries, the terror of the populations dwelling on the shores of the
Mediterranean; whose origin was, and is yet unknown; who must have
spoken Maya, or some Maya dialect, since we find words of that
language, and with the same meaning inserted in that of the Greeks, who,
Herodotus tells us, used to laugh at the manner the _Carians_, or
_Caras_, or _Caribs_, spoke their tongue; whose women wore a white linen
dress that required no fastening, just as the Indian and Mestiza women
of Yucatan even to-day[TN-17]
To tell you that the name of the CARAS is found over a vast extension of
country in America, would be to repeat what the late and lamented
Brasseur de Bourbourg has shown in his most learned introduction to the
work of Landa, "Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan;" but this I may say,
that the description of the customs and mode of life of the people of
Yucatan, even at the time of the conquest, as written by Landa, seems to
be a mere verbatim plagiarism of the description of the customs and mode
of life of the Carians of Asia Minor by Herodotus.
If identical customs and manners, and the worship of the same divinities
under the same name, besides the traditions of a people pointing towards
a certain point of the globe as being the birth-place of their
ancestors, prove anything, then I must say that in Egypt also we meet
with the tracks of the Mayas, of whose name we again have a reminiscence
in that of the goddess Maia, the daughter of Atlantis, worshiped in
Greece. Here, at this end of the voyage, we seem to find an intimation
as to the place where the Mayas originated. We are told that Maya is
born from Atlantis; in other words, that the Mayas came from beyond the
Atlantic waters. Here, also, we find that Maia is called the mother of
the gods _Kubeles_. _Kú_, Maya _God_, _Bel_ the road, the way. Ku-bel,
the road, the origin of the gods as among the Hindostanees. These, we
have seen in the Rig Veda, called Mâyâ, the feminine energy--the
productive virtue of Brahma.
I do not pretend to present here anything but facts, resulting from my
study of the ancient monuments of Yucatan, and a comparative study of
the Maya language, in which the ancient inscriptions, I have been able
to decipher, are written. Let us see if those _facts_ are sustained by
others of a different character.
I will make a brief parallel between the architectural monuments of the
primitive Chaldeans, their mode of writing, their burial places, and
give you the etymology of the names of their divinities in the American
Maya language.
The origin of the primitive Chaldees is yet an unsettled matter among
learned men. Some professing one opinion, others another. All agree,
however, that they were strangers to the lower Mesopotamian valleys,
where they settled in very remote ages, their capital being, in the time
of Abraham, as we learn from Scriptures, _Ur_ or _Hur_. So named either
because its inhabitants were worshipers of the moon, or from the moon
itself--U in the Maya language--or perhaps also because the founders
being strangers and guests, as it were, in the country, it was called
the city of guests, HULA (Maya), _guest just arrived_.
Recent researches in the plains of lower Mesopotamia have revealed to us
their mode of building their sacred edifices, which is precisely
identical to that of the Mayas.
It consisted of mounds composed of superposed platforms, either square
or oblong, forming cones or pyramids, their angles at times, their faces
at others, facing exactly the cardinal points.
Their manner of construction was also the same, with the exception of
the materials employed--each people using those most at hand in their
respective countries--clay and bricks in Chaldea, stones in Yucatan. The
filling in of the buildings being of inferior materials, crude or
sun-dried bricks at Warka and Mugheir; of unhewn stones of all shapes
and sizes, in Uxmal and Chichen, faced with walls of hewn stones, many
feet in thickness throughout. Grand exterior staircases lead to the
summit, where was the shrine of the god, and temple.
In Yucatan these mounds are generally composed of seven superposed
platforms, the one above being smaller than that immediately below; the
temple or sanctuary containing invariably two chambers, the inner one,
the Sanctum Sanctorum, being the smallest.
In Babylon, the supposed tower of Babel--the _Birs-i-nimrud_--the temple
of the seven lights, was made of seven stages or platforms.
