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 Bra.s.seur 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 a.s.sisted 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 _Congres International des Americanistes_, 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 Societe des Americanistes at Paris.
LETTER FROM DR. LE PLONGEON.
ISLAND OF COZUMEL, YUCATAN,} June 15, 1877. }
_Stephen Salisbury, jr., esq., Worcester, Ma.s.s.:_--
Dear Sir,-- ... The London Times of Wednesday, January 3, 1877, contains views on the projected congress of the so-called Americanists, that is expected to be held at Luxembourg in September next. Was the writing intended for a damper? If so, it did not miss its aim. It must have frozen to the very core the enthusiasm of the many dreamers and speculators on the prehistoric nations that inhabited this western continent. As for me, I felt its chill even under the burning rays of the tropical sun of Yucatan, notwithstanding I am, or ought to be, well inured to them during the four years that my wife and myself are rambling among the ruined cities of the Mayas.
True, I am but a cool searcher of the stupendous monuments of the mighty races that are no more, but have left the history of their pa.s.sage on earth written on the stones of the palaces of their rulers, upon the temples of their G.o.ds. The glowing fires of enthusiasm do not overheat my imagination, even if the handiwork of the ancient artists and architects--if the science of the Itza _H-Menes_--wise men, fill my heart with a surprise akin to admiration. Since four years we ask the stones to disclose the secrets they conceal. The portraits of the ancient kings, those of the men with long beards, who seem to have held high offices among these people, have become familiarized with us, and we with them.
At times they appear to our eyes to be not quite devoid of life, not entirely deaf to our voice. Not unfrequently the meaning of some sculpture, of some character, of some painting,--till then obscure, unintelligible, puzzling,--all of a sudden becomes clear, easy to understand, full of meaning.
Many a strange story of human greatness and pride, of human, petty and degrading pa.s.sions, weakness and imperfections, has thus been divulged to us;--while we were also told of the customs of the people; of the scientific acquirements of the _H-Menes_; of the religious rites observed by the _kins_ (priests); of their impostures, and of the superst.i.tion they inculcated to the ma.s.ses; of the communication held by the merchants of Chichen with the traders from Asia and Africa; of the politeness of courtiers and gracefulness of the queen; of the refinement of the court; of the funeral ceremonies, and of the ways they disposed of the dead; of the terrible invasions of barbarous Nahua tribes; of the destruction, at their hands, of the beautiful metropolis Chichen-Itza, the centre of civilization, the emporium of the countries comprised between the eastern sh.o.r.es of Mayapan and the western of Xibalba; of the subsequent decadence of the nations; of their internal strife during long ages. For here, in reckoning time, we must not count by centuries but millenaries. We do not, in thus speaking, indulge in conjectures--for, verily, the study of the walls leaves no room for supposition to him who quietly investigates and compares.
How far Mrs. Le Plongeon and myself have been able to interpret the mural paintings, bas-reliefs, sculptures and hieroglyphics, the results of our labors show. (Some of them have been lately published in the "Ill.u.s.tration Hispano-Americana" of Madrid.) The excavating of the magnificent statue of the Itza king, Chac-Mool, buried about five thousand years ago by his wife, the queen of Chichen, at eight metres under ground (that statue has just been wrenched from our hands by the Mexican government, without even an apology, but the photographs may be seen at the residence of Mr.
Henry Dixon, No. 112 Albany street, Regent park, London, and the engravings of it in the "Il.u.s.tracion Hispano-Americana"); the knowledge of the place where lies that of Huuncay, the elder brother of Chac-Mool, interred at twelve metres under the surface--of the site where the _H-Menes_ hid their libraries containing the history of their nation--the knowledge and sciences they had attained, would of itself be an answer to Professor Mommsen"s ridiculous a.s.sertion, that we are anxious to find what _cannot be known_, or what would be _useless_ if discovered. It is not the place here to refute the learned professor"s sayings; nor is it worth while. Yet I should like to know if he would refuse as _useless_ the treasures of King Priam because made of gold that belongs to the archaic times--what gold does not? Or, if he would turn up his nose at the wealth of Agamemnon because he knows that the gold and precious stones that compose it were wrought by artificers who lived four thousand years ago, should Dr. Schliemann feel inclined to offer them to him. What says Mr. Mommsen?
