THE TOMB OF THE HIGH PRIEST
José Alvarado, once a common mine laborer, an ordinary peon, became the
Silver King of Mexico, so fabulously rich that he offered to pay off
the whole national debt of Mexico. His offer was declined by Porfirio
Diaz, then President of Mexico. Alvarado inherited from a hard-working
father a meager silver-mine and he took up the arduous working of this
mine upon the decease of his parent, gaining from his toil scarcely
enough to pay for his scant frijoles, chiles, and tortillas, until
chance led him aside and caused him to strike his crowbar into an
obscure cliff, a mountain of virgin silver.
“Some of my finds in the Sacred City,” says Don Eduardo, “have been
as much a matter of sheer chance as that of José Alvarado. And if the
truth be told, I fancy a good many pioneer operations, scientific
or otherwise, depend largely on Dame Fortune—or Lady Luck, as I
understand she is now called in the States.
“Earlier in life I gave rather less credit to chance and more to
scientific deduction, and once I made a discovery in the Sacred City
which followed so closely my calculated prediction that I concluded
I had evolved a formula which, so far as this special class of
work was concerned, would eliminate chance entirely. I went at the
work of excavation with a new vim and mounting enthusiasm. It was
hard, back-breaking toil for me, digging and heavy lifting, yet
I was sure of my diagnosis, certain of final triumph. I kept on
digging,—endlessly, so it seemed, but with hope unflagging,—until
suddenly I brought up against a solid ledge of living rock. It could
not be explained away. To me it seemed to say, ‘Well, here I am
and here I have always been, and your wise deductions, your clever
calculations—where are they now?’ And to prove to me further that I
must not ignore the little gods of chance, as I returned dejected and
crestfallen along the deep trench, my crowbar accidentally struck a
projecting limestone fragment which fell to the bottom of the trench,
disclosing a dark cavity, within which were a rich find of pottery and
a most interesting skeleton. But for the chance dislodgment of the
stone, I should have missed the object of my search.
“While I was engaged in some excavation in the building called
Chich-an-chob (literally, “The Strong, Clean House,” called now the
Red House) a small but unusually high mound to the southwest of the
building was often in my line of vision. Although I could only guess
at its outline through the thick growth of tall trees and matted vines
that covered its sides, the little I could make out of its peculiar
form excited my interest and kept it in my thoughts.
“Eventually the progress of the work brought me to it and I had the
opportunity to obtain at least an approximate idea of its structure.
I found it to have been originally a small but well-built shrine or
temple crowning a steep-terraced pyramid, but now converted by time
and disintegration into a mere conical mound. The greatest factor in
the decomposition of the shrine, as in the case of many others, was
not wind and weather but the wrenching apart of the stone-work by the
growing roots of trees.
“The temple itself was similar in plan to the great edifice which
towers above Chi-chen Itza. In fact, it was El Castillo in miniature
but differing in several important details, among which were corner
and lateral stelæ or carved stone monuments, the rear ones bearing
inscriptions which seemed to place the shrine in a different category
from any of the other buildings I had examined in the Sacred City. Like
huge El Castillo, this miniature temple has a main stairway facing the
northeast, and similarly the approach is guarded by twin serpent heads,
each a finely carved monolith. Protruding from the massive heads
are forked tongues extending for some little distance. The serpent
bodies, conventionalized into wide, flat bands, serve as balustrades,
extending one on each side of the wide, steep stairway, clear to the
temple platform. The big blocks of stone and masonry, fallen from the
temple level, had rolled down these stairs and carried away most of the
stairway, leaving just enough of the handsome, carefully cut steps and
balustrade to indicate what had once been a perfect thing. Indeed, the
stairway is no longer usable, although a few of the steps remain in
place, and the difficult ascent is made by grasping projecting roots of
trees and stone fragments and treading in the gashes left in the mound
by the avalanche of rock masses from above.
“Gaining the crown of the pyramid, we found there massive serpent
columns corresponding to those encountered on the plain below. Well
carved, artistic, they were half buried in the fallen walls of the
temple, while one of the impressive capitals of the now famous serpent
columns, consisting of the conventionalized rattles of the rattlesnake,
lay precariously balanced on the very edge of the platform. Its twin
companion had long since crashed down the steep incline and its great
bulk lay amid the debris and matted growth at the base of the mound.
“In clearing away the forest growth and surface accumulations on the
top of the mound, we uncovered the capstones of four large square
columns which had once supported the triple-vaulted arched roof of the
inner chamber. These capstones indicated by the almost effaced carvings
on them that the columns beneath probably were covered with carvings.
