Chapter XXXVII: Ruins

Mexico is pre-eminently the land of mystery of the Western World. It contains abundant traces of a civilization far older than any other on this continent, and now that a key to the Maya inscriptions has been found, it is reasonable to expect that systematic exploration will result in reconstructing, at least partially, the history of a vanished race, and throw some light on the interesting question of its antiquity as well as of its origin and with it give us some knowledge of what is now the prehistoric period of North America. It is scarcely possible to overestimate the importance of Mexico’s movement to have the archæological treasures of the country properly investigated. A bill has been passed by Congress to empower American scientists to make excavations in this country, provided the objects found be divided equally between the two nations.

The ruins of Mitla are situated in the State of Oaxaca. They cover many acres of ground and are the best preserved ruins in Mexico. Where vandalism has not destroyed them, the walls are as perfect as when erected.

The buildings are very extensive, and are magnificent in the skill and art shown in their construction. They were so designed as to face a central square. They were not connected at the corners, but the centre court was projected by a wall of rock and mortar which filled the spaces. Each building had only three openings, all facing the court. There were no windows or other means of lighting the interior. The walls were made of a very tenacious adobe, veneered both within and without with finely cut stone laid in regular courses and interspersed with panels that are filled with what may be denominated herringbone work, in a profusion of patterns each cut to fill its particular place, whether a square or a scroll, and the joints are so perfect that only the thinnest kind of cement could be used, and, after centuries of earthquakes, these joints are so perfect as to call forth the admiration of all who behold them. The lintels over the doorways are each of one solid stone, and with all our modern appliances and engineering skill, it would be considered a great triumph to place them in their position.

Recently there have been some excavations made on the Island of Sacrificios by Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, a native of California and a member of many archæological societies. Until this interesting woman explored these parts no knowledge of prehistoric edifices existed. But her discoveries of pottery and the remains of a fallen city have added another ruin to those already explored in Mexico.

Among the ruins which have most frequently attracted the attention of explorers in Mexico is a monument which Baron von Humboldt designated the “Military Entrenchments of Xochicalco.” It is a few miles from Cuernavaca in the State of Morelos. The walls of this pyramid and the exterior are sculptured with what is supposed to be chronological hieroglyphics. These are in a state of decay but under the clinging moss one may distinguish serpents and warriors in oriental posture with adornments and plumes on the head. Animals of all kinds are distinguishable in these unique carvings. Several caves of great importance have been discovered, chief of these is the _Cueva de los Amates_.

The venerable pyramids of San Juan Teotihuacan are the most remarkable remnants of ancient American civilization. They were found by the Aztecs, according to their traditions, on their entrance into the country. The two principal pyramids were dedicated to Tonatiuh, the sun, and Mextli, the moon. They are not inferior to those of some of the kindred monuments of Egypt. They were divided into four stories, three of which are now discernible. The interiors are composed of clay mixed with pebbles, encrusted on the surface with the light, porous stone tetzontli, so abundant in the neighboring quarries. Over this was a thick coating of stucco, resembling in its reddish color that found in the ruins of Palenque. According to tradition, the pyramids are hollow, but hitherto the attempt to discover the cavity in that dedicated to the sun has been unsuccessful. These monuments were devoted to religious uses, and it would be only conformable to the practice of antiquity on the eastern hemisphere that they should have served for tombs as well as temples.

These ruins cover an area very nearly as large as that of the present city of Mexico and the streets are distinctly marked by the ruins of the houses.

It has been said that America is a land without traditions, without poetry, and without castles. Ignorance is the only excuse for those under this impression; for in Mexico are ancient ruins of buildings that were hoary with age when the famous castles of the Rhine and the comparatively young strongholds of England were in process of erection. Away back in the Middle Ages, when the romance of Europe is supposed to have originated, there was a civilization in Mexico that was even then historic. It is an ignorance that may, perhaps, be pardoned, since even our wisest archæologists and deepest scientific students of modern times cannot yet determine the age or origin of the most ancient of these landmarks.

No more interesting people for the modern student ever existed than the Aztecs, who seem to have been the equal in intelligence and advancement of any tribe in the world at the time. The Aztecs were most sincere in the practice of their religious rites. They believed in a supreme creator, invisible yet omnipresent, but requiring numerous assistants to perform his will, each of whom presided over some special natural phenomenon or phase of human existence. They had thirteen principal and several hundred inferior deities. The dread Huitzilopochtli, the war god of the Aztecs, was the patron divinity of the race, and myriads of human victims were sacrificed to him yearly in countless pyramidal temples throughout the realm. Quetzalcoatl, a more beneficent deity, was described by the natives as a tall white man, with a large forehead and flowing beard, who taught his favored people the art of government and the various arts of peace, forbade bloody sacrifices and permitted only those of bread, roses, and perfumes. This god of the air, as he was named, having incurred the displeasure of one of the other chief deities, was compelled to leave the country, but on quitting the shores of the gulf, he promised to return, and the Mexican always looked forward to the auspicious day.

The ruins of Uxmal, Chichen, Izamal, Mayapan, and Labna have been explored by Stephens and other archæologists. Those of Uxmal, the most remarkable, are situated about fifty miles southwest of Merida. They comprise numerous massive limestone structures built on broad terraced platforms, and all highly ornamented. The largest single building, called “the government house,” has a front of three hundred and twenty-two feet, and contains twenty-four rooms. The most beautiful structure is the “house of the nuns,” composed of four ranges enclosing a large courtyard, with eighty-eight apartments. The “house of the dwarf,” on a very steep mound eighty-eight feet high was a teocalli for human sacrifices. But little definite is known of the use of the temples and other vast edifices, which, from their size and profuse ornamentation in carved and colored figures and bas-relief, are, even in their ruined state, among the most wonderful architectural relics of the Western World.

Equally interesting are the ruins of Chichen-Itza, which are perhaps the most remarkable in Yucatán. They have the distinguishing feature common to all--the impossibility of ascertaining the purposes or uses of the extraordinary structures which still stand in testimony of the high degree of civilization of a people long since forgotten.

In Campeche, where many wild animals and enormous serpents abound, the ruins of Hôch-ob stand in a retreat of tropical verdure. Though small in proportion to those of Yucatán, the construction has been pronounced even superior by scientists who have braved great dangers to explore them.

Transcriber’s Notes:

1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected silently.

2. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have been retained as in the original.

3. Italics are shown as _xxx_.