_April_ 6, 1877.
After the defeat of Dr. Le Plongeon's cherished hopes of exhibiting his
statue at Philadelphia, this traveller passed his time in investigations
among the islands of the east coast of the Peninsula, particularly those
of Mugeres and Cozumel. His observations there--as well as much
additional information regarding the architecture of Chichen-Itza and
Uxmal, and his deductions therefrom--are contained in a communication to
the Minister of the United States at Mexico, and are here given in
abstract, as throwing light upon the discoveries that have been made,
and the inferences which have been drawn from them.
This appeal contains a statement of the wrongs suffered by Dr. Le
Plongeon in being prevented from removing his statue and other
discoveries from the country; and also a demand for redress and
compensation, as an American citizen, for the seizure and appropriation,
in the first instance by the government of Yucatan, and afterwards by
the supreme government at Mexico, of the work of art which he had
brought to light. This statement, with the correspondence which
accompanies it, is intended also to be offered to the consideration of
the President of the United States for such action as may be considered
proper in the premises.
The extracts made are those only which relate to the investigations of
Dr. Le Plongeon in the course of his travels; for although great
sympathy is due him for his misfortunes and disappointments, a legal
statement of his wrongs cannot be discussed in this paper.
EXTRACTS FROM A COMMUNICATION OF DR. LE PLONGEON TO THE HONORABLE
JOHN W. FOSTER, MINISTER OF THE UNITED STATES AT MEXICO, DATED
ISLAND OF COZUMEL, MAY 1, 1877.
Chichen-Itza is situated in the territories occupied by subjects of
Don Crecencio Poot, Chief of Chan-Santa-Cruz. In 1847, this chief
and others refused to acknowledge any longer their allegiance to
the Mexican Government, and seceded, declaring war to the knife to
the white inhabitants of Yucatan. Since that time they have
conquered a portion of that State, and hold peaceful possession of
the best towns. They have destroyed the principal cities of the
east and south. These are now reduced to mere villages with few
inhabitants. The churches in ruins, mostly converted into
fortresses, the houses abandoned by their dwellers, invaded by rank
vegetation, a refuge for bats, owls, and other prowling animals,
are crumbling to the ground every day more and more, no one daring
to make repairs, lest the Indians should burn and destroy them
again. For leagues around the country is deserted. Only a few
venturesome spirits have plucked up heart to establish farms where
the soil is the richest. They cultivate them with armed servants,
so great is their dread of their fierce enemies.
Three miles from Pisté, one of the most advanced posts on the
eastern frontier, and beyond the military lines, stand the ruins of
Chichen Itza. There lay buried, since probably 5000 years, that
superb statue, together with other most precious relics, at eight
meters under ground, amidst thick forests, unknown to the whole
world, not only to the modern, but also to the comparatively
ancient, for it has escaped destruction from the hands of the
natives. A people, starting from the vicinity of Palenque, invaded
all the regions west and south of what, in our days, is called the
Yucatan Peninsula, arriving at Bacalar. From that place, following
the coast, they ravaged the eastern part of the country, and at or
about the beginning of the Christian era laid siege to the _cities
of the holy and wise men_ (Itzaes), the seat of a very advanced
civilization, where arts, sciences and religion flourished. After a
weary and protracted defence, and many hard-fought battles, the
beautiful capital fell at last into the power of the invaders.
There, in the impulse of their ignorance, in the heat of their
wrath, they destroyed many objects of art. They vented their rage
most particularly on the effigies and portraits of the ancient
kings and rulers of the vanquished, when and where they could find
them, decapitating most and breaking a great many of the beautiful
statues wrought by their subjects in their honor, as mementoes by
which they remembered and venerated their memories. Chaacmol, whose
hiding place they ignored, as they did that of his elder brother,
_Huuncay_, whose statue is still where his friends deposited it, 12
meters under the surface of the ground, escaped the fury of the
enraged iconoclasts. Not so, however, the effigies and emblems that
adorned and surmounted the monuments raised to perpetuate the
remembrance of their most beneficent government, and the love they
professed for their people. Even these monuments themselves were
afterwards disgraced, being used as places for histrionic
performances.
The places of concealment of these and other most precious relics,
amongst them probably the libraries of the _H-Menes_ or learned and
wise men, yet to be excavated, were revealed to my wife and myself
on deciphering some hieroglyphics, mural paintings and bas-reliefs.
