CHICHEN-ITZA.

Chichen-Itza—El Castillo—General Survey—A Maya City—Aguilar—Historical Jottings—Montejo’s Expedition—Historians—Their Contradictions—Chichen Deserted—The Conqueror’s Retreat—The Nunnery—Impressions and Photographs—Terrestrial Haloes—An Unexpected Visitor—Electric Telegraph—Akab-Sib—Prison—Caracol—CenotÉs—Ruined Temples—The Temple of the Sacred CenotÉ—Tennis-Court—Monuments Described—Portico—Paintings—Bas-reliefs—New Analogy—The Tlalocs of Chichen and of the Uplands—Market-place—End of Our Labours—Col. Triconis.

The ruins of Chichen are two miles east of PistÉ, and were used as pasture for the cattle of the inhabitants, who at stated periods had the woods cut down, when the monuments were easily distinguished. It was a favourite place, to the prejudice of the palaces and the sculptures, which were made the butt by the visitors to shoot at; but since the destruction of PistÉ, nature again reigns supreme; every sign of the buildings has disappeared, and the jungle has become so impassable, that twenty men were required to open the old path.

This was not my first visit to Chichen, nevertheless my emotion was profound on beholding again the gigantic outline of El Castillo, which we had decided beforehand should be our headquarters, as from its elevated position it offered many strategical advantages, which would secure us against surprise. It was with considerable difficulty that we climbed the steps, which are steep and completely invaded by a vigorous vegetation; as for our great quantity of baggage, none but nimble, sure-footed natives could have succeeded in hauling it up on to the platform of the monument.

Our next thought was how to dispose of ourselves. The interior of El Castillo consists of a rectangular corridor, running along two-thirds of the edifice, pierced east, south, and west by three large apertures, and a gallery giving access to a great hall closed in on every side. We very stupidly gave up the latter to our men, with the idea that we should be cooler and have more air in the open gallery, not taking into consideration that at this altitude, whichever way the wind blew, it would sweep in upon us in fearful blasts, causing perpetual sneezing, coughing, and freezing the very life out of us.

The day was spent unpacking and classifying, and at suppertime we discovered that our cook, who was to have come from Valladolid, had failed us; food we had in tins, but no water, having left our cantaros at Citas, so that we were obliged to go without soup, coffee, or our evening tub.

It may seem unworthy to have been put out by such trivial details with the grand spectacle we had before us: a glorious moon had risen, sailing on her course with her brilliant retinue of scintillating stars, illuminating the vast wooded expanse, like a boundless, heaving ocean on a calm day; fragments of walls, mounds, eminences, shrouded in a sombre vegetation, were distinctly visible, which I pointed out one by one to my companions who, unlike myself, beheld them for the first time. El Castillo occupies nearly the centre of the ruins; below it to the east was the Market-place, and two small palaces which belonged to it; to the north, a stately but ruinous building, the cenotÉ and the temple attached; to the north-west, the famous Tennis-court; to the west and south-west, the Chichan-Chob, the Caracol and the other cenotÉ, the Nuns’ Palace, the Akab-Sib; and farther south, the hacienda, which has long been abandoned.

We were conversing in subdued tones of the mysterious past of this dead city, which mayhap our studies and explorations would bring to life again; all was hushed, and the death-like silence was only broken at regular intervals by the cry of our sentinels; and these very cries carried us back to the far-gone days, when the city was perhaps similarly guarded against a sudden inroad from her jealous neighbours.

The morning effects of light and shade were no less beautiful; the broad level wrapped in a transparent mist, pierced here and there by the pyramids and the wooded eminences, looked like a whitening sea interspersed with green islets; while the horizon was gilded with the brightness of the rising sun, who seemed to create, to raise suddenly into life all the objects touched with his golden wand; presently, like a mighty giant he tore asunder and burnt up the white vapour, and lit up the whole sky.

