DEsirE Charnay

YUCATAN, MERIDA, AND THE MAYA RACE.

Early Account of Yucatan—First Explorers: F. Hernandez de Cordova, Juan de Grijalva—Cortez—Railroad—Henequen Estate—Merida—Historical Jottings—Destruction of all the Documents by the Historian Landa—Municipal Palace—Cathedral—The Conqueror’s House—Private Houses—Market Place—Maya Race—Types—Manners and Customs of the Mayas—Deformation and Tattooing—Meztizas—Dwellings—Suburbs.

We will next proceed to the study of the Toltec branch which penetrated the Yucatan peninsula by Patonchan, and from which the reigning family of the Cocomes were descended.

The main harbour on the north-east coast was formerly Sisal, but the requirements of an increasing trade have moved it on to Progreso, where we cast anchor in a gale of wind which obliged us to remain five or six miles outside, to keep clear of the shoals which make this coast dangerous. We land with considerable difficulty at last, and are not sorry to get rid of the unpleasant sensation known as sea-sickness. The peninsula has no rivers and no water, and is of calcareous formation; flat and barren to the north, where the soil is but few inches deep; more hilly and productive towards the centre, because of its older formation; it rises to the south to the Sierra Madre, which runs through Central America.

The direction of Yucatan is from north to south, between the eighth and twelfth degree longitude east of Mexico, and between the eighteenth and twenty-second degree of latitude. The first to mention it is Columbus, who, on July 30th, 1502, finding himself at Pine Island, saw a large barque manned by twenty-four rowers, having a cacique and family on board, dressed in the costume known since as Yucatec; the boat was freighted with cacao, tortillas, and a beverage made of Indian corn, wooden swords with blades of obsidian, copper axes, and cotton tissues as soft as silk, dyed in brilliant hues.

JOURNEY TO YUCATAN

JOURNEY
TO YUCATAN
and to the country of
THE LACANDONS
by D. Charnay
1882

A reasonable doubt may be entertained as to this canoe, said to have measured 8 feet wide, having come from Yucatan, a country by its nature exceedingly dry, arid, stony, and without rivers, circumstances hardly favourable to making sailors of its inhabitants; moreover, copper axes and obsidian blades were scarce among the Mayas, and the Spaniards, under Grijalva, never met them until they reached Tabasco.101 It seems, therefore, probable, that the canoe came from Tabasco, a region civilised like Yucatan, intersected by large rivers, clad with an exuberant vegetation, noble cedar and mahogany trees, from which to build capacious boats. As for the dress, it is nearly the same as that worn by the Mayas; but what is even more significant is that cocoa is one of the chief productions of Tabasco, and is only known as an importation in Yucatan,102 except indeed towards Patonchan, where, at the time of the Conquest, the vegetation was as vigorous, and cacao as extensively cultivated as in Tabasco. The Maya language was common to both districts. Had Columbus followed the canoe, he would have added to his own the glory Cortez achieved later; at all events he had been the first to discover the central regions of America.

The first to visit Yucatan was Vincente Yanez Pinzon, who with Diaz Solis, in 1505, coasted the eastern side, without, however, identifying it. In 1511, Valdivia was wrecked on the Alacranes reefs on his way to Cuba; he and his crew effected a landing, when the only survivors of the ill-usage of the natives were Gonzalo Guerrero and Geronimo de Aguilar, of whom I shall speak later. In 1517, Cordova sailed along the northern coast, where he observed great cities and high pyramids; he landed at Campeche, and saw stately temples, having serpentine walls in relief, similar to that of the great temple in Mexico, dedicated to Cukulcan (Quetzalcoatl). He landed at Patonchan or Champeton, when the natives massacred fifty-seven of his companions. It would seem strange that Cortez, in all his encounters with the natives of the Uplands, should have had so few casualties, were it not known that they strove to take their enemies alive that they might offer them on the altar of their deities. To this prevailing custom Cortez twice owed his life during the siege of Mexico, but as he was being led away to be sacrificed to their war-god he was both times rescued by his companions.