Besides my discovery of the statues, bas-reliefs, etc., etc., which would be worth many thousands of pounds sterling to--if the Mexican government did not rob them from--the discoverers, the study of the works of generations that have preceded us affords me the pleasure of following the tracks of the human mind through the long vista of ages to discover that its pretended progress and development are all imaginary, at least on earth. I have been unable to the present day to trace it. I really see no difference between the civilized man of today and the civilized man of five thousand years ago. I do not perceive that the human mind is endowed in our times with powers superior to those it possessed in ages gone by, but clearly discern that these powers are directed in different channels. Will Professor Mommsen pretend that this is also _useless_ after being found? Man today is the same as man was when these monuments, which cause the wonder of the modern traveller, were reared. Is he not influenced by the same instincts, the same wants, the same aspirations, the same mental and physical diseases?
I consider mankind alike to the waters of the ocean; their surface is ever changing, while in their depths is the same eternal, unchangeable stillness and calm. So man superficially. He reflects the images of times and circ.u.mstances. His intellect develops and expands only according to the necessities of the moment and place.
As the waves, he cannot pa.s.s the boundaries a.s.signed to him by the unseen, impenetrable Power to which all things are subservient. He is irresistibly impulsed toward his inevitable goal--the grave.
There, as far as he positively knows, all his powers are silenced.
But from there also he sees springing new forms of life that have to fulfil, in their turn, their destiny in the great laboratory of creation. The exploration of the monuments of past generations, all bearing the peculiarities, the idiosyncracies of the builders, has convinced me that the energies of human mind and intellect are the same in all times. They come forth in proportion to the requirements of the part they are to represent in the great drama of life, the means in the stupendous mechanism of the universe being always perfectly and wisely adapted to the ends. It is therefore absurd to judge of mental attainments of man in different epochs and circ.u.mstances by comparison with our actual civilization. For me the teachings of archaeology are these: "Tempora mutantur, mores etiam in illis; sicut ante homini etiam manent anima et mens."
Alchemists have gone out of fashion, thank G.o.d! Would that the old sort of antiquaries, who lose their time, and cause others to lose theirs also, in discussing idle speculations, might follow suit.
History requires facts,--these facts, proofs. These proofs are not to be found in the few works of the travellers that have hastily visited the monuments that strew the soil of Central America, Mexico and Peru, and given of them descriptions more or less accurate--very often erroneous--with appreciations always affected by their individual prejudices. The customs and attainments of all sorts of the nations that have lived on the western continent, before it was America, must be studied in view of the monuments they have left; or of the photographs, tracings of mural paintings, etc., etc., which are as good as the originals themselves. Not even the writings of the chroniclers of the time of the Spanish conquest can be implicitly relied upon. The writers on the one hand were in all cases blinded by their religious fanaticism; in many by their ignorance; on the other, the people who inhabited the country at the time of the arrival of the conquerors were not the builders of the ancient monuments. Many of these were then in ruins and looked upon by the inhabitants, as they are today, with respect and awe.
True, many of the habits and customs of the ancients, to a certain extent, existed yet among them; but disfigured, distorted by time, and the new modes of thinking and living introduced by the invaders; while, strange to say, the language remained unaltered.
Even today, in many places in Yucatan the descendants of the Spanish conquerors have forgotten the native tongue of their sires, and only speak _Maya_, the idiom of the vanquished. Traditions, religious rites, superst.i.tious practices, dances, were handed down from generation to generation. But, as the sciences were of old the privilege of the few, the colleges and temples of learning having been destroyed at the downfall of Chichen, the knowledge was imparted by the fathers to their sons, under the seal of the utmost secrecy. Through the long vista of generations, notwithstanding the few books that existed at the time of the conquest, and were in great part destroyed by Bishop Landa and other fanatical monks, the learning of the _H-Menes_ became adulterated in pa.s.sing from mouth to mouth, merely committed to memory, and was at last lost and changed into the many ridiculous notions and strange practices said to have been consigned afterward to these writings.