Believing these to be of real importance, as well as a safe guide to
follow in the work of excavation, we began carefully to clear the space
about them, and as fast as the column faces were cleared and cleansed
I made plaster casts or molds of their wonderfully carved surfaces.
When we at last reached the floor-surface of the chamber, we gave these
ancient columns an opportunity to dry out thoroughly, after their
centuries of accumulated dampness, before we continued work in their
vicinity.
“Being a dyed-in-the-wool New England Yankee as well as an antiquarian,
I have, naturally, evolved some mechanical aids for my particular line
of work in the thirty years I have been at it. Among these contrivances
is an instrument which has proved most useful in detecting subterranean
cavities near the surface. The device consists of an octagonal bar of
steel with a tuning-fork at one end. The other end flares out into a
protuberance like the bulb of an onion. By tapping with this crude
instrument, using it as long experience has taught me, I have often
been able to locate burial vaults and other cavities which I might
otherwise have overlooked.
“After the floor of the shrine had been cleared I sounded the whole
area with my steel stethoscope and it indicated a large, deep cavity
about midway between the first line of columns.
“The floor was made of heavy cut stones, smoothly joined, and with our
simple tools it was something of an undertaking to loosen and remove
one of these large blocks. But at last we did raise it and found,
beneath, a square cavity about four feet wide. At first the depth
could not be determined, because the cavity was completely filled
with crisscrossed roots. None was thicker than a pencil and most were
thread-like, but all were so intertwined that they virtually formed a
solid mass. My helpers looked doubtfully at this yellow, spongy mass of
unknown depth. ‘Who knows what strange underground poisonous creatures
may be hidden in this sickly mass of yellow and brown?’ they asked.
“A stout pole was laid across the cavity and a rope tied to it so
that it dangled down into the hole. Finally two of my bravest workers
were persuaded to descend the rope, each clinging to it and wielding
a dexterous machete with his free hand, hacking away at the spongy
mesh of roots. Hardly had they warmed to the work when one of them, in
heaving up a root mass, found himself covered with large red scorpions.
Angry at being so rudely ejected from their habitation, they crawled
over him with upraised, menacing tails, and several did sting him.
Both men came popping out of the hole in record time and I at once
administered antidotes, from my medicine case, to the man who had been
stung and sent him back to the plantation house for the remainder of
the day. Another man took his place and the work proceeded, but more
cautiously.
[Illustration: A sculpture in bas-relief showing a warrior-priest in
ceremonial attire, representing the Maya hero-god Kukul Can, the plumed
serpent.]
[Illustration: A religious ceremony depicted in the Temple of
Bas-Reliefs. This is but a small section from the interior walls, which
contain more than eighty figures.]
“We had just about finished getting out the root masses when there came
from the cavity two terrified yells and two even more terrified men.
When they had quieted down enough to talk intelligently they said that
after cutting away a root mass, the last one on the bottom, and tying
it to the rope so that those above might raise it, they had perched on
a projecting ledge and lighted cigarettes, waiting for the rope to be
lowered again. As it came down between them and rested on what they
supposed was the bottom of the pit below them, they saw the bottom
heave into a writhing mass and out of it rose the head of a big snake
with shining eyes and jaws that yawned at them wickedly. As one man
they climbed the rope and scrambled into the open. I think they would
have rolled down the side of the mound and kept rolling right up to
the plantation house if I had not grabbed and held them. Eventually
their fright subsided and was replaced by curiosity and they stayed on
willingly enough.
“Nobody seemed particularly anxious to go down into the pit, so I
thought it might be just as well to make some long-range observations
before starting any hand-to-hand encounter with whatever was down
there. A reflecting mirror threw a shaft of clear, strong sunlight into
the well or shaft and my field binoculars, adjusted to a short-distance
focus, revealed to me the coiled body of an amazingly large snake. As
the shaft of light played about, the big fellow raised his head, waved
it uncertainly, and then dropped it again. To judge from the size
of the head and the shape of the body, the snake evidently was not a
crotalid, or rattler, but rather some species of boa. Boas are not very
difficult to handle, especially if you would just as soon have your boa
dead. This particular representative of the boa family was, apparently,
sleeping off a hearty meal and was still rather torpid, and it was no
trick at all to kill him.