In Yucatan and Tabasco, where Aztec influence was of recent date, the introduction of human sacrifice comparatively new, the natives killed rather than captured their enemies; and this explains the great losses sustained by the Spaniards in the peninsula, and is another proof of Toltec teachings in these districts.

In 1518, Grijalva landed at Cozumel, when he perceived on the opposite coast a city supposed to be Tuloom-Pamal or Paamul; he followed the route of his predecessor and halted in the Islands of Sacrificios and Uluo, opposite the site of future Vera Cruz; and lastly Cortez, who, in 1519, found here Aguilar and further on in Tabasco Marina.

The name of Yucatan is variously derived from Chacnuitan; Tectecan, tectetan, “we don’t understand,” from a misunderstanding by the Spaniards when the natives were questioned about the name of their country; or from Yuca-Tan, “land of yuca,” not to be confounded with the yuca of our gardens, for the former yielded a substance out of which the Spaniards made cazabe, bread; and Ciu-Than, “say yourself,” or, according to Landa, Ulumil y etel Ceh, “land of turkeys and deer.” Another authority, Ramesal, believes the name to be derived from Tectetan-Ylatli and Teloquitan;103 Cogolludo adopts these various appellations, remarking that as the country was named after its chief city, it differed at each successive epoch, being in ancient times Mayapan, but in the time of the writer Campeche. Ternaux-Compans declares that from the fall of Mayapan to the coming of the Spaniards, the country had no general name, but was severally called after each province, as district of Choaca, Bakhalal, Campeche, etc.; but there is little doubt that the name of Yucatan, at the coming of Europeans and afterwards, was Maya. However that may be, we will turn to the monuments, which afford a far surer guide whereon to construct a history of this country so rich in works of “los antiguos.”

PANORAMIC VIEW OF MERIDA.

PANORAMIC VIEW OF MERIDA.

Progreso is a miserable hamlet surrounded by low-lying swamps; here the luggage is examined, but in our case only pro formÂ, and we are glad to resume our seats and to steam out of this unhealthy zone, although the country we Pg 267
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Pg 269traverse, on which nothing grows save brambles and brushwood, is no less flat or monotonous. We come presently to immense estates of henequen, a kind of agave, having long narrow leaves, yielding a solid shining thread, which is hardly known out of American markets; patches of verdure, bananas, palm-trees, and maritime pines, betray now and again a private residence, while smoking mills show the factories where the henequen is being prepared ready for exportation.

Were it not for the mysterious spirit of “los antiguos,” which seems to fill the whole country, the landscape to a less enthusiastic explorer must appear dreary and melancholy in the extreme. We pass eminences on our right on which once stood noble temples; these remains carry me back to the time when I first visited these parts, and when these ruins fixed my resolve to make archÆology the business of my life. Next came a few straggling hamlets; groups of dark women in short petticoats, and naked urchins, gaze on us with wondering eyes as they stand at the entrance of their huts while we speed along. We reach Merida after a run of three hours over a distance of ten leagues, where we learn that no hotel or house is to be found, and it is only after searching the whole place that we can at last secure a room of some fifteen feet square, in which my two companions and myself have to settle down. There is but one atrociously bad restaurant where to get any kind of food; our thoughts, however, are taken up with exploring the ruins rather than with a good maÎtre d’hÔtel; we find, besides, a small Anglo-American colony, and in their midst our abominable fare is soon forgotten.

Francisco de Montejo, who founded Merida, had occupied Chichen in 1527, but had been compelled to abandon it and seek reinforcements in Mexico. On his return he was enabled, through a traitorous cacique, to establish himself here, and built Merida in 1542. The conquest of Yucatan was longer and beset with greater difficulties than that of Mexico; here the Spaniards were continually threatened by a warlike population, ever on the alert to raise the standard of rebellion. The history of this people can only be read on the monuments they have left, which have given rise to so many divergent hypotheses. Yet documents were not wanting, and had the religious zeal of the men of that time been less ill-judged, they would have found in the various and multiform manuscripts, in the charts or maps, in the idols, in the pottery and living traditions, ample and reliable materials from which to write an exhaustive history of the Maya civilisation. But the Spaniards were more careful to demolish than to preserve. Zumarraga, Bishop of Mexico, destroyed all the Aztec annals he could lay his hand upon, and Landa, Bishop of Merida, made an auto-da-fÉ of all the monuments he could collect, having done which, he set himself to writing his history, “De las Cosas de Yucatan.”104

