Visit to a ruined Building near Chack.--A Field of Taje.--Description
of the Building.--Hornet's Nest.--Young Vulture.--Picturesque View from
the Terrace.--Well of Chack.--Exploration of its Passages.--Return to
the Rancho.--Departure from Schawill.--The Camino Real.--Rancho of
Sennacte.--Wild Appearance of the Indians.--Continued Scarcity of
Water.--Another ruined City.--Two ruined Buildings.--Apartments,
Columns, &c.--High Wall.--Journey continued.--Rancho of
Sabachshe.--Casa Real.--Well.--Hut of the Alcalde.--The Senora.--Ruins
of Sabachshe.--Picturesque Edifice.--Alacrity of the
Indians.--Facade.--Pilasters, Cornices, &c.--Encounter with an
Iguana.--Another Ruined Building.--The Agave Americana.--More
Ruins.--The Red Hand.--The Red Hand used as a Symbol by the North
American Indians.--Conclusions to be deduced from this
Circumstance.--Delicate Manner of doing a Service.
The next morning, while Mr. Catherwood was engaged in drawing the
building represented in the last engraving, Dr. Cabot and myself set
out to visit the one which we had passed in coming from the rancho of
Chack.
In the suburbs of the rancho we turned off to the right by a path,
which we followed for some distance on horseback, when it changed its
direction, and we dismounted. From this place our guides cut a path
through the woods, and we came out upon a large field of taje, being
long stems growing close together, eight or ten feet high, straight,
and about half an inch thick, having a yellow flower on the top, which
is a favourite food for horses. The stems, tied up in bundles three or
four inches thick, are used for torches. On one side of this field we
saw the high building before referred to, and on the other side was a
second not visible before. A bird which the doctor wished to procure
lighted on a tree growing upon the latter, and we went to it, but found
nothing of particular interest, and struck across the field of taje for
the former. This taje was as bad as the woods to walk through, for it
grew so high as to exclude every breath of air, and was not high enough
to be any protection against the sun.
The building stood on the top of a stony hill, on a terrace still firm
and substantial. It consisted of two stories, the roof of the lower one
forming the platform in front of the upper, and had a staircase, which
was broken and ruined. The upper building had a large apartment in the
centre, and a smaller one on each side, much encumbered with rubbish,
from one of which we were driven by a hornet's nest, and in another a
young vulture, with a hissing noise, flapped its plumeless wings and
hopped out of the door.
The terrace commanded a picturesque view of wooded hills, and at a
distance the Casa Grande, and the high wall before presented. They were
perhaps three or four miles distant. All the intermediate space was
overgrown. The Indians had traversed it in all directions in the dry
season, when there was no foliage to hide the view, and they said that
in all this space there were no vestiges of buildings. Close together
as we had found the remains of ancient habitations, it seemed hardly
possible that distinct and independent cities had existed with but such
a little space between, and yet it was harder to imagine that one city
had embraced within its limits these distant buildings, the extreme
ones being four miles apart, and that the whole intermediate region of
desolation had once swarmed with a teeming and active population.
Leaving this, we toiled back to our horses, and, returning to the road,
passed through the rancho, about a mile beyond which we reached the
pozo, or well, the accounts of which we had heard on our first arrival.
Near the mouth were some noble seybo trees, throwing their great
branches far and wide, under which groups of Indians were arranging
their calabashes and torches, preparing to descend; others, just out,
were wiping their sweating bodies. At one moment an Indian disappeared,
and at the next another rose up out of the earth. We noticed that there
were no women, who, throughout Yucatan, are the drawers of water, and
always seen around a well, but we were told that no woman ever enters
the well of Chack; all the water for the rancho was procured by the
men, which alone indicated that the well was of an extraordinary
character. We had brought with us a ball of twine, and made immediate
preparations to descend, reducing our dress as near as possible to that
of the Indians.
Our first movement was down a hole by a perpendicular ladder, at the
foot of which we were fairly entered into a great cavern. Our guides
preceded us with bundles of taje lighted for torches, and we came to a
second descent almost perpendicular, which we achieved by a ladder laid
flat against the rock. Beyond this we moved on a short distance, still
following our guides, and still descending, when we saw their torches
disappearing, and reached a wild hole, which also we descended by a
long rough ladder. At the foot of this the rock was damp and slippery,
and there was barely room enough to pass around it, and get upon
another ladder down the same hole, now more contracted, and so small
that, with the arms akimbo, the elbows almost touched on each side. At
this time our Indians were out of sight; and in total darkness, feeling
our way by the rounds of the ladder, we cried out to them, and were
answered by distant voices directly underneath. Looking down, we saw
their torches like moving balls of fire, apparently at an interminable
distance below us.