“When brought to the surface, the deceased proved to be a _chaib_, a
kind of boa noted for its beautiful skin, handsomely marked with large
mottles—greenish yellow and chocolate brown. Our victim was fourteen
feet long and had a maximum diameter of eight inches. From his skin,
native tanners made me a money-belt and a very comfortable pair of
slippers. The _chaib_ is not poisonous and I have never heard of a case
where a human being has been attacked by one as South American and
African boas are said to attack. Nevertheless this snake bears an evil
reputation among the Mayas, who believe that a nursing mother crossing
its path becomes powerless in its coils and that the reptile sucks the
milk from her breasts, though it does not otherwise harm her.
“After disposing of the snake we resumed operations in the shaft. We
discovered that some emanation of a gaseous nature or perhaps a fine
dust from the roots produced a violent headache, much like that caused
by the fumes of dynamite. I remembered that quarrymen find relief from
dynamite-fume headaches by drinking strong, hot coffee, and similarly
we found this beverage an effective remedy for our headaches.
“Cleared of invading roots, the cavity was now really a cavity.
Descending hand over hand by the rope a full twelve feet from the
level floor of the temple, I found myself standing on what seemed to
be an accumulation of little stones and plaster, intermixed with small
bones which I took to be those of animals that had been the prey of
the _chaib_. There was a good deal of parchment-like material lying
about, which I thought at first was cast-off skin of the big boa, but
which was actually an epidermal root-covering sifted down from above.
Standing at the bottom of the square shaft and looking up at the
vertical walls, I saw that each wall-surface was built up of a myriad
of small cut blocks of tan-colored limestone, so smoothly polished as
to suggest marble. It was unlike any ancient wall-surface I had ever
seen. The stones were not inserted in mortar like Florentine wall
mosaics; neither were they built up into high relief, like the famous
walls of tombs and chambers at Mitla. Rather, each tier of small stones
was cut to a bevel, with the upper or horizontal surface projecting
some two inches beyond the face of the tier above.
“As nearly as I can describe it, the effect was like the siding,
or clapboards, on a house, supposing that the siding were put on
upside down, thick side uppermost. The stones were cut with exceeding
niceness, and each wall section, though simple, combined with the
others to form a most artistic whole. At the four corners, where the
lateral bands would have met, they were intercepted by vertical stone
bands about four inches wide, running from bottom to top of the shaft.
“At the time I could spare only a passing interest in these walls,
for in the debris beneath my feet were fragments of pottery and
a projecting human jaw-bone. We painstakingly removed the stone
fragments and mortar-dust. Working with trowel, spatula, and
whisk-broom, I found that the chamber contained the disordered remains
of two graves.
“Evidently one grave had originally been superimposed on the other,
and the contents of the two had been thrown together by the force of
falling debris from above. The two graves, I think, were once square
and separated by stone slabs. Here I found fragments of pottery and
splintered human bones, brittle with age and gnawed by rodents.
Reconstructing the scene from the fragments, I surmise that each grave
contained, besides its human remains, a small, shallow tripod vessel,
the outer surface of which was burnished with red pigment, and a deeper
gourd-like vessel. I believe that the shallow dish contained food and
that the deeper one was filled with drink of some sort—very likely
_sacca_ or _bal-che_, both of which the ancient Mayas believed were
acceptable to the soul of the departed and to the gods.
“The skeletons were so broken and disturbed that beyond the fact that
they were two in number and that the bones were so old they were
fragile as pipe-stems, nothing else was casually to be noticed. The
finding of skeletal remains and of funerary urns made it clear beyond
dispute that this building was a mausoleum, a tomb of kings or of
priests.
“I carefully collected all of this fragmentary material and sent it
aloft to be preserved for future study. Then I made measurements of the
chamber and jotted them down in my note-book. This being done, I turned
my attention to the stone floor of the tomb. My steel stethoscope
indicated that below there was a still deeper cavity. With much
careful effort we pried up the stone floor-slabs, disclosing another
grave. Apparently this burial-vault had suffered but slightly from
the concussions and disturbances which had all but destroyed the two
upper graves. The walls and bottom were lined with thin slabs of stone
covered with mortar. Much of the mortar had flecked off and lay spread
out unevenly over the various objects in the grave, but no serious
harm had been done either to the skeletal remains or to the funerary
vessels. The bones, however, had been gnawed and dragged out of place
by rodents.
“A shallow earthen vessel was found in the grave, of the customary
small tripod type, painted red, with a blue line around the rim. A
bowl-shaped vessel, gray-colored and smooth, was placed at the right
of the skeleton, and both vessels were half filled with sifted mortar.