All there now remains for us are mere gleanings, the interpretation of certain passages in this very Landa, in Cogolludo and Herrera, and above all by a careful comparison between these monuments and bas-reliefs with those we already know; for with their help only can we hope to reconstruct a past which becomes more familiar the more it is studied. These monuments have been endowed with fabulous antiquity; whereas, on the strength of my explorations, I assert that they are comparatively recent.

Merida stands on the site of ancient Ti-hoo or T-hoo, one of the chief cities of the peninsula; but nothing positive is known, and tradition is almost silent respecting it. If we are to believe the Spaniards, it had long been abandoned on their arrival; but this is not borne out by facts, for although they beheld a dense vegetation amidst the pyramids, the edifices on their summits were entire;105 moreover, Montejo was able to quarter his troops here, as well as the Indian contingent from Mani. Furthermore, Eligio Ancona, the modern Yucatec historian, describes a celebrated sanctuary known as H-Chun-Caan, “The centre and foundation of heaven,” which was the object of great veneration; it follows therefore that its imposing ceremonies were presided over by revered and powerful priests, that the temples and palaces in Merida were standing after the arrival of the Spaniards,106 although not in the vast proportions assigned to them by the AbbÉ Brasseur, whose lively imagination is apt to lead him astray.

Merida was built with the materials of the Indian city, and like all the Spanish places of the New World, is but a huge chess-board, with streets running at right angles, consisting of square blocks of buildings. The centre is occupied by a large plaza, having a waterless fountain and gardens, the flowers of which are perishing for want of water; as for the young trees planted about, they doubtless will afford shade to future generations; for the present the glare of this open space is intolerable. When I visited it some twenty years ago, if not so symmetrical it was certainly more picturesque. In the plaza are found the municipal palace and the cathedral, MONTEJO’S HOUSE, MERIDA. MONTEJO’S HOUSE, MERIDA. of monumental proportions for a place of 30,000 souls; it numbered, probably, only the third of this when it was built in 1598. Its erection cost the pious Meridans £60,000, equivalent at the present day to fifteen times that sum, but it is doubtful if even with its greater population so large a sum could now be raised. The front, 179 feet wide, is occupied by a central pavilion in which the principal entrance intervenes, ornamented by an indifferent Corinthian portico, over which, at a height of some 97 feet, a great vaulted arch supports an elegant gallery; on each side of the pavilion are two steeples with a number of galleries narrowing in upward succession, forming with their balustrades a Pg 273
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Pg 275pleasing contrast to the plain faÇade. The interior of the church, 289 feet long, is imposing; it consists of three naves with round arches, supported by twelve immense columns, and twenty of like dimensions imbedded in the walls. Small chapels run along the sides, and the structure altogether bears the impress of solidity which is so conspicuous a feature of the conquerors’ work. To the south of the square stands Montejo’s house, bearing the date of 1541; it is the oldest in Merida, and an interesting specimen of that epoch. It may be worthy of mention that the sculptures in this house are as defaced as those of the Indian monuments, which seems to indicate similarity of date. The pillars on each side of the entrance bear aloft two Spanish soldiers, whilst on the first floor, by the window, knights armed cap-À-pie are standing on two recumbent Indians, personating the subjugation of the race. The faÇade with its columns, statues, arabesques, and shields, is a fair specimen of American Renaissance; but if the composition was Spanish, the work, probably, was due to Indian hands, for at the time of its erection the Spaniards were a handful of soldiers or adventurers, whose pride would not have suffered them to do any manual labour.

CATHEDRAL.

CATHEDRAL.

Artisans were plentiful among the Mayas, who have interspersed their country with so many remarkable monuments, and whose building aptitude is notable even at the present day. Beside these edifices the town, with very few exceptions, is an assemblage of low houses having but the ground floor, while all the windows are stoutly grated to secure the inmates against housebreakers. But the impression produced by this unpromising exterior soon gives place to agreeable surprise on being introduced into spacious apartments opening on the “patio,” encompassed by Moorish cloisters. The patios are planted with flowers, shrubs, and palm-trees, which, towering above the terraced roofs, break the monotonous lines of the town panorama. Our cut shows Don Alvaro Peon’s house with its charming gallery on the first floor.