Meanwhile, our unpacking and our plans for the immediate future are almost completed; the cantaros have come, and as water is one of our great requirements, as the cenotÉ is at some distance, and there are ninety steps to our abode, ten men are told off for it; other ten are set to cleaning the place, while an equal number will open up the paths and clear the monuments we wish to explore.

Here it may be remarked that Yucatan had centres rather than cities; for the groups of dwellings and palaces we find resemble in no way our cities of the present day, although they are continually compared to Spanish places, notably Sevilla, by the conquerors. They consist everywhere of temples and palaces, either of the reigning prince or caciques, of public edifices scattered about, apparently at random, covering a vast area, with cemented roads and gardens intervening, while the avenues were occupied by the dwellings of dependents and slaves. This is borne out by Landa, who says: “Before the arrival of the Spaniards the aborigines lived in common, were ruled by severe laws, and the lands were cultivated and planted with useful trees. The centre of their towns was occupied by the temples and squares, round which were grouped the palaces of the lords and the priests, and so on in successive order to the outskirts, which were allotted to the lower classes. The wells, necessarily few, were found close to the dwellings of the nobles, who lived in close community for fear of their enemies, and not until the time of the Spaniards did they take to the woods.”121

These last words plainly indicate the sudden desertion of Indian cities at the coming of the Spaniards.

The word used by Landa is pueblo, “hamlet,” meaning, perhaps, town; at all events, it shows that even after the breaking up of the Maya empire (from great provinces) into small independent principalities, the people had preserved their ancient customs. Chichen-Itza, “the mouth of the wells,” from the two cenotÉs around which the town was built, is more recent than Izamal or AkÉ, but older than Uxmal, although it belongs, like the latter, to the “cut stone period.”

Our information respecting it is of the vaguest, and Aguilar and Montejo are equally silent on the subject, while E. Ancona is of opinion that the greater portion of the writings and documents treating of the conquest of Yucatan have been lost, or at any rate have escaped our investigations. Nevertheless, we find in a letter of Montejo to the King of Spain, April 13th, 1529, published by Brinton, of Philadelphia, from the unpublished documents and archives of the Indies, this remarkable passage: “This region is covered with great and beautiful cities and a dense population” (“ciudades muy frescas,” recent, new). Could he have expressed more clearly that the cities he had visited were lately built? Can these places have disappeared and left no trace? Who were the builders of the noble ruins that have filled with admiration every one who has visited them?

Unfortunately, whether we consult the traditions collected too late, or the Perez manuscript with its doubtful dates, we find no certain data to go upon; in the latter we read that the Toltecs travelled in 360 from Bacalar (Ziyancan) to Chichen; left it in 452 to return in 888, when they remained until 936; that a governor of Chichen was defeated in 1258 by a prince of Mayapan, etc.; in fact, a mere roll of obscure names without any meaning. If we would find an ascertained historical fact, we must turn to Cogolludo and Landa, who wrote from 1420 to 1460, where the Chichemec exodus is recorded, corresponding to the capture and destruction of Mayapan.

The cause of this emigration (or elopement, since there was a lady in the case) is thus told by Cogolludo: “A king of Chichen, called Canek (a generic name of the sovereigns of the Iztaes), fell desperately in love with a young princess, who, whether she did not return his affection, or whether she was obliged to obey a parent’s mandate, married a more powerful Yucatec cacique. The discarded lover, unable to bear his loss, moved by love and despair, armed his dependents and suddenly fell upon his successful rival; when the gaiety of the feast was exchanged for the din of war, and amidst the confusion the Chichen prince disappeared, carrying off the beautiful bride. But conscious that his power was less than his rival’s, and fearing his vengeance, he fled the country with most of his vassals.”122

Thus runs the legend; the historical fact is that the inhabitants of Chichen did emigrate, and did establish in the Peten lagoons, one hundred leagues to the south, a little principality with Tayasal for its capital, seen by Cortez in his journey to Honduras, and brought under the Spanish sway as late as 1696. That a whole population should abandon their native city, is an example of the facility with which these peoples moved from one place to another at a moment’s notice; nevertheless, we cannot accept the reasons given by Cogolludo for this migration, so little in accordance with the deep-seated love of the Mayas for their country. It is more likely that one or a series of calamities incident to a primitive race, such as war, pestilence, famine, more or less periodical among the aborigines, was the true cause of their migration.