At the foot of this ladder there was a rude platform as a
resting-place, made to enable those ascending and descending to pass
each other. A group of naked Indians, panting and sweating under the
load of their calabashes, were waiting till we vacated the ladder
above; and even in this wild hole, with loads on their backs, straps
binding their foreheads, and panting from fatigue and heat, they held
down their torches, and rendered obeisance to the blood of the white
man. Descending the next ladder, both above and below us were torches
gleaming in the darkness. We had still another ladder to descend, and
the whole perpendicular depth of this hole was perhaps two hundred
feet.
From the foot of this ladder there was an opening to the right, and
from it we soon entered a low, narrow passage, through which we crawled
on our hands and knees. With the toil and the smoke of the torches the
heat was almost beyond endurance. The passage enlarged and again
contracted, descending steeply, and so low that the shoulders almost
touched the roof. This opened upon a great chasm at one side, and
beyond we came to another perpendicular hole, which we descended by
steps cut in the rock. From this there was another low, crawling
passage, and, almost stifled with heat and smoke, we came out into a
small opening, in which was a basin of water, being the well. The place
was crowded with Indians filling their calabashes, and they started at
the sight of our smoky white faces as if El Demonio had descended among
them. It was, doubtless, the first time that the feet of a white man
had ever reached this well.
On returning we measured the distance. Doctor Cabot going before with a
line of about a hundred feet, in the wild and broken passages being
soon out of sight, and sometimes out of hearing. I followed, with an
Indian winding up the line, while I made notes. I had two Indians with
long bundles of lighted sticks, who, whenever I stopped to write,
either held them so far off as to be of no use, or else thrust them
into my face, blinding the eyes with smoke and scorching the skin. I
was dripping as if in a vapour-bath; my face and hands were black with
smoke and incrusted with dirt; large drops of sweat fell upon my book,
which, with the dirt from my hands, matted the leaves together, so that
my notes are almost useless. They were, no doubt, imperfect, but I do
not believe that, with the most accurate details, it is possible to
convey a true idea of the character of this cave, with its deep holes
and passages through a bed of solid rock, and the strange scene
presented by the Indians, with torches and calabashes, unmurmuring and
uncomplaining, at their daily task of seeking, deep in the bowels of
the earth, one of the great elements of life.
The distance, as we traversed it, with its ladders, ascents and
descents, winding and crawling passages, seemed a full half league, as
represented by the Indians. By measurement it was not quite fifteen
hundred feet, which is about equal to the length of the Park fronting
on Broadway. The perpendicular depth to the water I am not able to
give, but some idea may be formed of these passages from the fact that
the Indians did not carry their calabashes on their shoulders, because,
with the body bent, they would strike against the roof or roll over the
head; but the straps across the forehead were let out so long that the
calabashes rested below the hips, and in crawling on the hands and feet
their loads did not rise above the line of the back.
And this well was not, as at Xcoch, the occasional resort of a
straggling Indian, nor the mere traditionary watering-place of an
ancient city. It was the regular and only supply of a living
population. The whole rancho of Chack was entirely dependant upon it,
and in the dry season the rancho of Schawill, three miles distant.
The patient industry of such a people may well be supposed to have
reared the immense mounds and the great stone structures scattered all
over the country. We consumed a calabash of water in washing and
quenching our thirst, and as we rode back to the rancho of Schawill,
came to the conclusion that an admission into the community of this
exclusive people was no great privilege, when it would entail upon the
applicant, for six months in the year, a daily descent into this
subterraneous well.
We arrived at the rancho in good season. Mr. Catherwood had finished
his drawing, and Bernaldo was ready with his dinner. We had nothing to
detain us, ordered carriers forthwith for our luggage, and at half past
two we were in the saddle again in search of ruined cities.
The reader has some idea of the caminos reales of this country, and
they were all like English turnpikes compared with that upon which we
entered on leaving this rancho. In fact, it was a mere path through the
woods, the branches of the trees being trimmed away to a height barely
sufficient to admit of an Indian passing under with a load of maize on
his back. We were advised that it would be very difficult to get
through on horseback, and were obliged to keep dodging the head and
bending the body to avoid the branches, and at times we were brought to
a stand by some overhanging arm of a tree, and obliged to dismount.
At the distance of two leagues we reached the rancho of Sannacte, the
Indians of which were the wildest people in appearance we had yet seen.