DON ALVARO PEON’S HOUSE.

All movement and life centre towards the market-place, where Spaniards, Indians, and Meztizos are seen in their picturesque costumes; sellers are crying out their goods, consisting of pottery and baskets, the facsimiles of those we bought at Tula; somewhat further we come across some natives bending under heavy loads of “ramon,” the green twigs of a particular tree, affording the only forage in a country without grass. Here young caballeros are stopped by cumbrous carts taking up the whole street with their enormous bales of henequen; further on, women in snowy white costumes sit in long rows, offering with a pretty grace their small stock-in-trade spread before them. Among this motley crowd I spied a diminutive “aguador” looking so bonnie that I wished to take his photograph, making his less favoured companions envious thereat.107

The Mayas, both in type and language, are unlike both the surrounding tribes and those of the plateaux; they are said to be an ancient race, but this assumption is based on no positive proof. Cogolludo believes the first inhabitants to have come from Cuba; and Agassiz, who studied these tribes in their respective homes, leans to the same opinion. Traditions and ancient writers, confirmed in modern times by Humboldt, all are unanimous in asserting that this country was invaded towards the end of the eleventh and the beginning of the twelfth century by the Toltecs.108 Granted their building genius, seeing that both the architecture and the decorations of the edifices correspond to the descriptions left by historians respecting Toltec palaces and temples of the Uplands, we are in a position to affirm that there was no other civilisation in Central America except the Toltec civilisation, and that if another existed, our having met with no trace of it gives us the right to deny it altogether.

When two civilisations come in contact, the outcome is a mixture of both which is easy of recognition. Take as an instance India after the Mohammedan Conquest, where Indo-Arabic monuments are notable to the most inexperienced eye. If, therefore, Yucatan had possessed an indigenous civilisation, we should certainly have found monuments or ruins indicating as much; or if destroyed by time, we should have found others of a composite character, showing the fusion of the two races, whereas nothing of the kind occurs, and the older monuments, or those which appear so, are in no respect different from the more recent or Toltec ones. Consequently the Mayas, who were peculiarly well fitted for receiving a superior culture, had their share in the artistic manifestations to be met with through the length and breadth of the peninsula, and being the stronger nationality they opposed a stouter and longer resistance to the hated invaders. Even now, after three centuries of degrading oppression, a Maya, or Maya-Toltec, preserves distinctive characteristics by which he can be singled out from among a number of different nationalities, nor would it be easy to find among the rural classes of Europe men of a better build, or with more intelligent and open countenances. Their heads are round, their eyes black, their noses arched, their ears and mouth small, they are deep-chested, straight-jawed, with round chin and sound square teeth, their hair is black, straight, and coarse, their complexion reddish brown.

The form of government was monarchical and almost absolute; below were the nobles, the priests, the people, and the slaves. Such a partition, amounting to almost castes, presupposes an anterior conquest. The lands were divided between the crown, the nobility, the temples, and the people. The division was by no means equal, by far the greater proportion being appropriated by the king, the aristocracy, and the temples. The lands of the people were the common property of the community and not of individuals. Every member of the community had a portion suitable to his position and requirements, which he was entitled to hold as long as he cultivated it. As the soil was very poor, no plough was used in ancient times, nor later by the Spaniards. Four-fifths of the land was suffered to lie fallow, and every five years the brushwood was cut down and burnt to manure the ground ready to receive the Indian corn. The work was chiefly done by men; the women planting the seed, husking the corn, and doing such light labours as were suitable to their weaker frames. The peasants were bound to till the land for their lord, to supply him with game, fish, flowers, salt, and other comforts, and to accompany him in battle.