On the 5th of January, 1876, I conducted the statue of Chaacmol on
the road to [C]itas, and at about a quarter of a mile from Pisté,
that is to say, far enough to put it out of the reach of mischief
from the soldiers of the post, I placed it in a thicket about 50
yards from the road. There, with the help of Mrs. Le Plongeon, I
wrapped it in oil-cloth, and carefully built over it a thatched
roof, in order to protect it from the inclemencies of the
atmosphere. Leaving it surrounded by a brush fence, we carefully
closed the boughs on the passage that led from the road to the
place of concealment, so that a casual traveller, ignorant of the
existence of such an object, would not even suspect it. Many a day
our only meal has consisted of a hard Indian cake and a bit of
garlic and water.
The queen of Itza is represented under the effigy of an _ara_,
eating a human heart, on several bas-reliefs that adorned the
monuments she raised to the beloved of her own heart, Chaacmol. The
scene of his death is impressively portrayed on the walls which the
queen caused to be raised to the memory of her husband, in the two
exquisite rooms, the ruins of which are yet to be seen upon the
south end of the east wall of the gymnasium. Those rooms were a
shrine indeed, but a shrine where the conjugal love of the queen
alone worshipped the memory of her departed lover. She adorned the
outer walls with his effigies, his totem-tiger, and his shield and
coat of arms between tiger and tiger. Whilst on an admirably
polished stucco that covers the stones in the interior of the rooms
she had his deeds, his and her own life in fact, with the customs
of the time, painted in beautiful life-like designs, superbly drawn
and sweetly colored. The history of the twin brothers is there
faithfully portrayed. There is also a life-like likeness, painted
in brilliant colors, of Chaacmol. Unhappily such precious works of
art have been much defaced, more than by time, by the impious hands
of ignorant and vain fools, who have thought their names of greater
interest to the world than the most remarkable drawings on which
they have inscribed them.
Chaacmol is there represented full of wrath, the hand clinched in
an altercation with his younger brother, _Aac_. This latter, after
cowardly murdering the friend of his infancy with thrusts of his
lance--one under his right shoulder blade, another in his left
lung, near the region of the heart, and the third in the lumbar
region--fled to Uxmal in order to escape the vengeance of the
queen, who cherished their young chieftain who had led them so many
times to victory. At their head he had conquered all the
surrounding nations. Their kings and rulers had come from afar to
lay their sceptres and their hearts at the feet of their pretty and
charming queen. Even white and long bearded men had made her
presents and offered her their tributes and homage. He had raised
the fame of their beautiful capital far above that of any other
cities in Mayapan and Xibalba. He had opened the country to the
commerce of the whole world, and merchants of Asia and Africa would
bring their wares and receive in exchange the produce of their
factories and of their lands. In a word, he had made Chichen a
great metropolis in whose temples pilgrims from all parts came to
worship and even offer their own persons as a sacrifice to the
Almighty. There also came the wise men of the world to consult the
_H-Menes_, whose convent, together with their astronomical
observatory, may be seen at a short distance from the government
palace and museum. This curious story, yet unknown to the world,
was revealed to my wife and myself, as the work of restoring the
paintings advanced step by step, and also from the careful study of
the bas-reliefs which adorn the room at the base of the monument.
You can see photographs of these bas-reliefs in the album I
forwarded to the Ministry of Public Instruction. We have also in
our possession the whole collection of tracings of the paintings in
the funeral chamber.
Motul is a pretty town of 4000 inhabitants, situated about 10
leagues from Mérida. Having never suffered from the Indians it
presents quite a thriving appearance. Its productions consist
principally in the making henequen bags and the raising of cattle.
At the time of the Spanish conquest it was the site of an important
settlement, if we may judge from the number of mounds and other
edifices scattered in its vicinity. All are in a very ruinous
condition, having been demolished to obtain materials for the
buildings of the modern village and the construction of fences. It
was among these ruins that, for the first time in Yucatan, I gazed
upon the incontestable proofs that the worship of the phallus had
once been in vogue among some of the inhabitants of the Peninsula.
I discovered emblems of that worship, so common with the natives of
Hindostan and Egypt and other parts of the world, on the Eastern
side of a very ruinous pyramid, raised on a plot of ground, in the
outskirts of this village. Since then, I have often met with these
emblems of the religious rites of the Nahuas and Caras, and whilst
as at Uxmal, they stare at the traveller from every ornament of the
buildings and are to be found in every court-yard and public place,
it is a remarkable fact that they are to be met with nowhere in the
edifices of Chichen-Itza.