As we rode through, the women ran away and hid themselves, and the men
crouched on the ground bareheaded, with long black hair hanging over
their eyes, gazing at us in stupid astonishment. The same scarcity of
water still continued. The rancho was entirely destitute; it had no
pozo or well of any kind, either ancient or modern, and the inhabitants
procured their whole supply from the village of Sabachshe, two leagues,
or six miles, distant! This supply, too, was brought daily on the backs
of Indians; but again in this arid and destitute region was still
another evidence of ancient population--another desolate and ruined
city.
[Engraving 7: Ruined Building]
Beyond the outskirts of the rancho was a large clearing for a milpa,
within which, naked and exposed to full view, were two ancient
buildings. The milpa was enclosed by a fence, and was overgrown with
taje. We tied our horses to the stems of the taje, and, leaving them
eating the flowers, followed a path which led between the two
buildings. The engraving which follows represents the one on the left.
It stands on a terrace, still strong and substantial, and, fortunately,
clear of trees, though many were growing on the top. It has five
apartments; the facade above the cornice is fallen, and between the
doorways are fragments of small columns set in the wall. On the other
side of the milpa was another edifice, holding aloft a high wall, like
that we had seen at Zayi, extraordinary in its appearance and
incomprehensible in its uses and purposes. From the tact and facility
we had now acquired, a short time sufficed for our examination of this
place, and, with one more added to our list of ruined cities, we
mounted, and resumed our journey.
At half past five we reached the rancho of Sabachshe, lying on the
camino real from Ticul to Bolonchen, and inhabited entirely by Indians.
The casa real stood on an elevation in an open place; it was thatched
with palm leaves, had mud walls, and an arbour before it, and a table
and benches within. Altogether, it was better in appearance and
furniture than the others we had encountered, which, as we afterward
learned, was owing to the circumstance that, besides its regular uses,
it was intended for the residence of the mistress on her annual visits
to the rancho. But much more interesting and important was the fact,
that this rancho was distinguished by a well, the sight of which was
more grateful to us than that of the best hotel to the traveller in a
civilized country. We were scratched with thorns, and smarting with
garrapata bites, and looked forward to the refreshment of a bath. Very
soon our horses had the benefit of it, the bath being in that country,
where the currycomb and brush are entirely unknown, the only external
refreshment these animals ever get. The well was built by the present
owner, and formerly the inhabitants were dependant entirely upon the
well at Tabi, six miles distant! Besides its real value, it presented a
curious and lively spectacle. A group of Indian women was around it. It
had no rope or fixtures of any kind for raising water, but across the
mouth was a round beam laid upon two posts, over which the women were
letting down and hoisting up little bark buckets. Every woman brought
with her and carried away her own bucket and rope, the latter coiled up
and laid on the top of her head, with the end hanging down behind, and
the coil forming a sort of headdress.
Near the well was the hut of the alcalde, enclosed by a rude fence, and
within were dogs, hogs, turkeys, and fowls, which all barked, grunted,
gobbled, and cackled together as we entered. The yard was shaded by
orange-trees loaded with ripe and unusually large fruit. Under one of
them was a row of twenty or thirty wild boars' jaws and tusks, trophies
of the chase, and memorials attesting the usefulness of the barking
dogs. The noise brought the alcalde to the door, a heavy and infirm old
man, apparently rich, and suffering from the high living indicated by
his hogs and poultry; but he received us with meekness and humility. We
negotiated forthwith for the purchase of some oranges, and bought
thirty for a medio, stipulating that they should all be the largest and
best on the trees; after which, supporting himself by his cane, he
hobbled on to the casa real, had it swept out, and assigned Indians to
attend upon us. If he wanted alacrity himself, he infused it into his
people, and made up for all deficiencies by unqualified personal
deference and respect. It was a fine evening, and we spread our
supper-table under the arbour. The old alcalde remained with us, and a
group of Indians sat on the steps, not like the proud and independent
race of Schawill, but acknowledging themselves criados, or servants,
bound to obey the orders of their mistress. La senora was, in their
eyes, a miniature print of Queen Victoria, but skill in the use of
figures may arrive at the value of at least this part of her
possessions. There were fifty-five labradores, or labouring men, under
an obligation to plant and harvest ten micates of maize for her benefit
Each micate produces ten cargas, or loads, making in all five hundred
and fifty, which, at three reals per carga, gives as the revenue this
lady comes regularly to collect, about two hundred dollars per annum;
but this gives more power than lands or money to any amount in our
country could give; and the labradores being all free and independent
electors, fifty-five votes could always be calculated upon in an
emergency for the side of principle and la senora.