One thing is clear, that Chichen was inhabited scarcely sixty years before the Conquest, when her monuments were entire; and it is equally clear that a city possessed of two considerable cenotÉs, so important in a country without water, was not left uninhabited, and that the vacuum left by the exodus was soon filled up, the city preserving its normal existence down to the time of the Spaniards. I am well aware that this kind of evidence will not suit people fond of the marvellous, yet the paucity of documents allows us only a tentative theory, but it will be our care to collect probabilities in such vast numbers, knitting them into a cumulative whole by a patient comparison of monuments, sculptures, bas-reliefs, customs, arms, and public ceremonies, so as to make the evidence absolute. Had Aguilar, who was wrecked and made prisoner on this coast, and lived for nearly eight years as factotum of a powerful cacique, been more observant, we might have a graphic and thorough description of the public and private life among the Mayas; but like the rest of his countrymen, his ideas were turned into quite a different channel, so much so that he has not even recorded the name of the place where later Cortez found him. Ancona tells us that the conquest of Yucatan was hastened by Aguilar, who, when in Mexico with Cortez, persuaded Montejo that “the region was fertile and covered with magnificent monuments”—words of paramount importance, since Aguilar could not have mentioned them in such terms, had they been in ruins or hid away in the woods. It may also be inferred from the incessant mutual warfare of the caciques, that the country had lost its unity and was split up into several provinces, which Herrera says were “eighteen in number covered with stately edifices.”123 According to the same authority Montejo had a return of the whole population taken, that he might apportion them among his followers, when every one received no less than two or three thousand.124 This, however, is obviously a gross exaggeration, for supposing the 400 soldiers of Montejo to have dwindled down to 300, the mean population of the district would have amounted to 750,000, which is quite impossible.125 At all events, the Spaniards occupied Chichen-Itza for two years, but nothing is known of their doings, for Montejo was no writer, nor did he, like Cortez, have chroniclers to record his deeds. At first the submission of the natives was complete; but after a time they rallied from the stupor into which the unparalleled success of the Spaniards had plunged them, and tiring of ministering to the insatiable wants of the Spanish marauders, who consumed in one day what would have kept in comfort a native family for a month, they disappeared, and the Spaniards were soon reduced to foraging in distant villages. This gave rise to daily skirmishes and a more active hatred on the part of the Indians against the foreigners, until at last exasperated, relying moreover on their numerical strength, they came in great numbers and laid siege to Chichen, during which the Spaniards lost 150 of their number, while the rest were all covered with wounds. In this strait, Montejo, despairing of holding the place much longer, determined to evacuate it; this it was not easy to do, for the whole country round was occupied by the Indians; but a pitch-dark night seemed to favour their flight: Montejo took the precaution of having the horses’ hoofs muffled, not to arouse the natives’ suspicions respecting their movements, while he left a dog tied to a pole beneath a piece of meat with a bell attached, which the animal rang every time he tried to reach the prey, thus keeping the Indians in the full belief that the enemy was entrenched behind the walls. Only on the morrow did the natives find out their mistake; they gave instant but unavailing pursuit, for the Spaniards had several hours’ start of them and were able to reach the territory of a friendly cacique, not far from their own ships.

