KABAH AND UXMAL.

Departure for Ticul—Uayalceh—Mucuiche—Sacalun—An Old Souvenir—Ticul—Excavations at S. Francisco—Failure—Yucatec Vases—Entertainment at the Hacienda of Yokat—A Sermon in Maya—Hacienda of Santa Anna—Important Remains—The Ruins of Kabah—Monuments Surveyed—First Palace—Ornamental Wall—Cisterns—Inner Apartments—Second Palace—Great Pyramid—Ancient Writers Quoted—Stephens’ Drawings.

The road to Kabah, our next stage, passing by Ticul, lies as usual through a flat tract of land, varied here and there by plantations of henequen and maize. We reach the hacienda of Uayalceh about nine o’clock, where we make a stay of a few hours to breakfast, visit the plantations and the house, consisting of an immense pile of building surrounded by cloisters, reared on an elevated eminence, presumably the site of an Indian palace; it being doubtful whether the Spanish builder would have gone to the enormous cost of constructing so vast an esplanade. A gallery, extending over the whole length of the building, is reached by twenty steps, where a hammock, comfortable arm-chairs, and a writing-desk raised on a platform are found, from which the mayor-domo can watch unobserved the proceedings of the establishment. This hacienda works its own henequen, employing some 1,200 hands; a strict discipline is observed, and apart from the monotonous chant of the youngsters, the low murmuring of the women, no sound is heard save that of the machinery or the wheel at the Noria, in constant movement for the requirements of the whole establishment. It is altogether a lively and interesting scene.

The large enclosure fronting the house is planted with bananas, the whole zapotee family, cocoa and orange-trees growing to the size of ilexes, alternated with roses and the rich variety of the tropical flora, filling the air with their sweet, penetrating fragrance, and extending to a wood which surrounds the factory.

Our excellent breakfast is served in a portion of the cool open cloister, washed down with a bottle of Spanish wine and a delicious cup of coffee. We pay our moderate bill, proffer our thanks to the mayor-domo for his civility, and resume our march, alighting at the hacienda of Mucuiche to visit a cenotÉ, and reach Sacalun late in the afternoon, where we stop awhile to rest our hot, panting mules.

It was formerly a place of some importance; but its chief attraction lies in its cenotÉ, 65 feet deep. Steps with a balustrade lead to the surface of the water, while the great stalactites which hang down from the vault and almost meet the stalagmites rising from the ground, form an imposing and weird scene. Yet it was here that I experienced the most charming adventure that I met in the whole course of my travels; and, although two-and-twenty years have elapsed, the dear, sweet remembrance of that day is as fresh as ever.

I was on my way to Uxmal, when through some egregious stupidity of the driver I was obliged to put up here for the night. There was of course no inn, and I found a bed at a poor widow’s, who took in casual travellers like myself. The accommodation was of the scantiest: a hammock, a small table, a chair or two, was all the furniture of a room which was at the same time the kitchen, the parlour, and the sleeping chamber. The widow apologised for having nothing better to offer, but it was easy to guess from her noble manners and appearance, that she had known better days. I watched my dinner being prepared; the table neatly laid, everything so scrupulously clean, that I could have found it in my heart to be indulgent had the cooking been execrable, but all was as good and nice as would have satisfied the most fastidious palate. Two lovely maidens helped their mother and served at table; my eyes sought the younger, whose transparent skin, pearly teeth, hair of raven wing’s blackness, magnificent, languid eyes, fairy-like form moving over the ground with an indescribable undulating movement, moved me body and soul every time she gazed in my direction. Her look of innocence and simplicity added to the charm which seemed to emanate from her whole person, accepting with child-like pleasure my open admiration, while a soft blush spread over her countenance as she met my enraptured gaze. Their story was this:

The hacienda had been burnt down, her husband massacred, and she had been obliged to fly with her little ones to escape a worse fate, to find on their return the place a heap of ruins. She told of their lone, joyless life, of a still darker future, and tears coursed down her cheeks furrowed by care and privations rather than age.

