NOTE. The omission (as indicated) at the close of Dr. Le Plongeon's
letter is a repetition of what he has previously stated in other
communications, in regard to the many foreign words found in the
Maya language, and that the Greek is there largely represented.
Then the question arises, who brought this language to Mayapan? He
continues: "The customs, religion, architecture of this country,
have nothing in common with those of Greece. Who carried the Maya
to the country of Helen? Was it the Caras or Carians, who have left
traces of their existence in many countries of America? They are
the most ancient navigators known. They roved the seas long before
the Phoenicians. They landed on the North-East coasts of Africa,
thence they entered the Mediterranean, where they became dreaded as
pirates, and afterwards established themselves on the shores of
Asia Minor. Whence came they? What was their origin? Nobody knows.
They spoke a language unknown to the Greeks, who laughed at the way
they pronounced their own idiom. Were they emigrants from this
Western continent? Was not the tunic of white linen, _that required
no fastening_, used by the Ionian women, according to Herodotus,
the same as the _uipil_ of the Maya females of to-day even,
introduced by them among the inhabitants of some of the
Mediterranean isles?"
* * * * *
The latest information about the statue exhumed at Chichen Itza must be
discouraging to those solicitous for the careful conservation of this
work of art. _La Revista de Mérida_ of May 31, 1877, has this quotation
from a Mexican newspaper:--
"A SHAMEFUL FACT."
"LA PATRIA _has the following paragraph copied from the_ EPOCA,
_which ought to attract the attention of all interested. 'The
notable statue of Chac-Mool, which was received in the capital of
Yucatan with so great demonstrations of jubilee, and with
unaccustomed pomp, has remained in our city since its arrival, some
days ago, abandoned in a small square, afar off and dirty, where
the small boys of the neighborhood amuse themselves by pelting it.
If Sr. Dn. Augustin del Rio had known the little value that would
have been placed upon his gift, it is certain that he would have
guarded there [at Yucatan] his king and his records, about which no
one here concerns himself.'_"
How much of the above unfavorable criticism on the neglect of this
archæological treasure by the central government, is due to the
political bias of the source of this information, cannot be determined.
We can, however, protest against any want of appreciation of a monument
of past history in this manner lost to the State of Yucatan and to the
discoverer, Dr. Le Plongeon, by the arbitrary exercise of official
authority.