Even though the bones were somewhat disarranged, it was plain that the
human remains had been buried with the knees drawn up to the chin, and
the arms placed over them, with hands clasped. I found the hunched-up
remains reclining upon their right side. Whether the body had been so
buried or had been buried in a sitting position and had later toppled
over, is a matter for conjecture. If this grave or the others had ever
held anything of perishable nature it had completely disappeared.
“When the vault had been cleared, I resorted once more to my crude
stethoscope, which left no doubt of a still further cavity. Raising the
floor-slabs, we discovered a grave similar to grave Number Three, but
the contents were interesting variations. The usual tripod vessel was
there and also the bowl-shaped container, but the bottom inner surface
of the tripodal receptacle was cross-hatched with deep-cut lines,
and beside it was a large tripod vessel containing a caking of hard
material that proved to be copal incense of finest quality. It was so
altered by time that it was crystallized, almost fossilized, but when a
small portion was burned it gave off the familiar copal fragrance.
“In one corner of the vault, almost hidden under mortar-dust, was a
little heap of verdigris. This proved to be a number of copper bells,
like our sleigh-bells in shape but very much smaller, like the bells
brought up from the Sacred Well. The outer bells in the heap were so
oxidized that they simply flaked away when we tried to clean them,
but the inner ones retained their shape and finish even after they
were washed and cleaned. Copper bells played an important part in the
rituals and in the economic life of the ancient Mayas and of their
successors, even down to almost modern times. That old and faithful
chronicler Padre Cogolludo says of the olden people: ‘The monies they
used were copper bells and valuable according to their size.’ But the
probable reason for the presence of bells in this tomb is the fact that
in still older history bells were a part of the regalia of Ah Puch,
the God of Death, and were attached as anklets to his person. He is so
shown in the many hieroglyphs of him.
“The skeletal remains in this grave seemed to point to a re-burial.
Either the bones were taken from another tomb and re-interred here or
else they were cleared of their integuments and flesh prior to burial.
I say this because they were found in a queer bundle-like heap, with no
reference to their relative anatomical positions.
“In all of these graves were found traces of wood-ashes, but no signs
of burned or calcined bones to bear out any theory of cremation.
“Once again the steel stethoscope was put to use and again it told us
that we had not struck bottom. The floor of the fourth opened up into a
fifth grave, deeper than any of the preceding ones and more free from
accumulations. It contained pottery and a mingled heap of bones, as
the grave above had done. But in one corner, just where we had found
copper bells in the grave above, we discovered what looked like a dusty
pile of glass, which proved to be a handful of beautifully polished and
glistening rock-crystal beads some of which were handsomely fluted.
This find was the first recorded one of rock-crystal beads or pendants
in Yucatan. And amid the dust and debris on the floor we recovered a
dozen or more perfectly cut and artfully shaped jade beads of small
size. They were found either just above the surface or buried in a
fine ash deposit which may have destroyed somewhat their original
luster. Even so, they are valuable specimens, especially because of the
surroundings.
“The floor of this fifth and last of the several graves was on a
level with the base of the pyramid, and I concluded, therefore, that
it rested upon ledge-rock formation and that we had now reached the
end of our search. In fact, I had noted an upward tilt in the ledge
rock and had wondered why we had not already encountered it in the
shaft. The ancient builders very wisely took advantage of these rises
and outcroppings of ledge rock, in placing their buildings, so as to
save filling-material and the labor otherwise required to give the
structures a solid foundation.
“Judge of my surprise, despite my silent prediction, when the
tuning-fork device again signaled, ‘Good-sized cavity below’! It took
more than a casual glance to find the seams in the floor of the crypt,
so closely were the stones fitted, and we had considerable difficulty
in dislodging and raising them. Instead of a sixth and similar tomb we
encountered a flight of steps hewn out of the living rock.
“We had spent many days of constant back-breaking labor in the
excavation of the five graves, the noting of data, the preparation of
the specimens, and the packing of them in cases. Incidentally, the
deeper we went, the greater was our danger of cracked skulls from
falling stones and we had all taken to wearing stiff, high-crowned,
wide-brimmed Mexican sombreros. The high crowns we stuffed with
_pochote_ (tree-cotton). We covered our shoulders with thick pads of
gunny-sack, worn like a cape. When not working we threw the flaps back
over our shoulders. Occasionally a stone did fall, striking harmlessly
upon our improvised helmets and padded shoulders. If, however, it
chanced to hit a naked leg there was a howl of mingled pain and rage,
followed by words of unmingled Maya expletive. Such accidents happened
but rarely and the whole undertaking went through without a single
serious mishap.