Withal the knowledge of reading those books was retained by some of the descendants of the _H-Menes_. I would not take upon myself to a.s.sert positively that some of the inhabitants of Peten--the place where the Itzas took refuge at the beginning of the Christian era after the destruction of their city--are not still in possession of the secret. At all events, I was told that people who could read the Maya _pic-huun_ (books), and to whom the deciphering of the _Uooh_ (letters) and the figurative characters was known, existed as far back as forty years ago, but kept their knowledge a secret, lest they should be persecuted by the priests as wizards and their precious volume wrenched from them and destroyed. The Indians hold them yet in great veneration. I am ready to give full credit to this a.s.sertion, for during my rambles and explorations in Peru and Bolivia I was repeatedly informed that people existed ensconced in remote nooks of the Andes, who could interpret the _quippus_ (string writing) and yet made use of them to register their family records, keep account of their droves of llamas and other property.
I will not speak here at length of the monuments of Peru, that during eight years I have diligently explored; for, with but few exceptions, they dwindle into insignificance when compared with the majestic structures reared by the Mayas, the Caras, or Carians, and other nations of Central America, and become, therefore, devoid of interest in point of architecture and antiquity; excepting, however, the ruins of Tiahuanaco, that were already ruins at the time of the foundation of the Incas" empire, in the eleventh century of our era, and so old that the memory of the builders was lost in the abysm of time. The Indians used to say that these were the work of giants who lived _before the sun shone in the heavens_.
It is well known that the Incas had no writing characters or hieroglyphics. The monuments raised by their hands do not afford any clew to their history. Dumb walls merely, their mutism leaves large scope to imagination, and one may conjecture any but the right thing. Of the historical records of that powerful but short-lived dynasty we have nothing left but the few imperfect and rotten _quippus_ which are occasionally disinterred from the _huacas_.
If we desire to know anything about the civil laws and policy, the religious rites and ceremonies of the Incas, their scanty scientific attainments, and their very few and rude artistic attempts, we are obliged to recur to the "Comentarios reales" of Garcila.s.so de la Vega, to the _Decadas_ of Herrera, to Zarata and other writers of the time of the conquest of Peru by Francisco Pizarro. None of them--Montesinos excepted--try to shed any light on the origin of _Manco-Ceapac_ and that of his sister and wife, _Mama-Oello_, nor on the state of the country before their arrival at Cuzco.
I have been most happy in my researches into the history of this founder of the Inca dynasty, whom many consider a mere mythical being. In the library of the British Museum I came across an old Spanish ma.n.u.script, written by a Jesuit father, A. Anilla, under, as he a.s.serts, the dictation of a certain _Catari_, an ex-_quippucamayoe_,--archive-keeper.
Writing now from memory, far away from my books, notes, plans, etc., etc., left for safe-keeping in the hands of a friend in Merida, I do not remember the number of the catalogue. But it is easy to look for "_Las vidas de los hombres il.u.s.tres de la compania de Jesus en las Provincias del Peru_," where I have read of the origin of Manco-Ceapac, of his wanderings from the sea coasts to those of the lake of t.i.ticaca, and hence through the country till at last he arrived at the village of Cuzco, where he was kindly received by the inhabitants and established himself. This MS. also speaks of the history of his ancestors, of their arrival at Tumbes after leaving their homes in the countries of the north in search of some lost relatives, of their slow progress toward the South, and the vain inquiries about their friends, etc., etc. Now that I have studied part of the history of the Mayas and become acquainted with their customs, as pictured in the mural paintings that adorn the walls of the inner room of the monument raised to the memory of Chac-Mool by the Queen of Itza, his wife, on the south end of the east wall of the gymnasium, at Chichen (the tracings of these paintings are in our power), and also in the traditions and customs of their descendants, by comparing them with those of the Quichuas, I cannot but believe that Manco"s ancestors emigrated from Xibalba or Mayapan, carrying with them the notions of the mother country, which they inculcated to their sons and grandsons, and introduced them among the tribes that submitted to their sway.
Let it be remembered that the Quichua was not the mother-tongue of the Incas, who in court spoke a language unknown to the common people. They, for political motives, and particularly to destroy the feuds that existed between the inhabitants of the different provinces of their vast dominions, ordered the Quichua to be taught to and learned by everybody, and to be regarded as the tongue of _Ttahuantinsuyu_. Their subjects, from however distant parts of the empire could then also understand each other, and came with time to consider themselves as members of the same family.