Having made our arrangements for the next day, we went into the hut and
shut the door. Some time afterward the old alcalde sent in to ask
permission to go home, as he was very sleepy, which we graciously
granted, and, by his direction, three or four Indians swung their
little hammocks under the arbour, to be at hand in case we should need
anything. During the night we found it extremely cold and, with the
little covering we had brought, could hardly keep ourselves
comfortable.
Early in the morning we found a large gathering round the house to
escort us to the ruins. In the suburbs of the rancho we turned off to
the left, and passed among the huts of the Indians, almost smothered by
weeds, and having at the doors rude boxes of earth set up on posts, for
vegetables to grow in out of the reach of the hogs.
Crossing the fence of the last hut, we entered a thick growth of trees.
As if instinctively, every Indian drew his machete, and in a few
minutes they cut a path to the foot of a small building, not rich in
ornament, but tasteful, having some shades of difference from any we
had seen, overgrown by trees, and beautifully picturesque. On one
corner of the roof a vulture had built her nest, and, scared away at
our approach, hovered over our heads, looking down upon us as if
amazed. We gave directions, all the Indians fell to work, and in a few
minutes the small terrace in front was cleared. I had not expected so
many Indians, and, not knowing what occasion I might have for their
services told them that I did not need so great a number, and should
only pay those whom I had engaged. All stopped, and when the purport of
my words was explained to them, said that made no difference; they
immediately set to work again, and the machete fell with a rapidity
unparalleled in our experience. In half an hour space enough was
cleared for Mr. Catherwood to set up his camera lucida. The same
alertness was shown in preparing a place for him to stand in, and half
a dozen stood ready to hold an umbrella for his protection against the
sun.
[Engraving 8: Building at Sabachshe]
The plate opposite represents the front of the building. Its design is
tasteful and even elegant, and when perfect it must have presented a
fine appearance. It has a single doorway, opening into a chamber
twenty-five feet long by ten wide. Above the door is a portion of plain
masonry, and over this a cornice supporting twelve small pilasters,
having between them the diamond ornament, then a massive cornice, with
pilasters and diamond work, surmounted by another cornice, making in
all four cornices; an arrangement we had not previously met with.
While Mr. Catherwood was making his drawing, the Indians stood around
under the shade of the trees, looking at him quietly and respectfully,
and making observations to each other. They were a fine-looking race.
Some of them, one tall old man particularly, had noble Roman faces, and
they seemed to have more respectability of appearance and character
than was consistent with the condition of men not wearing pantaloons.
AH at once an enormous iguana, or lizard, doubled the corner of the
building, ran along the front, and plunged into a crevice over the
door, burying his whole body, but leaving the long tail out. Among
these unsophisticated people this reptile is a table delicacy, and here
was a supper provided for some of them. Machetes flew out, and, cutting
down a sapling with a crotch in it, they rested it against the wall,
and, standing in the crotch, pulled upon the tail; but the animal held
on with his feet as if a part of the building. All the Indians, one
after the other, had a pull at the tail, but could not make him budge.
At length two of them contrived to get hold together, and, while
pulling with all their strength, the tail came off by the roots, a foot
and a half long in their hands. The animal was now more out of their
reach than before, his whole body being hidden in the wall; but he
could not escape. The Indians picked away the mortar with their
machetes, and enlarged the hole until they got his hind legs clear,
when, griping the body above the legs, they again hauled; but, though
he had only the fore legs to hold on with, they could not tear him out.
They then untied the ropes of their sandals, and, fastening them above
the hind legs, and pulling till the long body seemed parting like the
tail, they at length dragged him out. They secured him by a gripe under
the fore part of the body, cracked his spine, and broke the bones of
his fore legs so that he could not run; pried his jaws open, fastened
them apart with a sharp stick so that he could not bite, and then put
him away in the shade. This refined cruelty was to avoid the necessity
of killing him immediately, for if killed, in that hot climate he would
soon be unfit for food; but, mutilated and mangled as he was, he could
be kept alive till night.