There can be no possible doubt that different races or rather
nations practicing distinct religious rites inhabited the country
at different epochs and destroyed each other by war. So at the time
of the arrival of the Spaniards the monuments of Chichen-Itza were
in ruins and were looked upon with awe, wonder and respect, by the
inhabitants of the country, when the city of Uxmal was thickly
peopled. There cannot be any reasonable doubt that the Nahuas, the
invaders and destroyers of the Itza metropolis, introduced the
phallic worship into Yucatan. The monuments of Uxmal do not date
from so remote an antiquity as those of Chichen, notwithstanding
that Uxmal was a large city when Chichen was at the height of its
glory. Some of its most ancient edifices have been enclosed with
new walls and ornamentation to suit the taste and fancy of the
conquerors. These inner edifices belong to a very ancient period,
and among the débris I have found the head of a bear exquisitely
sculptured out of a block of marble. It is in an unfinished state.
When did bears inhabit the peninsula? Strange to say, the Maya does
not furnish the name for the bear. Yet one-third of this tongue is
pure Greek. Who brought the dialect of Homer to America? Or who
took to Greece that of the Mayas? Greek is the offspring of
Sanscrit. Is Maya? or are they coeval? A clue for ethnologists to
follow the migrations of the human family on this old continent.
Did the bearded men whose portraits are carved on the massive
pillars of the fortress at Chichen-Itza, belong to the Mayan
nations? The Maya language is not devoid of words from the
Assyrian.
We made up our minds to visit Aké, the place where the Spaniards
escaping from Chichen took refuge in the first days of the
conquest. The land where these ruins stand forms a part of the
hacienda of Aké. It belongs to Don Bernardo Peon, one of the
wealthiest men of the country, but on account of the insalubrity of
the climate it is to-day well nigh abandoned. Only a few Indian
servants, living in a constant dread of the paludean fevers that
decimate their families, remained to take care of the scanty herds
of cattle and horses which form now the whole wealth of the farm.
In the first days of March we arrived at the gate of the
farm-house. The Majordomo had received orders to put himself and
his men at our disposal. The ruined farm-house lies at the foot of
a cyclopean structure. From the veranda, rising majestically in
bold relief against the sky, is to be seen the most interesting and
best preserved monument of Aké, composed of three platforms
superposed. They terminate in an immense esplanade crowned by three
rows of 12 columns each. These columns, formed of huge square
stones roughly hewn, and piled one above the other to a height of 4
meters, are the _Katuns_ that served to record certain epochs in
the history of the nation, and indicate in this case an antiquity
of at least 5760 years. The monuments of Aké are peculiar, and the
only specimens of their kind to be found among these ruined cities.
They are evidently the handiwork of a herculean and uncouth
race--the enormous height of each step in the staircase proves
it--of that race of giants whose great bones and large skulls are
now and then disinterred, and whose towering forms, surmounted by
heads disproportionately small, we have seen pictured on the walls
of Chichen-Itza. They recalled forcibly to our minds the antique
_Guanches_, the ancient inhabitants of the Canary Islands, whose
gigantic mummies are yet found in the sepulchral caverns of
Teneriffe, and whose peculiar sandals with red straps so closely
resemble those seen on the feet of Chaacmol. The edifices of Aké
are composed of large blocks of stone, generally square, often
oblong in shape, superposed, and held together merely by their
enormous weight, without the aid of mortar or cement of any sort.
We did not tarry in this strange city more than eight days. The
malaria of the place very seriously affected the health of my wife,
and obliged us to hasten back to Tixkokob. We brought with us the
photograph views, and plans of the principal buildings, regretting
not to perfect our work by a complete survey of the whole of them,
scattered as they are over a large extent of ground.