To return to our excavations, “El Palacio de las Monjas,” or Nuns’ Palace, is one of the most important monuments at Chichen-Itza, and possesses a greater number of apartments than any other. Whether the name is due to this circumstance, or from its traditionary appellation, is uncertain; but we know from Mexican writers that it was the custom among the Aztecs to dedicate girls of noble birth to the service of the gods, on their attaining the age of twelve or thirteen. Some remained there until they were about to be married; some few took perpetual vows; others, on account of some vow they had made during sickness, or that the gods might send them a good husband, entered the Nunnery for one, two, three, or four years. They were called deaconesses or sisters; they lived under the superintendence of staid matrons of good character, and upon entering the convent, each girl had her hair cut short. They all slept in one dormitory, and were not allowed to undress before retiring to rest, that they might always be ready when the signal was given to rise. They occupied their time with weaving and embroidering the tapestry and ornamental work of the temple. They rose in the night to renew the incense in the braziers, a matron leading the procession; the maidens with eyes modestly cast down filed up to the altar, and returned in the same manner; they fasted often, and were required to sweep the temples and keep a constant supply of fresh flowers on the altars. They did penance for the slightest infringement of their religious rules by pricking their tongues and ears with the spines of the maguey plant. Death was the punishment of the Mexican maiden who violated her vow of chastity.126

It has been supposed, from the latter custom, that an order of Vestals, similar to those in Rome, existed in America, but the analogy is more apparent than real. According to Clavigero, priesthood was not binding for life among the Mayas. Of the different male and female religious orders, those dedicated to Quetzalcoatl deserve particular mention; their members had to submit to the strictest observances, but in compensation the people paid them almost divine honours, whilst their power and influence were boundless. Their chief or superior bore the name of Quetzalcoatl, and never walked abroad except to visit some royal personage.127 Thus the Nunnery may very well have been both a convent and a priestly abode. It is not a considerable pile, the faÇade measuring only some 29 feet by 19 feet 6 inches high, while its grotesque, heavy ornamentation reminds us in its details of a Chinese carving. The base up to the first cornice is occupied by eight large superimposed idols, and four of these figures are enclosed within two very salient cornices. The door is crowned with a medallion representing a cacique or priest with the usual head-dress of feathers, the inscription of the palace and stone spires, some of which have entirely disappeared, while the outline of the rest is much defaced. The whole length of the frieze of the north faÇade has a row of similar gigantic heads, bearing the general characteristics of the ornamentation observable throughout this structure. The Nunnery is typical of the Toltec calli, of which we gave a drawing in our chapter on Tula. The left wing is but 26 feet wide, by 13 feet deep, and about 32 feet high; it consists of three cornices, with two friezes intervening in which the same designs are repeated; the first two high-reliefs represent stooping figures, one having his body locked in a tortoise shell, while the centre and the sides of the frieze are decorated with grotesque figures like those of the main faÇade, which, with small variations, are the same throughout the peninsula. As we have seen in a former chapter, these monstrous masks have been called elephants by Waldeck and others, who wished to claim a fabulous antiquity for these monuments, but the types they most resemble are the Japanese or Chinese. Here, as at Palenque, the upper portion of the wall is ornamented so as to enhance the effect of height.

The main body of the Nunnery rests on a perpendicular pyramid, the platform of which is occupied by a solidly constructed building, intersected with small apartments having two niches facing each other, traversed by a corridor running from east to west of the pyramid. Over this is a smaller structure or third story. The first platform is reached by a steep, broad stairway 50 feet wide, which continues with additional steps to the second platform, where the apartments of the ruined building were but cells. The ornamentation of the first story differs from that of other buildings at Chichen; it consists of small sunk panels, having in the centre a large rose-like device, framed with exquisitely moulded stones. The lintels, likewise of stone, were covered with sculptures and inscriptions now fallen into decay; we could only collect three, and even these are much defaced. In this building are curious traces of masonry out of character with the general structure, showing the place to have been occupied at two different epochs.