I was young, impulsive, I wished I were rich. Why should I not.... In a moment, ancient monuments, the world, my possible career, all was forgotten in face of these tearful countenances and their undeserved misfortune. Why not accept the love, the happiness, which were offered to me? And how delightful to relieve their misery, to feel that a whole family would be made happy and comfortable by me and through me! All this and a great deal more I expressed, and was amply repaid by the angelic smile of the young girl, and the mother’s grateful acknowledgments. Night, however, brought calm to my disturbed imagination, and I resolved on a speedy flight, as the only means of escape from a too fascinating but dangerous position. The next day I announced my departure, and I never saw her again. And now, after so many years, I was back in the same place again. I sought the house, to find that my youthful love-dream was no longer here, but had gone to live somewhere in a large city. I came away sad at heart, disappointed; yet better so. In two-and-twenty years, Time, in all probability, had not spared her, more than he had me.

Ticul, whither we are bound, is reached in the evening, where, thanks to the kind offices of our friend Don Antonio Fajardo, a house has been secured for our accommodation.

Ticul is built on the lower slopes of the Sierra, which runs in a line from north-west to south-east of the peninsula. It is a small place, with a few good houses and shops; everything has a look of newness, as if built but yesterday, save the church and the monastery falling into decay, in which lived the delightful padrecito Cirillo, whose pleasant gossip has been so charmingly recorded in Stephens’ Journal. Almost the only inhabitable apartment is now occupied by Cirillo’s brother, a dear old fellow, whose cheery, smiling face it is a pleasure to see. We make the “Tienda,” where we have our meals, our receiving-room; our visitors are the schoolmaster, some Government employÉs, the Mayor, and Dr. Cuevas, an eminent archÆologist, who presented me with a stick of zapotÉ, cut out of a lintel found at Kabah. Our evenings pass pleasantly enough, in agreeable conversation regarding the ruins found in this district.

In this way we learn that the hacienda of S. Francisco, some little distance from Sacalun, is an ancient Indian centre with two unexplored mounds, in one of which a skeleton and vases in good preservation were found some years since. I was seized with the desire to explore these eminences, but my repeated attempts proved bootless, and I was obliged to give up the enterprise.

But kind friends here did not wish me to go away empty-handed, so they sent me some vases which had been unearthed in these mounds, just as I was sitting down in the evening to record my failure. Two are shown in our cut, on each side of the central one from Teotihuacan.

The resemblance between the ceramic art of Yucatan and that of the table-land, is seen at a glance. Their value as works of art is nil, but the peculiar ornamentation, common to all, cannot be over-estimated from the point of view of our theory. On examining this pottery, it is found that the potter made the vases with reliefs, which he coloured, varnished, and baked before he gave them to a carver who sculptured devices and figures with a flint chisel, as seen on the larger Yucatec vase, where palms, or, more likely, a symbolical figure was portrayed. The other is a sitting figure, with a feather head-dress, and tassels towards the top; whilst the Teotihuacan fragment represents a man in a stooping posture, a stick or sceptre in his right hand, offering an indeterminate object with his left to some figure engraved on the portion of the vase which has disappeared.

Our route to the ruins of Kabah lay through the hacienda of Santa Anna, to which they properly belong; but a path had to be opened first through woods and forests, and as the work would take two days at least, we accepted an invitation to witness an entertainment given by Don Fajardo at his hacienda of Yokat.

Entertainments are as well attended in this part of the world by this pleasure-loving people, as in a city. This will last three days, and will include national dances, bull-fights, high banqueting and junketing. The owner, with natural pride, shows me the vast proportions of his noble mansion, which stands at the foot of a hill and is surrounded by beautiful gardens full of flowers. This being Sunday we all go to chapel, consisting in a long rambling gallery. Mass is followed by a sermon in Maya, which to my ear is very soft and pleasing.

The congregation numbers a large proportion of pretty women, all in their gala dress, kneeling and devout; but at the “Ite missa est,” they disappear swifter than a flight of birds. I am introduced to the belles of the impending ball; refreshments are handed round, when every one of these houris comes up to dip her rosy lips in my glass; such is the fashion here, which I need hardly say I think a very nice fashion indeed. The guests are arriving very fast, filling already the courtyard, and the immense open space fronting the house which has been turned into a circus. Opposite to this is the ballroom, a leafy bower of flowering shrubs and evergreens; here and there are booths supplying thirsty customers with fiery staventum and English beer; and ere long these people, usually so grave and silent, make the whole place resound with the hubbub of thousands of voices and peals of merry laughter and joyful cries. The bulls have come; the circus is invaded by an immense multitude, all eager to see the sport. For my part, I prefer looking up at the galleries, crowded with beaming, bewitching Meztizas. Ye immortals! What faces and what figures! Mother Eve must have been a Meztiza, who “once beguiled, is ever beguiling.”