Our investigations in Uxmal revealed to our minds some interesting
facts in the lives of the three brothers of the tradition. In
Chichen we discovered the place of concealment of the two brothers
_Huuncay_ and _Chaacmol_. That of the third brother, _Aac_, was not
to be found. Yet I was certain it must exist somewhere. Many
persons who are not acquainted with the customs and religious
beliefs of those ancient people have questioned me on the strange
idea of burying such beautiful objects of art at so great a depth,
yet the reason is very simple. The nations that inhabited the whole
of Central America--the Mayas, the Nahuas, the Caras or
Carians--had, with the Siamese even of to-day, and the Egyptians of
old, many notions in common concerning the immortality of the soul,
and its existence after its earthly mission was accomplished. They
believed that the sentient and intelligent principle, _pixan_,
which inhabits the body, survived the death of that body, and was
bound to return to earth, and live other and many mundane
existences; but that between each separate existence that _pixan_
went to a place of delight, _Caan_, where it enjoyed all sorts of
bliss for a proportionate time, and as a reward for the good
actions it had done while on earth. Passing to a place of
punishment, _Metnal_, it suffered all kinds of evils during also a
certain time in atonement for its sins. Then it was to return and
live again among men. But as the material body was perishable, they
made effigies in perfect resemblance to it. These were sometimes of
wood, sometimes of clay, and sometimes of stone, according to the
wealth or social position of the individual; and after burning the
body, the ashes were enclosed in the statue or in urns that they
placed near by. Around and beside these were arranged the weapons
and the ornaments used by the deceased, if a warrior; the tools of
his trade; if a mechanic; and books, if a priest or learned man, in
order that they should find them at hand when the _pixan_ should
come back and animate the statue or image.
To return to our investigations at Uxmal. On examining the
ornaments on the cornice of the Eastern front of the monument known
as "The House of the Governor," I was struck with their similarity
to those which adorn the most ancient edifice of Chichen and whose
construction, I judge, dates back 12,000 years. But what most
particularly called my attention were the hieroglyphics that
surrounded a sitting figure placed over the main entrance in the
centre of the building. There were plainly to me the names of
_Huuncay_ and _Chaacmol_, and on both sides of the figure, now
headless, the name of the individual it was intended to represent,
_Aac_, the younger brother and murderer. And on the North-west
corner of the second terrace was his private residence, a very
elegant structure of a most simple and graceful architecture,
ornamented with his totem. I afterwards found a pillar written with
his name in hieroglyphics and a bust of marble very much defaced.
Around the neck is a collar or necklace sustaining a medallion with
his name. In the figure that adorns the façade of the palace he is
represented sitting, and under his feet are to be seen the bodies
of three personages, two men and one woman, flayed. Unhappily these
also have been mutilated by the hand of time or of iconoclasts.
They are headless, but I entertain no doubt as to whom they were
intended to represent, _Huuncay_, _Chaacmol_ and the queen, his
wife. It is worthy of notice that while the phallic emblems are to
be seen in great profusion in every other building at Uxmal, there
is not a single trace of them in or on the "House of the Governor,"
or its appurtenances.
Yucatan being in a state of political effervescence, we determined
to visit the islands of Mugeres and Cozumel, on the East coast of
Yucatan, taking our chance of falling into the hands of the Indians
and being murdered.
Accordingly, on the 20th of October, 1876, we embarked on board the
"Viri," a small coasting sloop, and with the mists of the evening,
the houses of Progreso faded from our view and were lost in the
haze of the horizon. Contrary winds retarded our journey and
obliged us to cast anchor near shore every night. It was not until
after ten tiresome days that we, at last, saw the dim outline of
Mugeres island rise slowly over the waves. As we drew near, the
tall and slender forms of the cocoa trees, gracefully waving their
caps of green foliage with the breeze, while their roots seemed to
spring from the blue waters of the ocean, indicated the spot where
the village houses lay on the shore under their umbrage. Seen at a
distance, the spot presents quite a romantic aspect. The island is
a mere rock, elevated only a few feet above the level of the sea,
six miles long and about one-half a mile wide in its widest parts.
In some places it is scarcely 200 steps across. The population
consists of 500 souls, more or less. Its principal industry is
fishing. For Indian corn and beans--the staple articles of food
throughout Yucatan--they depend altogether on the main land;
vegetables of any kind are an unknown luxury, notwithstanding there
are some patches of good vegetable land in the central part. The
island possesses a beautiful and safe harbor; at one time it was
the haven where the pirates that infested the West Indian seas were
wont to seek rest from their hazardous calling. Their names are to
be seen to-day rudely carved on the _sapote_ beams that form the
lintels of the doorways of the antique shrine whose ruins crown the
southernmost point of the island.