This second construction, or rather restoration, was effected with the materials of the ancient building, as is seen in the fragments of sculptured stones which in the later construction are identical with those of the first, save that they were put up haphazard, so that the systematic ornamentation of the older structure is no longer reproduced, but in places a thick plaster coating was laid over the whole. The rebuilding may have been the work of the aborigines, since we know that Chichen was abandoned and reoccupied towards the middle of the fifteenth century; or, more likely still, the clumsy restoration may have been the work of the Spaniards during their sojourn in the city, when the Nunnery, from its elevated position, constituted a valuable fortress. Traces of their passage are observable in various other buildings, notably in the Castillo, where their natural fanaticism, coupled with their ignorance, caused them to see in the portraiture of the national and religious life of the Mayas, representations of the devil. This could not be suffered to remain, and as they were unable to demolish the temples and palaces in which they lived, they whitewashed Pg 335
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Pg 337the ornamentation, in order that their eyes might not be constantly offended by the subjects therein represented.

We try with small success to undo their savage work by means of daggers, brushes, and repeated washes, taking up much time, but in most cases the relief is lost to science, being much too defaced to allow us to take squeezes. The idea that the chiefs who erected these monuments were the authors of their defacement is too absurd for serious consideration.

The Castillo, or rather temple,128 is reared on a pyramid, facing north and south, and is the most interesting monument at Chichen; its four sides are occupied with staircases, facing the cardinal points. Our drawing shows the western faÇade. The base of the pyramid measures 175 feet; it consists of nine small esplanades, narrowing towards the top, supported by perpendicular walls, and terminates in a structure about 39 feet on one side by 21 feet high. The upper platform is 68 feet above the level of the plain, having a flight of ninety steps, 39 feet wide, leading up to it.

The name of El Castillo (the fortress), given to this building is appropriate enough; since throughout Central America, temples, in times of war, became real strongholds, on whose gigantic terraces the last desperate conflict was waged against an invading and victorious foe. The struggle might last some time, but was always attended with heavy loss, for each terrace had to be carried against men resolved to die. In the assault on the great temple in Mexico, the Spaniards were several times repulsed before they could get possession of the four esplanades of the pyramid; and when these were taken a fierce encounter followed on the upper platform, which only ended with the utter annihilation of the Aztecs, who were either slaughtered on the spot or hurled down the sides of the pyramid.

The only decoration of the western and southern sides consists in two beautiful cornices, while the interior of the long corridor shows no trace of ornamentation, save over the doors, where gigantic warriors are sculptured. The principal or northern faÇade must have been very striking when Landa saw it in 1560. Our photograph shows its dilapidated condition, but it can easily be reconstructed. It consists of a portico supported by two massive columns connected by wooden lintels, resembling Pg 339
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Pg 341that in the Nunnery; this portico gives access to a gallery which occupies the whole width of the building. A large room, which must have been the sanctuary, is entered by the only opening out of the gallery, while two pillars with square capitals supported a double corbel vault. Here the stairway was wider, and on each side, forming a balustrade, is a gigantic plumed serpent, whose head and protruding tongue run down the balustrade. All these columns, pillars, and wooden lintels, are covered with sculptures and bas-reliefs, the impressions of which kept us closely at work for several days.

As in Mexico, Palenque, and Tula, there were no doors properly so called at Chichen, and no traces of hinges are found; but a bamboo or wickerwork screen was suspended across the entrance, and secured at night with a bar. The inner rooms were divided off by hangings, which probably also served to cover the windows. We notice everywhere the small holes in the pillars into which the bars fitted.

Landa mentions the two serpents of the grand staircase, and that the corridor was probably used for burning perfumes: “Over the door is a kind of coat-of-arms sculptured in stone, which I could not read. Extending round this edifice is a series of solid constructions; the intervening distances are coated with cement in perfect condition, which looks quite new, so hard was the mortar in which it was laid.”129 These stucco layers are facsimiles of those at Tula and Teotihuacan, and characteristic of the Toltecs. In the three centuries that have elapsed since the bishop visited these monuments, vegetation has completely over-run them, but it was not so in his time.