Curious enough, in this assemblage, numbering over 2,000 people, hardly 400 men are found. As a fact, this disproportion between the masculine and feminine element is more or less noticeable in all warm countries, where the births average five females to two males. This degeneracy does not apply to the Indian portion of the population, for the civil wars, in which great numbers of able-bodied men perished, have added, no doubt, to the feminine excess of the population. It is only fair to state that this is mere assumption on my part, based on no statistics, so that the fact may be exaggerated. What the morals of the natives are in face of a quasi-seraglio life, is a somewhat delicate question not easily answered. Broadly speaking, it may be said that the Indians are not a virtuous race; the frequency of these entertainments, extending over several days or rather nights, is hardly conducive to strict propriety of demeanour in an impassioned, amorous people. Be that as it may, this assemblage offers many interesting types for observation: the lower grades are a cross between the Malay and the Chinese; the aquiline nose of former times has become flat, the eyes somewhat sloping up, the lips thick, and the cheek-bones prominent, while wavy hair indicates an admixture of negro blood; very small hands, with thumbs so undeveloped as to be almost simian, are also observable.

Wearied of the tumult and the discordant sounds of native music, of national dances, which, however graceful, pall by their sameness, I set my face towards Ticul, to look after my men; when to my great relief I find that the path to the ruins has been cleared, and I can start whenever I choose. Don Antonio goes with us to the hacienda of Santa Anna, which is to be our head-quarters; whence volan-cochÉs will easily take us to Kabah, barely three miles distant. This hacienda was abandoned like so many others during the social war, and is now being restored with the material of an important pyramid lying at a short distance, once crowned by edifices now totally demolished. I notice square pillars in the detritus in good preservation topped by Doric capitals, and curiously enough, the angles are cut like the stones of our pavements, and bear evident traces of a metal instrument.

The road to the ruins has been so incompletely cleared, that we are in danger of being upset every minute by rocks and trees lying right over our path. In vain we desire the driver to moderate his speed, to be more careful, we might as well order the wind to be still; and at a sharp turn of the road the volan comes with a tremendous crash against the trunk of a large tree, and we are pitched out; the top of the carriage is smashed, and with aching bones and a few scratches, we find our way to the ruins on foot, now fortunately very near.

Ancient historians have made no mention whether of Kabah, Sachey, Labphak, or Iturbide, cities lying thirty or forty leagues south of Merida. Nevertheless, their rulers are incidentally mentioned under the general appellation of “people of the Sierra.” A glance at the map will show the position of these cities on the other side of the mountain range which traverses the peninsula.

Kabah was an important city, to judge from its monuments, which extend over a large space, consisting of high pyramids, immense terraces, triumphal arches, and stately palaces.141 Stephens, who visited the place in 1842, has given beautiful drawings of its monuments; but the village, left to itself since the rebellion, has become an impenetrable forest, making a thorough exploration almost impossible. We were only able to visit half-a-dozen structures, of which only two are still standing. But these, coupled with those at Uxmal and Chichen, will suffice to give a right and complete idea of Yucatec architecture and civilisation.

The front of the first palace is richly decorated, consisting of large figures like those at Chichen, and recalling to mind the gigantic superimposed wooden idols met in the islands of the Pacific. The ornamentation of this monument is so elaborate that the architecture entirely disappears under it. Two salient cornices form a frame to immense friezes which, in their details, would compare favourably with our proudest monuments. The advanced state of ruin in which the structure is found, makes it difficult to judge of its original plan; but enough remains to show how unlike other monuments were the decorations which extended over the whole faÇade, some 162 feet.