It is to this shrine of the Maya Venus that as far down as the
Spanish conquest, pilgrims repaired yearly to offer their prayers
and votive presents to propitiate that divinity. Cogolludo tells us
that it was on her altar that the priest who accompanied the
adventurers who first landed at the island, after destroying the
effigies of the Goddess and of her companions and replacing them by
a picture of the Virgin Mary, celebrated mass for the first time on
those coasts in presence of a throng of astonished natives. They
gave to the island the name of Mugeres (women). I was told that
formerly many of the votive offerings had been disinterred from the
sand in front of the building. The soil at that place is profusely
strewn with fragments of images wrought in clay, representing
portions of the human body. I was myself so fortunate as to fall in
with the head of a priestess, a beautiful piece of workmanship,
moulded according to the most exact proportions of Grecian art. It
had formed part of a brazier that had served to burn perfumes on
the altar near which I found it. I happened to use part of that
vase to hold some live coals, and notwithstanding the many years
that had elapsed since it had last served, a most sweet odor arose
and filled the small building.
I had read in Cogolludo that in olden times, on the main land,
opposite to the island of Mugeres, was the city of _Ekab_. I was
desirous of visiting its ruins, but no one could indicate their
exact position. They did not even know of the name. They spoke of
Meco, of Nisucté, of Kankun, of extensive ruins of buildings in
that place, where they provide themselves with hewn stones. After
much delay I was able to obtain a boat and men. We set sail for
Meco, the nearest place situated on another island close to the
shores of the main land. There I found a ruined edifice surrounded
by a wall forming an inclosure, adorned with rows of small columns.
In the centre of the inclosure an altar. The edifice, composed of
two rooms, is built on a graduated pyramid composed of seven
_andenes_. This building is without a doubt an ancient temple. We
next visited Nisucté. There we found the same sort of monuments but
built on a large scale. These places have merely been shrines
visited by the pilgrims on their way to and from the altar of
Venus. The main point of importance gained in visiting these ruins
was that this whole coast had been inhabited by a race of dwarfs
and that these edifices were their work. We had seen their
portraits carved on the pillars of the fortress at Chichen-Itza. We
had seen also their pictures among the several paintings. We had
heard of the Indian tradition, very current among the natives, that
many of the monuments of Yucatan had been constructed by the
_Alux-ob_. But not until we visited these places and entered their
houses, did we become satisfied of the fact of their existence that
till then we had considered a myth. Kankun, where the ruins of
numerous houses cover a great extent of ground, must have been the
real site of _Ekab_. The dwarfish inhabitants of these cities must
have been a very tolerant sort of people in religious matters,
since in the same temple, nay on the very same altar, we have found
side by side the phallic emblems with the image of _Kukulcan_.
Our explorations in that part of the country were at an end. We
were beginning to grow tired of our fish diet, and looked with
anxiety for an opportunity to continue our voyage to the island of
Cozumel. This island, called by the ancient Mayas _Cozmil_ (place
for swallows), was the rendezvous of Indian pilgrims who flocked
thither every year to pay homage at the numerous temples, the ruins
of which are to be found in the thick forests that now cover it.
The expected opportunity offering we reached the village of San
Miguel February 3, 1877. Cozumel is a beautiful island of about 45
miles in length and 12 in breadth. The fertility of its soil is
evinced by the luxuriant growth of the thick and impenetrable
forests of valuable timber that have sprung up since its
abandonment by its former inhabitants and which serve either for
purposes of building or ornamentation. Cocoa-nuts, plantains,
bananas, pineapples, ananas and other tropical fruits grow
abundantly. Vanilla, yams, sweet potatoes and vegetables of all
kinds can be produced in plenty, while honey and wax, the work of
wild harmless bees, and copal are gathered on the trees. The
tobacco, which is to-day the article that engrosses the mind and
monopolizes the attention of the planters, is of a superior
quality, emulating the Cuban production. On the other hand the
thickets are alive with pheasants, quail, pigeons, wild pigs and
other descriptions of game. The waters swarm with the most
excellent fish and innumerable turtles sport in the lagoons, while
curlews, snipe, ducks and other aquatic fowls flock on their
shores; and not the least of the gifts with which the munificent
hand of nature has so bountifully endowed this delicious oasis of
the ocean is its delightful and soft, yet invigorating, climate,
that makes well nigh useless the art of the physician.