It was in this temple that the striking analogy between the sculptures and the bas-reliefs of the plateaux with those at Chichen was first revealed to us; and since the dates of the Toltec emigrations are known, we can fix approximately the age of these monuments. We know, on the other hand, that the Aztec civilisation was but a reflex directly derived from the Toltecs, so that in some of their manifestations the two civilisations must resemble each other; from all which it may be seen that these monuments are both Toltec and recent. The balustrade on the grand staircase consists of a plumed serpent like those forming the outer wall of the temple in Mexico; an emblem of Quetzalcoatl, a deity common to the Toltecs, the Aztecs, and the Mayas. He is often found on Yucatec buildings. In Mexico, a serpent biting his tail was a favourite design with the Aztecs as a frieze to their houses, or over their entrances, and this we shall also observe at Uxmal. Further, the two columns of the temple faÇade furnish a still more striking example: the bases represent two serpents’ heads, whilst the shafts were ornamented with feathers, proving that the temple was dedicated to Cukulcan (Quetzalcoatl). These shafts are almost an exact reproduction of a Toltec column we unearthed at Tula, as seen in our cuts. The two columns are found three hundred leagues from each other, separated by an interval of several centuries; but if, as we firmly believe, the Tula column is Toltec, the other must be so too, for it could not be the result of mere accident. I have only compared the shafts, for the simple reason that the Tula column has no capital.

The bas-relief on the capital of the other YUCATEC CAPITAL AT CHICHEN-ITZA. YUCATEC CAPITAL AT CHICHEN-ITZA. consists of a standing figure with upraised arms supporting the entablature; he wears large bracelets, huge feathers form his headdress, his feet are covered with shoes fastened on the instep by a leather knot, a collar of precious stones is around his neck, a richly embroidered maxtli falls to the ground, and he wears the long flowing beard characteristic of Quetzalcoatl.

The two bas-reliefs given opposite are from pillars in the sanctuary. They represent figures in gala costumes, one of which is distinguished by a long beard, and all have the aquiline nose ascribed to the Toltecs. These pillars are occupied by three bas-reliefs, a large one in the centre and two smaller at each side of it. The central relief is a life-size figure of a priest, to judge from the total absence of arms about all the figures on these pillars. The caryatides on the smaller reliefs, notably the lower one, have double spirals over the mouth, presumably a symbol of wind and speech. We noticed in a former chapter this spiral about Quetzalcoatl on the outer relief of the altar in the Temple of the Cross at Palenque. All these caryatides represent DOOR-POSTS IN THE CASTILLO, CHICHEN-ITZA. DOOR-POSTS IN THE CASTILLO, CHICHEN-ITZA. long-bearded men, whose type is identical with those on the Tula relief, as may be seen by the most superficial comparison of the two. But is the spiral an emblem of speech? That it is so may be assumed from the upper caryatid, which only supporting the entablature has no spiral about the mouth, while the lower one not only bears aloft the central figure and the edifice, but it seems to carry, to create and breathe life into the whole, as the emblem of civilisation. At least so it struck us when we looked at these bearded figures which support the pillars, and saw the symbolical sign of quickening speech around the mouth of each, and considered that the Toltecs were the builders of these monuments, which they reared by their mighty word, in accordance with their pacific and civilising character, as described by Herrera and Landa. I am well aware that this assumption rests on no scientific basis, nevertheless I hope to bring so many data in its favour as to make it highly probable. The most remarkable feature about the relief on the capital is its striking resemblance to the caryatides in high relief found on the terrace and faÇade of Angcor-Thom’s palace, given by Francis Garnier;130 in both the same attitude and dress are observable; the latter consists of the patoi with the Cambodians, and the maxtli with the Toltecs; while the sculpture is primitive in both, the only difference being in the relief.