I have bestowed some attention upon the study of the Quichua. Not being acquainted with the dialects of the Aryan nations previous to their separation, I would not pretend to impugn the grand discovery of Mr. Lopez. But I can positively a.s.sert that expressions are not wanting in the Peruvian tongue that bear as strong a family resemblance to the dialects spoken in the Sandwich Islands and Tahiti, where I resided a few months, as the ruins of Tiahuanaco to those of Easter Island, that are composed of stones not to be found today in that place. When I visited it I was struck with the perfect similitude of the structures found there and the colossal statues, which forcibly recalled to my mind those said by Pinelo to have existed in Tiahuanaco even at the time of the Spanish conquest. This similarity in the buildings and language of the people separated by such obstacles as the deep water of the Pacific, hundreds of miles apart, cannot be attributed to a mere casual coincidence. To my mind it plainly shows that communications at some epoch or other have existed between these countries. On this particular point I have a theory of my own, which I think I can sustain by plausible facts, not speculative; but this is not the place to indulge in theories. I will, therefore, refrain from intruding mine on your readers. On the other hand, they are welcome to see it in the discourse I have p.r.o.nounced before the American Geographical Society of New York in January, 1873, which has been published in the New York Tribune, lecture sheet No. 8.
The Quichua contains also many words that seem closely allied to the dialects spoken by the nations inhabiting the regions called today Central America and the Maya tongue. It would not be surprising that some colony emigrating from these countries should have reached the beautiful valley of Cuzco, and established themselves in it, in times so remote that we have no tradition even of the event. It is well known that the Quichua was the language of the inhabitants of the valley of Cuzco exclusively before it became generalized in _Ttahuantinsuyu_, and it is today the place where it is spoken with more perfection and purity.
In answer to the question, if man came from the older (?) world of Asia,--and if so how, there are several points to consider, and not the least important relates to the relative antiquity of the continents. You are well aware that geologists, naturalists and other scientists are not wanting who, with the late Professor Aga.s.siz, sustain that this western continent is as old, if not older, than Asia and Europe, or Africa. Leaving this question to be settled by him who may accomplish it, I will repeat here what I have sustained long ago: that the American races are autochthonous, and have had many thousand years ago relations with the inhabitants of the other parts of the earth just as we have them today. This fact I can prove by the mural paintings and bas-reliefs, and more than all by the portraits of men with long beards that are to be seen in Chichen Itza, not to speak of the Maya tongue, which contains expressions from nearly every language spoken in olden times (to this point I will recur hereafter), and also by the small statues of tumbaya (a mixture of silver and copper) found in the huacas of Chimu, near Trujillo on the Peruvian coast, and by those of the valley of Chincha.
These statues, which seem to belong to a very ancient date, generally represent a man seated cross-legged on the back of a turtle. The head is shaved, except the top, where the hair is left to grow, and is plaited Chinese fashion. Not unfrequently the arms are extended, the hands rest upon pillars inscribed with characters much resembling Chinese. I have had one of these curious objects long in my possession. Notwithstanding being much worn by time and the salts contained in the earth, it was one of the most perfect I have seen. It was found in the valley of Chincha. I showed it one day to a learned Chinaman, and was quite amused in watching his face while he examined the image. His features betrayed so vividly the different emotions that preyed upon his mind,--curiosity, surprise, awe, superst.i.tious fear. I asked him if he understood the characters engraved on the pillars? "Yes," said he, "these are the ancient letters used in China before the invention of those in usage today. That"--pointing to the image he had replaced, with signs of respect and veneration, on the table--"is very old; very great thing,--only very wise men and saints are allowed to touch it." After much ado and coaxing, he at last told me, in a voice as full of reverence as a Brahmin would in uttering the sacred word O-A-UM, that the meaning of the inscription was _Fo_.
Some families of Indians, that live in the remote _bolsones_ (small valleys of the Andes), sport even today a cue as the inhabitants of the Celestial empire, and the people in Eten, a small village near Piura, speak a language unknown to their neighbors, and are said to easily hold converse with the coolies of the vicinage. When and how did this intercourse exist, is rather difficult to answer. I am even timorous to insinuate it, lest the believers in the chronology of the Bible, who make the world a little more than 5800 years old, should come down upon me, and, after pouring upon my humble self their most d.a.m.ning anathemas, consign me, at the dictates of their sectarian charity, to that place over the door of which Dante read,--
Perme si va tra la perduta gente.
Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch" entrate.
And yet mine is not the fault if reason tells me that the climate of Tiahuanaco, situated near the sh.o.r.es of the lake of t.i.ticaca, 13,500 feet above the sea, must not have always been what it is now, otherwise the ground around it, and for many miles barren, would not have been able to support the population of a large city.
Today it produces merely a few _ocas_ (a kind of small potato that is preserved frozen), and yields scanty crops of maize and beans.
Tiahuanaco _may_, at some distant period, have enjoyed the privilege of being a seaport. Nothing opposes this supposition. On one hand, it is a well-known fact that, owing to the conical motion of the earth, the waters retreat continually from the western coasts of America, which rise at a certain known ratio every century. On the other hand, the bank of oysters and other marine sh.e.l.ls and debris, found on the slopes of the Andes to near their summits, obviously indicate that at some time or other the sea has covered them.
When was that? I will leave to sectarians to compute, lest the reckoning should carry us back to that time when the s.p.a.ce between Tiahuanaco and Easter Island was dry land, and the valleys and plains now lying under the waters of the Pacific swarmed with industrious, intelligent human beings, were strewn with cities and villas, yielded luxuriant crops to the inhabitants, and the figure should show that people lived there before the creation of the world. I recoil with horror at the mere idea of being even suspected of insinuating such an heretical doctrine.
But if the builders of the strange structures on Easter Island have had, then, communications with the rearers of Tiahuanaco by _land_, then we may easily account for the many coincidences which exist between the laws, religious rites, sciences,--astronomical and others,--customs, monuments, languages, and even dresses, of the inhabitants of this Western continent, and those of Asia and Africa. Hence the similarity of many Asiatic and American notions.
Hence, also, the generalized idea of a deluge among men, whose traditions remount to the time when the waters that covered the plains of America, Europe, Africa and Asia left their beds, invaded the portions of the globe they now occupy, and destroyed their inhabitants.
Since that time, when, of course, all communications were cut between the few individuals that escaped the cataclysm by taking refuge on the highlands, their intercourse has been renewed at different and very remote epochs--a fact that I can easily prove.
But, why should we lose ourselves in the mazes of supposition, where we run a fair chance of wandering astray, when we may recur to the monuments of Yucatan? These are unimpeachable witnesses that the Peninsula was inhabited by civilized people many thousand years ago, even before the time ascribed by the Mosaic records to the creation.
Among the ruins of Ake, a city unique in Yucatan for its strange architecture, evidently built by giants, whose bones are now and then disinterred, a city that was inhabited at the time of the conquest, and where the Spaniards retreated for safety after the defeat they suffered at the hands of the dwellers of the country near the ruins of Chichen-Itza, is to be seen an immense building composed of three superposed platforms. The upper one forms a terrace supporting three rows of twelve columns. Each column is composed of eight large square stones, piled one upon the other, without cement, to a height of four metres, and indicate a lapse of 160 years in the life of the nation. These stones are, or were, called _Katun_. Every twenty years, amid the rejoicings of the people, another stone was added to those already piled up, and a new era or epoch was recorded in the history and life of the people. After seven of these stones had thus been placed--that is to say, after a lapse of 140 years--they began the _Ahau-Katun_, or King Katun, when a small stone was added every four years on one of the corners of the uppermost, and at the end of the twenty years of the _Ahau-Katun_, with great ceremonies and feasting, the crowning stone was placed upon the supporting small ones. (The photographs of this monument can be seen at the house of Mr. H. Dixon.) Now, as I have said, we have thirty-six columns composed of eight stones, each representing a period of twenty years, which would give us a total of 5760 years since the first Katun was placed on the terrace to the time when the city was abandoned, shortly after the Spanish conquest.