At some epoch it is evident that the whole island was under
cultivation, which is proved by the stone fences that divide it
into small parcels or farms like a checker-board. The island, like
the whole of the Yucatan peninsula, has evidently been upraised
from the bottom of the sea by the action of volcanic fires, and the
thin coating of arable loam of surprising fertility which covers a
substratum of calcareous stones, is the result of the accumulation
of detriti, mixed with the residuum of animal and vegetable life of
thousands of years. The greater part of this island is as yet
archæologically unexplored. I have no doubt that thorough
explorations in the depths of its forests and of the caves would
bring to light very interesting relics, which would repay the
trouble and expense. Rough and rude as is the construction of the
monuments of the island, the architecture possesses the same
character as that of the more elaborate edifices on the main land.
The same design of entablature, with some little difference in the
cornice, the same triangular arch, the same shaped rooms--long and
narrow, but all on a miniature scale. They seem more like dolls'
houses than dwellings for man. One of the best preserved of these
singular buildings was visited, and two other constructions,
consisting of independent and separate arches, the only ones we
ever met with in our rambles in Yucatan. The edifice formed at one
time, with the two triumphal arches, part of a series of
constructions now completely ruined. It was a temple composed, as
are all structures of the kind, of two apartments, a front or
ante-chamber, and the sanctuary or holy of holies. In this case the
ante-chamber measures 59 inches in width by 2 yards and 33 inches
in length, its height being 2 yards and 30 inches from the floor to
the apex of the triangular arch that serves as ceiling. The
sanctuary is entered through a doorway 1 yard high and 18 inches
wide, and is narrower than the front apartments, measuring only 34
inches across. The whole edifice is externally 3 yards high, 4
yards 29 inches long and 4 yards wide. If we judge of the stature
of the builders by the size of the building, we may really imagine
this to have been the kingdom of Liliput, visited by Gulliver. The
triumphal arches present the same proportions as the temple I have
just described, which is by no means the earliest archaic
structure. Old people are not wanting who pretend to have seen
these _Alux-ob_, whom they describe as reaching the extraordinary
stature of 2 feet. They tell us of their habits and
mischievousness, tales which forcibly recall to our minds the
legends of "the little people" so credited among all classes of
society in Ireland. There can be no reasonable doubt but that a
very diminutive race of men, but little advanced in the arts of
civilization, dwelt on these islands and along the eastern coast
of Yucatan, and that many of the edifices, the ruins of which are
to be seen in that part of the country, are the works of their
hands, as the tradition has it.
The attempt has been made in the previous pages to bring the discoveries
of Dr. Le Plongeon and his own account of his labors and inferences into
such a form that they may be easily considered by those competent to
determine their importance and bearing. The value of the statue called
Chac-Mool, as an archæological treasure, cannot be questioned. It is the
only remaining human figure of a high type of art, finished "in the
round" known to have been discovered in America since the occupation of
Maya territory in the 16th century.
The idols of Copan have expressive human countenances,[89-*] though they
are distorted in order to inspire awe and fear in the beholder, but no
attempt was there made to depict the graceful proportions of the nude
figure. They stand perpendicularly, carved from solid blocks of stone,
and are from 10 to 15 feet in height. The figures upon them are
bas-reliefs, occupying generally only 2/3 of the length of the front,
while the back of the block is a straight surface and is covered with
emblems and hieroglyphics. The sculptures of Palenque[89-[+]] have many
of them much artistic beauty, but they are all of them attached figures,
as it is believed are also the beautiful statues of Nineveh.[89-[++]]
Even the slightest touching makes a figure "in relief." This statue from
Chichen-Itza has all the appearance of being intended as the likeness of
a man, and much skill is shown in the delineation of the proportions. It
is entirely detached, and reposes upon a base carved from the same block
of stone as the figure, which gives it a higher rank in sculpture than
any other in America, of which we have ocular proof at this day. It is a
noteworthy circumstance in the controversy regarding the seizure of the
statue by the Yucatan Government, and afterwards by that of Mexico,
that no doubt in regard to its authenticity, so far as is known to the
writer, has been expressed on the part of those who would naturally be
the best judges of objects found in their own country. Among the Le
Plongeon photographs of sculptures from Uxmal is a head in demi-relief,
which resembles in the lineaments of the face those of this statue so
much as to offer a striking likeness, and this agrees with the theory of
the intimate connection of Chichen-Itza and Uxmal, adopted in the
communication to Hon. J. W. Foster.