The campaigns were short, sharp, and severe; for as commissariat was unknown, they were generally decided in one engagement, when no pity was shown the vanquished, no quarter given, and what could not be plundered was destroyed. This explains the number of ruined cities which were rebuilt and the new monuments erected after each war. Diaz remarks that the military dress of the warriors consisted of a breast-piece made of quilted cotton, which was completely arrow-proof, and was adopted by the conquerors in place of their heavy steel armour. Their head-dress was a casque ornamented with rich feathers, prominent amongst which were the quetzal. The rank and file wore no clothing except the maxtli in battle, but by painting their faces and bodies in grotesque patterns of brilliant colours, and covering their heads with raw cotton, they presented a fierce and gaudy appearance. Painting the face and body with red, black, and white was universal; on the return from an expedition the warrior’s paint was substituted for tattooing. “Stripes, serpents, animals, and birds,” says Cogolludo, “were the favourite devices for this kind of decoration, according to their military order; the warrior being entitled to a fresh hieroglyph after each notable feat of arms, an old veteran came to have his whole body covered with them.”

Owing to the warm climate the Maya dress was simple and scanty in the extreme. Men wore almost universally the maxtli (a long strip of cotton cloth, wound round the loins); children up to two years of age wore no clothes at all; the baby girls, like those in Java, had a string round their waist, from which depended a shell, the removal of which was looked upon as sinful. The dress of the nobles, both men and women, consisted of loose tunics and flowing mantles dyed in brilliant and variegated colours. The hair was worn short, cut in a fringe on the forehead; no beard was allowed, and the few hairs that made their appearance on the face were immediately extracted. Squinting was fashionable, and mothers ensured it for their daughters by suffering a tuft of hair to hang over their eyes. Their ears, nose, and lips were adorned with jewels. Cranial disfigurement seems to have been confined to the priests and nobles.109 According to Landa,110 four or five days after birth the child was laid with the face down on a bed of osiers, and the head compressed between two pieces of wood, one on the forehead and the other on the back, the boards being kept in place for several days until the desired cranial flattening was effected. This Spartan process was often attended with disastrous results. Tamenes practised this flattening on the forehead only, which was thus better adapted to the carrying of burdens. Disfigured Tamenes skulls were found by us at Teotihuacan, and on the pottery of Vera Cruz.

Eligio Ancona draws a mournful picture of the Mayas before the Conquest: “They were much oppressed by the king, the nobles, and in a special manner by the restless and ambitious caciques constantly at war with each other; the education of the youth of both sexes rested entirely with the priests, the clans of the people were ignorant and degraded; men were sold in the market or sacrificed on the altars; women excluded from society and the family circle,” etc. The nation prospered in spite of it all; the country was densely populated, while the monuments everywhere attest that the arts flourished.

What have the Spaniards done for them? Have they relieved their misery, dispelled their ignorance, minimised their vices? The peninsula counted millions before the Conquest; there are not a hundred thousand at the present day, and they are more sunk and wretched than at any time of their existence. For a nation is always found to have the religion and the Government best suited to its character or degree of civilisation; let extraneous institutions, whether civil or religious, however superior, be imposed upon them, they seem only to stultify and dishearten a people they were not intended for.

Meztizas are one of the chief attractions of Merida; they are looked upon as an inferior caste, but this they seem to accept with indifference, revenging themselves on society by their attractive ways, which it is not given to man to resist; for even those who are not beautiful, and they are few, have a winning grace, a peculiar charm all their own. To a certain extent this is due to their becoming costume, which consists in a loose tunic with short sleeves and square body, leaving arms and neck bare; this tunic, uipil, is tastefully embroidered at the neck, arms, and bottom with red, blue, or green devices; the under-skirt, fustan, is trimmed with rich lace, while their clustering black hair is set off by a silver arrow; they wear rings on their fingers, and chains of gold depend from their lovely necks, often constituting their whole dowry. Meztizos have a quarter at the outskirts of the town allotted to them, where they inhabit oblong thatched cottages decorated outside with a diamond pattern showing where the lines join. It is probable that these huts are identical with those of the Mayas of ancient days, while there is no doubt as to the decorations being like the mouldings of the old palaces. A hamac, one or two trunks to put their clothes in, a butaca or low leather arm-chair, compose the sole furniture of these poor dwellings. From a little distance, the Meztizo quarter looks like a cool, pleasant grove, for each hut stands on ground covering a quarter of an acre planted with ramon. Meridan ladies are never seen out of doors except at church, or during their evening drive. Church hours are unusually early here, beginning at three a.m., when all the bells of the town are set ringing, to awake, I suppose, a slumbering population.