“Each day, as the work progressed and we went farther and farther down,
the light from above became more and more feeble, except when the sun
was at the zenith, and much of our work had to be done by candlelight.
When we came to the flight of steps we found it so choked with ashes,
lime-dust, small bits of stone, potsherds, and charcoal, each in
quantity in the order indicated, that at first we could obtain no
idea of the dimensions of the chamber below. From the contour of the
roof-stones I judged it was not large, but it was so filled with debris
that I had to enter it feet foremost and lie upon my side to fill the
wicker baskets with material and pass them back to one of my helpers,
who in turn passed them on. Thus from one to another they passed,
until they could be hoisted up to daylight, where trusted hands and
experienced eyes separated the dross and placed the remainder in field
safety-boxes for my later inspection.
“In this manner, an endless chain of filled baskets went up and empty
ones came down to one man in the mysterious vault, lying on his back,
half naked, dripping with sweat, and plastered with grime, but now and
then smiling seraphically as he caught the gleam of a shining jade
jewel or a finely worked bit of flint. He could not see clearly for
more than an instant at a time, for when he was not blinded by sweat
the alkaline ash-dust smote his eyes, and the two at times combined to
make him fairly writhe. And he would not have changed places with a
king, for every once in a while he came upon something more precious to
him than kingly possessions.
“At first this work progressed very slowly for, perforce, I was the
only worker in the heaped-up chamber, my head and shoulders in the
flickering light of wild wax-candles while the rest of my body was
buried in the darkness of unknown centuries, my high-booted feet
crowding against who knows what noxious cave creatures.
“The mass of material, though hard-packed by time, was mostly
wood-ashes; and once these were loosened, a heavy booted foot or even a
sandaled one might injure some priceless museum specimen. And so for
a while I preferred to work alone in the confined space. At last I had
cleared away the accumulation above the second step of the stairway,
and I worked a clear space about the third step, using only my bare
hands, a sculptor’s spatula, and a whisk-broom. Even the trowel was
tabooed. Finally a sufficient space was cleared for my two most trusted
aides, Manuel and Pedro, to work beside me and then the work progressed
more rapidly.
“For several days things went along in this manner, with our interest
and curiosity mounting hourly, so that all who worked with me, down to
the last peon, grew feverishly excited and food and drink became mere
irritating interruptions. And each day added to our hoard of potsherds,
human bones, and shining jade.
“To this day I cannot think of that strange chamber without wonder.
Neither can I account for the presence of the material which so nearly
filled it. That it was a depository for the contents of previous
burial-places, is, I think, a fact beyond a doubt. Ashes, half-burned
fragments, even pieces of smooth wall-finish foreign to this particular
chamber, potsherds and jade ornaments—all lead to this conclusion. At
first I thought that the place had been a crematory, but I was soon
convinced that this could not have been so.
“As the work went forward the outline of the chamber became well
defined. The opening was relatively high and wide and I could stand
there almost erect. The passage, however, narrowed quickly like a
funnel, ending in a dead wall. The week was drawing to a close and with
it, so it appeared, our task. The work within that deep-down, badly
ventilated shaft was not too pleasant. The air was close; the place
was frightfully hot, and the big wax candles, dim and smoky, did not
tend to make the place more comfortable.
“We three—Manuel, Pedro, and I—were stripped to the waist and looked
more like chimney-sweeps than delvers after scientific lore. The work
seemed so nearly at an end that we kept doggedly on, the boys digging
and sifting while I stopped frequently to make notes. Late in the day,
all seemed finished except for a few isolated ash-heaps and a big flat
stone that leaned again the very end of the wall.
“Heaving a sigh of relief and wiping away the layer of grime and sweat
from my eyes, I said, ‘Well, boys, there’s nothing left but to haul
away that big flat stone and sweep up the ashes behind it on the chance
that there are some beads or small objects in the mess; then we’ll take
a few measurements and call the job finished.’ I grasped the stone
slab with both hands and pulled it toward me. It yielded so suddenly
that I fell back with it; and my companions likewise fell back, for,
instead of uncovering a pile of ashes, it disclosed a big, circular,
pitch-black hole and from that unsuspected, terrible hole came a long,
soughing rush of cold, damp wind. Our candles went out at once, leaving
us in inky blackness. The cold wind chilled our overheated bodies.