Diego de Landa, second Bishop of Yucatan, in his account of that country
written in 1566, speaks of two similar statues observed by him at the
same locality, Chichen-Itza, which place he speaks of as famous for its
ruins.[90-*] His description is: "I found there sculptured lions, vases,
and other objects, fashioned with so much skill that no one would be
tempted to declare that that people made them without instruments of
metal. There I found also two men sculptured, each made of a single
stone, and girded according to the usage of the Indians. They held their
heads in a peculiar manner, and had ear-rings in their ears, as the
Indians wear them, and a point formed a projection behind the neck,
which entered a deep hole in the neck, and thus adorned the statue was
complete." He also speaks of the practice of burying articles used by
the dead with their ashes,[90-[+]] and he says: "As regards Seigneurs
and people of superior condition, they burn their remains, and deposit
their ashes in large urns. They then build temples over them, as one
sees was anciently done, by what is found at Izamal."[90-[++]]
The statue discovered seems to resemble those spoken of by Landa in all
the peculiarities mentioned. He also refers to the custom among the
women of filing the teeth like a saw, which was considered by them to be
ornamental.[90-§]
A remark to Dr. Le Plongeon about the statues above described drew from
him the following statement: "We have seen the remnants of the statues
you referred to as mentioned by Landa; some one has broken them to
pieces." He also speaks of the resemblance of the statue he discovered
to those of ancient Egypt, from the careful finish of the head and the
lesser degree of attention bestowed on the other parts of the body.
Dr. Le Plongeon has stated in the first of the three communications
contained in this paper, that from his interpretation of mural paintings
and hieroglyphics in the building upon the South-East wall of the
Gymnasium at Chichen-Itza, he was induced to make the excavation which
resulted in his discovery. Elsewhere we learn that in the same building,
and also on the tablets about the ears of the statue, he was able to
read the name Chac-Mool, &c., &c. (Chaac or Chac in Maya means
chieftain, Mol or Mool means paw of an animal.) He says that the names
he gives, "were written on the monuments where represented, written in
characters just as intelligible to my wife and myself, as this paper is
to you in latin letters. Every personage represented on these monuments
is known by name, since either over the head or at the feet the name is
written." He also states that he knows where the ancient books of the
_H-Menes_ lie buried, as well as other statues. The discovery of one of
these hidden books would be a service of priceless value.
A perusal of the communications contained in this paper lead to the
impression that their writer accepts many of the theories advanced by
Brasseur de Bourbourg, that he is a believer in the interpretations of
Landa, and that he thinks he has been able to establish a system which
enables him to read Maya inscriptions.
Dr. Le Plongeon has been accompanied and assisted in all his labors by
his accomplished wife, and he has frequently stated that a great part of
the credit for the results achieved is due to her intelligent judgment
and skilful execution. His last date is from Belize, British Honduras,
September 1. In that letter he announces the preparation of a paper for
the Royal Geographical Society of London, in which he says he shall give
his researches _in extenso_.
After four years of toil and exposure to danger, and after a large
expenditure of money paid for services in opening roads, clearing ruins,
and making excavations, Dr. Le Plongeon finds himself deprived of all
the material results of his labors and sacrifices which could secure him
an adequate return. We hope that he may soon receive just and
satisfactory treatment from the government, and a fitting recognition
and remuneration from the scientific world.
In judging of the subject here presented, the reader will bear in mind
that facts substantiated should not be rejected, even if the theories
founded on them advance beyond the light of present information.
* * * * *
In August, Dr. Le Plongeon sent the following letter with the request
that it should be published in a form which would allow of its
presentation to the _Congrès International des Américanistes_, which
would be held at Luxembourg in the month of September. It was printed in
the Boston Daily Advertiser, in the issues of Sept. 3d and 4th, and is
now repeated in the same type in this connection. The spelling of the
name Chac-Mool in the letter was changed by the writer from that
employed in the text by Dr. Le Plongeon, which is invariably _Chaacmol_;
a liberty taken in consequence of the unanimous preference in favor of
the spelling Chac-Mool shown in all the written or printed articles from
Yucatan relating to this discovery, which have come to our observation.
Copies of the letter were sent to Luxembourg, and also to the Bureau of
the Société des Américanistes at Paris.