[Engraving 9: Building at Sabachshe]
This over, we moved on in a body, carrying the iguana, to the next
building, which was situated in a different direction, about a quarter
of a mile distant, and completely buried in woods. It was seventy-five
feet long, and had three doorways, leading to the same number of
apartments. A great part of the front had fallen; the plate opposite
represents that which remains. With some slight difference in the
detail of ornament, the character is the same as in all the other
buildings, and the general effect pleasing. Growing on the roof are two
maguey plants, Agave Americana, in our latitude called the century
plant, but under the hot sun of the tropics blooming every four or five
years. There are four species of this plant in Yucatan: the maguey,
from which is produced the pulque, a beverage common in all the Mexican
provinces, which, taken in excess, produces intoxication; the henneken,
which produces the article known in our markets as Sisal hemp; the
sabila, with which the Indian women wean children, covering the breast
with the leaf, which is very bitter to the taste; and the peta, having
leaves twice as large as the last, from which a very fine white hemp is
made. These plants, in some or all of their varieties, were found in
the neighbourhood of all the ruins, forming around them a pointed and
thorny wall, which we were obliged to cut through to reach the
buildings.
While Mr. C. was engaged in drawing this structure, the Indians told us
of two others half a league distant. I selected two of them for guides,
and, with the same alacrity which they had shown in everything else,
nine volunteered to accompany me. We had a good path nearly all the
way, until the Indians pointed out a white object seen indistinctly
through the trees, again uttering, with strong gutturals, the familiar
sound of "Xlap-pahk," or old walls. In a few minutes they cut a path to
it. The building was larger than the last, having the front ornamented
in the same way, much fallen, though still presenting an interesting
spectacle. As it was not much overgrown, we set to work and cleared it,
and left it for another, in regard to which I formed some curious
expectations, for the Indians described it as _very new_. It lay on the
same path, to the left in returning to the rancho, and separated from
us by a great field of taje, through which we were obliged to cut a
path for several hundred yards to the foot of the terrace. The walls
were entire and very massive; but climbing up it, I found only a small
building, consisting of but two apartments, the front much fallen, and
the doors filled up, but no sign or token distinguishing it as _newer_
or more modern; and I now learned, what I might have done before by a
little asking, that all they meant by their description of it was, that
it was the newest known to them, having been discovered but twelve
years before, accidentally, on clearing the ground for a milpa, until
which time it was as much unknown to them as to the rest of the world.
This intelligence gave great weight to the consideration which had
often suggested itself before, that cities may exist equal to any now
known, buried in the woods, overgrown and lost, which will perhaps
never be discovered.
On the walls of this desolate edifice were prints of the "mano
colorado," or red hand. Often as I saw this print, it never failed to
interest me. It was the stamp of the living hand; it always brought me
nearer to the builders of these cities, and at times, amid stillness,
desolation, and ruin, it seemed as if from behind the curtain that
concealed them from view was extended the hand of greeting. These
prints were larger than any I had seen. In several places I measured
them with my own, opening the fingers to correspond with those on the
wall. The Indians said it was the hand of the master of the building.
The mysterious interest which, in my eyes, always attached to this red
hand, has assumed a more definite shape. I have been advised that in
Mr. Catlin's collection of Indian curiosities, made during a long
residence among our North American tribes, was a tent presented to him
by the chief of the powerful but now extinct race of Mandans, which
exhibits, among other marks, two prints of the red hand; and I have
been farther advised that the red hand is seen constantly upon the
buffalo robes and skins of wild animals brought in by the hunters on
the Rocky Mountains, and, in fact, that it is a symbol recognised and
in common use by the North American Indians of the present day. I do
not mention these as facts within my own knowledge, but with the hope
of attracting the attention of those who have opportunities and
facilities for investigation; and I suggest the interesting
consideration that, if true, the red hand on the tent and the buffalo
robes points back from the wandering tribes in our country to the
comparatively polished people who erected the great cities at the
south; and if true that it is at this day used as a sign or symbol by
our North American Indians, its meaning can be ascertained from living
witnesses, and through ages of intervening darkness a ray of light may
be thrown back upon the now mysterious and incomprehensible characters
which perplex the stranger on the wall of the desolate southern
buildings.
On my return to the rancho I learned the cause of the extraordinary
attention shown us, which, though we had received it as a matter of
course, and no more than what, for some unknown reasons, was justly due
to us, had, nevertheless, somewhat surprised us. Our movements in that
neighbourhood were matters of some notoriety. Albino's preliminary
visit and our intentions had reached the ears of the senora, and the
evening before our arrival orders from her had arrived at the rancho
for all the Indians to put themselves at our command; and this delicate
manner of doing us a service is one of the many acts of kindness I have
to acknowledge to the citizens of Yucatan. The old alcalde again waited
till he became sleepy, when he asked permission to go to his hut, and
four or five Indians again hung up their hammocks under the arbour.