On the northeast of the great pyramid at Chichen-Itza, at a short distance from this monument, can be seen the graduated pyramid that once upon a time supported the main temple of the city dedicated to _Kukulcan_ (the winged serpent), the protecting divinity of the place. On three sides the structure is surrounded by a ma.s.sive wall about five metres high and eight wide on the top. On that wall are to be seen the columns of the Katuns. The rank vegetation has invaded every part of the building, and thrown many of the columns to the ground. I began to clear the trees from the pyramid, but was unable to finish work because of the disarming of my workmen, owing to a revolution that a certain Teodosio Canto had initiated against the government of Yucatan. I counted as many as one hundred and twenty columns, but got tired of pushing my way through the nearly impenetrable thicket, where I could see many more among the shrubs.
Those I counted would give an aggregate of 19,200 years,--quite a respectable old age, even for the life of a nation. This is plainly corroborated by the other means of reckoning the antiquity of the monuments,--such as the wear of the stones by meteorological influences, or the thickness of the stratum of the rich loam, the result of the decay of vegetable life, acc.u.mulated on the roofs and terraces of the buildings, not to speak of their position respecting the pole-star and the declination of the magnetic needle.
The architecture of the Mayas is unlike that of any other people of what is called the Old World. It resembles only itself. And, notwithstanding that Mayapan, from the most remote times, was visited by travellers from Asia and Africa, by the wise and learned men who came from abroad to consult the _H-Menes_; notwithstanding, also, the invasion of the Nahuas and the visitation of the pilgrims, the Maya art of building remained peculiar and unchanged, and their language was adopted by their conquerors. The Nahuas, after destroying the city of the wise men, established themselves in Uxmal, on account of its strategic position, in the midst of a plain inclosed by hills easily defended. To embellish that city, where dwelt the foes of Chichen, they copied the complex ornamentation of the most ancient building of that metropolis,--the palace and museum,--disdaining the chast.i.ty, the simplicity, the beautiful and tasteful elegance of the monuments of the latter period. These, of graceful and airy proportions, are utterly devoid of the profusion and complexity of ornamentation and design that overload the palaces and temples of Uxmal. When gazing on the structures of that city, and comparing them with those of Chichen, it seemed that I was contemplating a low-born, illiterate man, on whom Fortune, in one of her strange freaks, has smiled, and who imagines that by bedecking himself with gaudy habiliments and shining jewelry he acquires knowledge and importance. All in Uxmal proclaims the decadency of art, the relaxation of morals, the depravity of customs, the lewdness of the inhabitants. In Chichen they represent the life-giving power of the universe under the emblems of the Sun and Kukulcan. In Uxmal they worshipped the phallus, which is to be seen everywhere, in the courts, in the ornaments of the temples, in the residences of the priests and priestesses, in all the monuments except the house of the governor, built by Aac, the younger brother and a.s.sa.s.sin of Chac-Mool.
The edifices of Uxmal are evidently constructed with less art and knowledge than those of Chichen. The latter remain whole and nearly intact, except in those places where the hand of man has been busy; the former have suffered much from the inclemencies of the atmosphere, and from the ignorance and vandalistic propensities of the visitors. I have been present at the destruction of magnificent walls where the ruins stand. Some prefer to destroy these relics of past ages, rather than to pick up with more ease the stones that strew the soil in every direction.
The ornaments of temples and palaces are mostly composed of hieroglyphics, highly adorned, of the emblems of religious rites, of statues of great men and priests, surrounded by many embellishments. In Uxmal the columns are representations of the phallus-worship of the Nahuas. In Chichen the base is formed by the head of Kukulcan, the shaft by the body of the serpent, with its feathers beautifully carved to the very chapter. On the chapters of the columns that support the portico, at the entrance of the castle in Chichen-Itza, may be seen the carved figures of long-bearded men, with upraised hands, in the act of worshipping sacred trees.
They forcibly recall to the mind the same worship in a.s.syria, as seen on the slabs found by Layard in the ruins of Nineveh, now in the a.s.syrian gallery of the British Museum. No one can form an exact idea of the monuments of Mayapan by reading mere descriptions. It is necessary to either examine the buildings themselves (and this is not quite devoid of danger, since the most interesting are situated in territories forbidden to white men, and occupied by the hostile Indians of Chan-Santa-Cruz, who since 1849 wage war to the knife on the inhabitants of Yucatan, and have devastated the greatest part of that State), or to study my magnificent collection of photographs where they are most faithfully portrayed; that can be done with more ease, without running the risk of losing one"s life.