This palace, like all Yucatec monuments, rises on a two-storied pyramid; fronting it is a vast esplanade, which had a cistern on each side, while the centre was occupied by a “picotÉ.” Over the front, narrowing towards the top, was a decorative wall, usually found in Indian structures. Another peculiarity of these monuments is their facing south and west, and north and east, instead of the four cardinal points. The interior of this edifice has a double range of apartments, the finest we have as yet seen, measuring 29 feet long by 9 feet wide, and 19 feet high, supported by half arches of overlapping stones. One of the inner chambers is entered from the front apartment by three steps cut from a single block of stone, the lower step taking the form of a scroll. The walls at the sides, although half demolished, still show traces of rich decoration, which consisted of the usual device, whilst the projecting great figures of the faÇade are also noticeable on the steps, on each side of which are large round eyes. The mouth was below. All the apartments, and probably all the monuments, had their walls painted with figures and inscriptions, as shown in the few fragments which still remain. “Among the Mayas,” says Viollet-le-Duc, “painting went hand-in-hand with architecture, supplementing each other.” A picture as understood among us held a very secondary place, while outer decorations were all-important in the monuments at Kabah, which were of brilliant colours, and must have greatly enhanced the striking effect produced by these semi-barbarous, yet withal magnificent edifices.

The second palace, 160 yards north-east of the first, is likewise reared on a pyramid, fronted by an esplanade with two cisterns and a picotÉ; it has besides a second plateau, consisting of a range of ruined apartments. A flight of steps to the centre, supported by a half-triangular arch, leads to the edifice. This palace is only 16 feet high, and in strong contrast with the rich, elaborate ornamentation of the first. Its outer walls are plain, except groups of three short pilasters each surrounding the edifice above the cornice, forming a sloping rather than perpendicular frieze, like those at Palenque, and in most Yucatec monuments. The front, 162 feet, is almost entire and pierced by seven openings; two have columns and primitive rude capitals, corresponding to the same number of narrow low apartments. As usual the ornamental wall is narrowing towards the top, and is distinctly seen through the vegetation covering the roof.

The rear is a complete ruin. Traces of painting, of which tracings were made, are still visible in the central chamber. It was here that I thought I recognised the rude drawing of a horse and his rider, which was hailed with Homeric laughter; but, although I was mistaken in my supposition, I was very near the truth, since the fact I erroneously heralded at Kabah was found in the north. The discovery is due to S. Salisbury, who, in 1861, whilst exploring a group of mounds and structures, near the hacienda of Xuyum, fifteen miles north of Merida, unearthed the remains of two horses’ heads, made of very hard chalk, with bristling hair like a zebra.142 The work shows considerable artistic skill, and the explorer thinks that it formed part of some bas-reliefs which had belonged to the demolished monuments. Indeed, it is highly probable that these heads were placed on the edifices built by the natives between Montejo’s departure in 1530 and his return in 1541; proving that the aborigines had skilfully copied the Spanish horses, and that there was at Xuyum one monument at least similar to those we know. To comment on this would be sheer loss of time.

To the left of this building is a rectangular pyramid, with several stories, 162 feet at the base by 113 feet. Four outer staircases led up from story to story to edifices in an advanced state of ruin, having apartments extending all round, and doorways, some supported by columns, while others are mere openings, as shown in our drawing, which reproduces the north-west side. In this monument and in the second palace are found for the first time lintels of stone, nearly all in very good preservation. Historians have told us nothing regarding Kabah; nevertheless we have some guiding landmarks from which to reconstruct its history and that of Uxmal, of which in all probability it was a close ally, since the two cities lie at a distance of five leagues from each other, and were connected by a plastered road, traces of which are still visible. Consequently the same fate must have been common to both. We know that a century before the Conquest the lord of Mayapan ruled over the whole peninsula, having razed to the ground the capitals of his vanquished rivals, amongst whom were the caciques of Uxmal, Kabah, Labna, etc. This king of Mayapan introduced into the country a force of Mexican soldiers for Pg 385
Pg 386
Pg 387the maintenance of his authority;143 and to ensure the good behaviour of the caciques he obliged them to reside at his court, where their state of vassalage was made up to them by a life of great pomp, at the expense of the sovereign.144

NORTH-WEST SIDE OF PYRAMID OF KABAH.