I was left with an insecure foothold too near the opening to dare a
movement in the dark. The two natives were simply glued to their places
in sheer terror.
“Finally Pedro spoke. ‘It is the mouth of hell,’ he said, and I heard
his teeth chatter as he said it. Even then, with my feet so placed on
the sloping wall-space and my body so inclined on the sloping floor
that it seemed as if an incautious move might slide me smoothly into
that black hole and through it into Eternity, I felt a pleased interest
in Pedro’s statement, for to the ancient Mayas, hell, called by them
Metnal, was not a burning pit of fire and brimstone but a dank, cold
place where lost souls, benumbed with chill, struggled forever in
thick, dark mud. The words of Pedro, coming so spontaneously from the
heart and coinciding so nearly with the ancient belief, the belief of
his ancestors, caused me to wonder.
“For the moment, however, it suited my purpose to have the more
Christian idea prevail and I did some rapid missionary work, saying
reprovingly in the native tongue, ‘_Ehen_, Pedro! What did Padre Ortiz
say about the hot flames of an ever-burning hell? It is a cold wind and
not a hot flame that comes from this hole.’ My logic evidently appealed
to them and freed them of a superstitious fear and they became once
more calm and resourceful.
“Working slowly and carefully in the utter darkness, we managed to
block up the hole with our wide-brimmed hats and we held them in place
by toppling the big flat stone against them. I was then able to get to
my feet and relight our candles. By long experience in subterranean
work, cave explorations, and descents into ancient cisterns, I have
learned to take certain basic precautions. As one of these, I wear
about my neck, hanging from a stout cord of deerskin, an air-tight
metal case within which are a glass vial of proof alcohol and some
wax matches. By this means I am freed of the vexation of damp matches
and a futile blue line of phosphorescence when a light is quickly and
urgently needed. I also carry invariably in such work a small Davy
lamp and a hundred-foot steel tape.
“The lamp is a safeguard against possible gas explosions. Lighting
it, I once more uncovered the hole, and once more the rush of cold
air began. I waited until the air-currents had balanced themselves
as nearly as they were likely to do and then proceeded to a further
examination of the hole. The orifice was about thirty inches in
diameter and after piercing the rock for about two feet it opened into
a cavity of unknown size and depth. I could, of course, have dropped a
stone into the cavity and timed its fall, gaining at least some idea
of the depth. But I wanted to take no chance of breaking anything
of antiquarian interest which might be there. Instead, I fastened
the lantern to the end of the steel tape and slowly lowered it into
the hole, but the thickness of the two-foot wall between me and the
perpendicular descent prevented me from seeing what was discovered by
the lantern as it went down. So I had the two boys hold tight to my
legs while I squirmed through the orifice until, head down, I could
sway freely above the pit. The convulsive hold on my legs assured me
that I should not drop down the hole suddenly if the boys could prevent
it, so I turned my entire attention to the void beneath me.
“By feeling the tape nicks as the lantern rested on the bottom of
the pit I found the depth was almost exactly fifty feet. By swinging
my body and the tape with the lantern at the end like a pendulum I
ascertained that the cavity was bottle-shaped and about twenty feet
wide at the bottom. I also ascertained that it was quite dry, the air
pure in it and the ventilation perfect. This seemed to be all of the
data necessary for the moment, so I had the boys pull me back to terra
firma and then cautioned them to say nothing whatever about our latest
discovery. And so we returned to the upper air and the scent of orchids
and to a hearty supper.
“That night, when I knew the men were resting and chatting before
taking to their guitars and their hammocks, I sent for Manuel—wise,
level-headed, dependable, my trusted companion through long years of
this sort of work. I said to him, ‘Manuel, to-morrow is going to be a
very interesting day even for old-timers like you and me and we shall
not often see and handle that which I hope we shall discover to-morrow.
Now, I want you to see Juan Cancio, Mathildé Uh, and José Uh. I will
see Pedro and his brother. Tell Juan, Mathildé, and José to meet us
here at five o’clock in the morning with their machetes, with their
water-gourds filled and with dinner in the _sabucan_. And, Manuel, tell
each of them that a shut mouth catches no flies. We may find something
and we may find nothing but piled earth, and if the latter we do not
want the other men laughing at us behind our backs.’