The roofs of these buildings in both countries were flat; the walls of
vast thickness; the chambers long and narrow, with outer doors opening
into them directly; the rooms ordinarily let into one another: squared
recesses were common in the rooms. Mr. Loftus is of opinion that the
chambers of the Chaldean buildings were usually arched with bricks, in
which opinion Mr. Taylor concurs. We know that the ceilings of the
chambers in all the monuments of Yucatan, without exception, form
triangular arches. To describe their construction I will quote from the
description by Herodotus, of some ceilings in Egyptian buildings and
Scythian tombs, that resemble that of the brick vaults found at Mugheir.
"The side walls slope outward as they ascend, the arch is formed by each
successive layer of brick from the point where the arch begins, a little
overlapping the last, till the two sides of the roof are brought so near
together, that the aperture may be closed by a single brick."
Some of the sepulchers found in Yucatan are very similar to the jar
tombs common at Mugheir. These consist of two large open-mouthed jars,
united with bitumen after the body has been deposited in them, with the
usual accompaniments of dishes, vases and ornaments, having an air hole
bored at one extremity. Those found at Progreso were stone urns about
three feet square, cemented in pairs, mouth to mouth, and having also an
air hole bored in the bottom. Extensive mounds, made artificially of a
vast number of coffins, arranged side by side, divided by thin walls of
masonry crossing each other at right angles, to separate the coffins,
have been found in the lower plains of Chaldea--such as exist along the
coast of Peru, and in Yucatan. At Izamal many human remains, contained
in urns, have been found in the mounds.
"The ordinary dress of the common people among the Chaldeans," says
Canon Rawlison, in his work, the Five Great Monarchies, "seems to have
consisted of a single garment, a short tunic tied round the waist, and
reaching thence to the knees. To this may sometimes have been added an
_abba_, or cloak, thrown over the shoulders; the material of the former
we may perhaps presume to have been linen." The mural paintings at
Chichen show that the Mayas sometimes used the same costume; and that
dress is used to-day by the aborigines of Yucatan, and the inhabitants
of the _Tierra de Guerra_. They were also bare-footed, and wore on the
head a band of cloth, highly ornamented with mother-of-pearl instead of
camel's hair, as the Chaldee. This band is to be seen in bas-relief at
Chichen-Itza, inthe[TN-18] mural paintings, and on the head of the statue
of Chaacmol. The higher classes wore a long robe extending from the neck
to the feet, sometimes adorned with a fringe; it appears not to have
been fastened to the waist, but kept in place by passing over one
shoulder, a slit or hole being made for the arm on one side of the dress
only. In some cases the upper part of the dress seems to have been
detached from the lower, and to form a sort of jacket which reached
about to the hips. We again see this identical dress portrayed in the
mural paintings. The same description of ornaments were affected by the
Chaldees and the Mayas--bracelets, earrings, armlets, anklets, made of
the materials they could procure.
The Mayas at times, as can be seen from the slab discovered by
Bresseur[TN-19] in Mayapan (an exact fac-simile of which cast, from a
mould made by myself, is now in the rooms of the American Antiquarian
Society at Worcester, Mass.), as the primitive Chaldee, in their
writings, made use of characters composed of straight lines only,
inclosed in square or oblong figures; as we see from the inscriptions in
what has been called hieratic form of writing found at Warka and
Mugheir and the slab from Mayapan and others.
The Chaldees are said to have made use of three kinds of characters that
Canon Rawlinson calls _letters proper_, _monograms_ and _determinative_.
The Maya also, as we see from the monumental inscriptions, employed
three kinds of characters--_letters proper_, _monograms_ and
_pictorial_.
It may be said of the religion of the Mayas, as I have had occasion to
remark, what the learned author of the Five Great Monarchies says of
that of the primitive Chaldees: "The religion of the Chaldeans, from the
very earliest times to which the monuments carry us back, was, in its
outward aspect, a polytheism of a very elaborate character. It is quite
possible that there may have been esoteric explanations, known to the
priests and the more learned; which, resolving the personages of the
Pantheon into the powers of nature, reconcile the apparent multiplicity
of Gods with monotheism." I will now consider the names of the Chaldean
deities in their turn of rotation as given us by the author above
mentioned, and show you that the language of the American Mayas gives us
an etymology of the whole of them, quite in accordance with their
particular attributes.