Our excursions in these impenetrable woods, our ascents and descents of the pyramid, the arduous work attending the taking of squeezes, made our life very harassing; it could have been more easily borne had we been able to sleep, but the scorching days were succeeded by icy-cold nights, which kept us awake, so that we rose in the morning more unrefreshed and more tired than when we turned in for the night.

Some compensation we had in our walks round the pyramid, beguiling the time we could not sleep with a cigar, contemplating the fine starry nights and sometimes the lunar rainbows so rarely seen; or we watched the broad shadow of the pyramid cast athwart the white haze shrouding the plain, fringed by an immense brilliant corona, which seemed to float in space. Never had I gazed on anything so curious and fantastic as this terrestrial halo; and if the ancient worshippers of Cukulcan ever witnessed the phenomenon, they must have deemed it little short of miraculous.

We were still without a cook; for Julian was so atrociously bad that I kept him at the squeezes, taking the cooking ourselves in turn, which wasted much valuable time. One evening, after everybody had gone to BAS-RELIEFS FROM PILLARS OF SANCTUARY OF CHICHEN-ITZA. BAS-RELIEFS FROM PILLARS OF SANCTUARY OF CHICHEN-ITZA. rest, I was sitting alone writing my impressions, my head full of the ruins and the people who inhabited them. I suddenly looked up, to see standing before me a lovely maiden more like an apparition than a mortal being. Was this the shade of a Maya princess who had returned to the scenes of her former life, conjured up by my imagination? Meanwhile the beauteous figure stood looking and smiling at me. I was amazed, speechless, hardly daring to break the spell, when a third figure stood out from the dark entrance, in whom I recognised the commandant of PistÉ.

“You are surprised at our visit,” he said.

“Rather, especially at this hour, and in such a night.”

“Time is of no account when you wish to serve a friend; I heard that you required a cook, I brought you mine, that’s all.”

“A cook!” I ejaculated to myself. What a fall! my Indian princess a cook! I looked at her again, and I could not believe that so much youth and beauty were put to such menial occupation. I wondered at the commandant’s self-abnegation. I was somewhat embarrassed, nevertheless, as to where I should put her. I called up Julian to prepare a bed for her, but as he was not easily roused, I had time to reflect that with a hundred men about me, El Castillo was no fitting place for a young girl. I was profuse in my acknowledgments to the commandant, observing that as nothing was ready, it would perhaps be better to put off her coming for a day or two, apologising for the trouble they had taken in coming through the woods and having to climb the pyramid in such a pitch-dark night. He knew what I meant. I slipped a coin in the girl’s hand, as she held a bottle towards me. “Drink,” said the officer; “it is Josepha’s present to you.” I did so, while Josepha merely put her lips to the bottle. We shook hands, and my two visitors disappeared in the night. The draught was Staventum, a strong spirit, which made me light-headed, and in a fit of somnambulism I wandered about, spouting poetry at the top of my voice, on the very edge of the pyramid, whence I was fortunately removed, without any further result than to awake the next day with a splitting headache. Our long-expected cook arrived at last, and she was so old, and such a fright, that it relieved me of all fear on her account.

Akab-Sib, “writing in the dark,” is a modern appellation, due to a bas-relief found on the lintel of an inner door at the extremity of the building. The cut we give is a copy of our photograph. We can give no explanation respecting this relief. The figure it represents is sitting before a vase full of indistinct objects, with outstretched arm and forefinger pointed, whether in question or command is uncertain—not much for the imagination to go upon. We will restrict ourselves to pointing out the analogy of the characters in the inscriptions with those at Palenque. The structure consists of eighteen rooms, reared on a plain pyramid, with a stairway to the east, without any ornamentation.

The Caracol is a round building, 22 feet in diameter, with a double inner corridor and a central pillar; it is a kind of tower, used probably for civil or religious ceremonies, for we have found this kind of structure at Cozumel and in all the great centres.

BAS-RELIEFS WITH INSCRIPTIONS, AKAB-SIB PALACE AT CHICHEN-ITZA.