“Early the next morning we hastened toward the mound and with us went
stout ropes, block and tackle, shovels, and all the necessary tools
for six men. We slid down the rope into the shaft and then made our
way down the stairway into the funnel-shaped chamber. Here we fixed
a strong post and attached to it a double block and tackle, with the
several necessary ropes, so that all of us could safely descend and
ascend the fifty-foot bottle beyond the small, dark orifice. With a
lighted miner’s lamp on my head and my Davy lamp preceding me by ten
feet, I placed my foot in a noose in one of the ropes, swung myself
through the orifice, and hung over the pit. Between my teeth was my
sharp hunting knife which I always carry in this fashion in entering a
subterranean reservoir.
“My plans were well made and it was my intention to be lowered slowly
that I might study these grim walls as I descended. I had gone down
less than half the distance when I began to turn and whirl in the air
like a dancing dervish, with the difference that the dervish whirls on
solid ground, to the prayerful cries of his brethren, and he can stop
when he wishes, while I whirled in mid-air in darkness and silence,
like some dead celestial sphere and as powerless to stop. In our haste
we had forgotten to take the kinks out of the new ropes we were using
and my rope was avenging itself by beginning to unkink as my weight was
felt on its twisted strands. For a few seconds I could do nothing but
hang on dizzily. Meanwhile the rapidly twisting rope had caught and
jammed in the block, serving as a brake and had entirely checked my
downward progress.
“Suddenly a coil of rope from above fell loosely on my shoulders and
aroused me to my danger. The men above, not knowing what was going
on below in the darkness, were steadily paying out the rope and if
the choked block became suddenly free, there was nothing to prevent
my falling headlong through that terrible blackness to whatever was
below. Hurriedly looping the rope as best I could, to insure my present
safety, I yelled to the men above, and a voice came down to me,
sounding thick and flat in that black space.
“‘What is it, Master?’ the voice said.
“‘Listen,’ I replied, as steadily as I could. ‘Do exactly as I tell
you, for my life is at stake!’
“‘We will do it, Master,’ answered the voice.
“‘Haul up the slack of the rope until I tell you to stop.’
“‘I hear you, Master,’ and the snake-like coils began to recede, to
grow small, and finally to disappear. The slack had been taken up.
‘What now, Master?’ came the voice and I knew from the tension in it
that the sight of the slack rope had told its own story.
“‘Send me down Manuel and José.’ (They were the lightest and most agile
of the men.) I had no more than spoken before they came sliding down
the other ropes and shortly I was descending as slowly and carefully as
I had planned to do, until the pilot light of the lamp touched ground
beneath me, standing as firmly erect as though placed by unseen hands.
I glanced at the two men beside me on the ropes and we all nodded our
heads approvingly.
“Below, clearly seen in the light of the lamp, was a pure-white vessel
which had fallen apart, and from it streamed gleaming, shining objects.
We landed as carefully as though stepping on a mound of eggs. Before
taking our feet from the nooses we called to the men above to make
the ropes fast and to be ready for our signals. Leaving the lantern
standing as it was and no longer troubled by air-currents, we lit
our candles. Directly in the center of the pit was a large mound and
crowning it was the white vase, made of translucent material like
alabaster, carved from a solid block and engraved with a leaf design
in highly conventionalized meanders, combined with geometrical designs
around the rim and sides. It was broken into several pieces, but these
were large and the whole was quickly and easily fitted together into
the original shape.
“The vase, which had a capacity of about a quart, contained a quantity
of exquisite jade beads and pendants, a large plaque with surfaces
richly carved and representing conventionalized human figures with
religious regalia, a polished jade globe over an inch in diameter
and shining clear in spite of the ages of dust, oblong pendants, and
thin, minutely carved ear-ornaments. This was but a tenth of what the
vessel had once held. The rest we found later in the heaped-up material
beneath it.
“At a signal anxiously expected, the other men came swirling down
the ropes like firemen sliding down a brass pole to answer an alarm.
Then we all went to work. Each of the men had had long experience in
similar labors under my supervision. Occasionally was heard a swift
intake of breath and a man would hold up some interesting find and then
settle back to his task. While they worked I made notes, numbered the
specimens, and helped to pack them in the safety-boxes. Thus the work
went on. Occasionally we had to stop to kill a _tzeentum_, a big, flat,
crab-like spider. _Tzeentum_ spiders can give an ugly sting producing
a fever hard to subdue, and at times they seem to swarm out of hidden
crevices. By reason of their flat bodies and quick movements, killing
them is not always easy.