Meridans are sociable and more conversant with the questions of the day than might be expected: two scholars, Eligio and Canon Ancona, have written both of the times preceding and those following the Conquest; while the rising generation of men is studious, intelligent, and manly; literary meetings, periodicals, reviews, concerts, theatres, and dances, keep the population pleasantly occupied. The civility I experienced with regard to my mission was very welcome and flattering to my self-respect, the good canon presenting me with an obsidian sceptre, a marvel of workmanship, now to be seen in the TrocadÉro. This people, unlike the Mexicans of the Uplands, are good men of business, and what trade or industry the country possesses is entirely in their own hands. They have the characteristics of a race in its manhood, enduring, self-possessed, patient, and industrious. The only falling off noticeable (due to the climate) is a diminution in their stature, and a disproportionately large female element. Never were their qualities better tested than during their social war, when they stood single-handed and succeeded, after years of hard fighting and sore distress, in recovering their municipal rights.111

Their soil may be poor, they may not have mineral wealth like their neighbours, but their thrift and industrious habits bring their own reward. It would be interesting to tell the long struggle of this gallant people to regain their independence; suffice it to say that the risings of the natives began in 1761, to break forth into a formidable insurrection in 1846, which has continued with hardly any interruption to the present day.

The Indian, whether his spirit is broken by long oppression, or from some other cause, seems to shrink and melt away at the approach of the white man, and to retire more and more from the beaten paths of civilisation.

The environs of Merida are interspersed with numerous haciendas; amongst these Ascorra is certainly one of the most picturesque. Three norias, or deep wells, give ample water for the requirements of the household, the irrigation of the garden, and the plantation.

The house, with its verandah festooned with creepers, its flower-beds, shrubs, and palms, is a charming picture of beauty and comfort; multitudes of ducks, mandarins, swans, and flamingoes people the ponds, while rills of water cool the air and add to the enjoyment of this lovely spot. Here I noticed for the first time a liana bearing a curious large flower of 1-1/2 feet long by 9 inches wide, with a filament of more than 1 foot 9 inches, making over 3 feet altogether. The colour is bluish green outside, while the inside is like a spring muslin, with red devices on a dazzling white ground, deepening down the calyx into a rich red velvet bordered with prone hairs. The bud resembles a web-footed animal swimming, hence its name flor de pato, “duck’s flower.” It may not improperly be compared to an immense aristochia. This liana was, I believe, imported from the Antilles; but nothing is perfect in this world, not even this marvellous flower, which astonished both Agassiz and myself, for no sooner is it fully blown than it stinks so abominably that its immediate removal becomes an imperative necessity.

To lay out this lovely garden, it was necessary to blast the rocks forming the crust of this country; and as the work is still going on, it enabled Mr. Agassiz to study its formation, which, like Florida, belongs to the recent Tertiary epoch. We tarried but one day at Ascorra, for we wished to visit the Tepich Hacienda, where the largest henequen factory in these parts is to be seen, worked by machinery, a great innovation for this country. The exports of this important industry are reckoned at £600 a year. The want of hands, however, precludes the possibility for the present of any scheme being mooted to give it greater extension. The country is not sufficiently favoured to tempt immigrants; unless it were Malay coolies, who would not suffer from the climate, and who, moreover, when crossed with Meztizas or Indian women, would produce a magnificent race.

We resume our seats for Acanceh, formerly a populous centre, as testified by three great pyramids still extant in the plaza, which supported ancient temples on their summits. In one of them which furnished the material for the builders of the station, fine sculptured blocks, like those employed at Uxmal for building purposes, were found; together with several funeral objects, fine obsidians, a magnificent sceptre, in my possession, and vases identical with those we unearthed at Teotihuacan. These affinities and resemblances between Yucatec vestiges and those of the Uplands, are of constant occurrence.