“We found temple vases, incense-burners, tripod vessels, cylindrical
urns, some of which are perfect, others marred, and many broken. We
obtained fragments of large, hard-baked earthen vessels of complicated
design. Unbroken, these must have been at least thirty-six inches
high. We secured, also, chipped flints of fine workmanship and of
unknown use. All these and many other finds came to us from this mound,
and after it had been gone over carefully by hand and had then been
screened we decided we had left nothing of value and as with one mind
we began to think of supper. Pedro swarmed up one of the ropes hand
over hand, followed by his brother, and they hoisted the specimen cases
and tools. The rest of the workers followed one by one. I was the last
to leave the mysterious burial-chamber, which seemed to name itself by
occult suggestion ‘The Sepulcher of the High Priest.’ And as I left
its dark depths behind me, the mysterious atmosphere, which no one,
probably, will ever be able to dissipate, seemed to cling to me.
“When we arrived at the top of the square-walled shaft it was eleven
o’clock at night and all the people of the plantation were there,
anxiously awaiting us. The families of the men who accompanied me were
in a hysterical state. Ropes had been brought and an attempt was about
to be made at our rescue. With our specimen cases held aloft and in the
midst of a rejoicing crowd we returned to the plantation house and soon
the noise died away and we all slept.
“I am asked why I call this shrine upon the mound with the crypt
beneath it the Temple of the High Priest. That is a fair question.
“I believe there comes to most sentient beings, after protracted
periods of intense observation and deep interest in a given subject, a
certain mental domination over the subject beyond a mere recognition
of the facts which have been encountered. One becomes possessed of a
clarity of vision not psychic but reaching farther than cold logic.
Call it intuition or what not; it so frequently arrives at the right
answer, spanning the gap that cannot be spanned by the chain of facts,
that I have great respect for it when it is honest, genuine, and
strongly felt.
“As I left behind me the black depths of the pit, its haunting mystery
seemed to permeate me. I had had the same strange feeling come over
me before, in research work among the burial-places of Labna and also
during and after my discovery of the ruined city of Xkickmook. Never
had it been so potent, so definite as when I ascended this wonderful
old burial-shaft and came into the moonlight of the living world.
“The feeling, impressive beyond words, was undoubtedly intensified by
the vision of the treasures I had so recently seen and handled: the
beautiful alabaster-like vase above all comparison with anything of its
kind hitherto found in the whole Maya area; the remarkable terra-cotta
votive urns nearly three feet high, each bearing the mask of a god
surrounded with sacred ornaments; the elaborate incense-burners and
other extraordinary pottery; the big, polished, globular beads of
jade; the carved jade plaque; the labrets, ear- and nose-ornaments;
the tubular rosettes; the thin disks of polished jade; the wonderfully
worked, flawless ornaments of flint, shaped like the parts of the
crozier of a bishop.
“And linked with these in my mind’s eye were the deeply paneled
surfaces of walls and columns, everywhere in the Sacred City, depicting
god-like personages with all the regalia of exalted priesthood:
neck-chains of big globular beads, breast-plaques of finely carved
design, ear- and nose-ornaments, and, grasped in the hand of these
dignitaries, a staff crowned with an object resembling the crozier of a
bishop.
“To me these pictures and the finds we had just made dovetailed
perfectly. Beyond dispute, too, is that fact that many ancient races
placed at the side of the departed those things which were most used
in life and which they would, presumably, want first in the hereafter.
The old Phœnicians, the Egyptians, the Scythians, the Norsemen, the
Eskimos, the redskins of the North and West, the Pueblos and the
Nahuatls, and the Incas and pre-Incas—all followed this custom. And I
know at first hand that the Mayas were no exception, for I have found
well-defined graves, never previously disturbed—graves containing
child skeletons with toys beside them; graves of women in which were
bone needles and spinning-whorls of terra-cotta or worked stone; graves
where beside the thick bones of once-powerful men were found flint
lance-heads and heads of darts for the _hul-che_ and knife-points of
obsidian.
“Beyond question I had uncovered the last resting-place of a priest
obviously of very high rank. Reason and logic and facts carry us thus
far. But those five hidden graves, each guarding the one below and
blocking the way to the deep secret passage and the pit at its end
wherein lay the sacred relics of the arch-priest—how may these be
explained? It is here that the mysterious assurance came to me—the
sure intuition, if you will—that this was not merely the tomb of a
great priest but the tomb of _the_ great priest, the tomb of the great
leader, the tomb of the hero-god, Kukul Can, he whose symbol was the
Feathered Serpent. Evidence is lacking, I can offer no scientific
proof, and yet I am certain that ultimately further discoveries in the
Sacred City will bear out my intuitive belief.”