Chapter VIII (2)

These ruins are both beneath and upon a natural hill of oval form measuring about two miles in circumference and from three hundred to four hundred feet in height, authorities differing considerably on this point. At the foot of the hill on its northern side, are the entrances of two tunnels, one of which extends to a point eighty-two feet from the edge of the hill, where it terminates abruptly. The second tunnel penetrates the solid limestone of the hill in the form of a square gallery nine and a half feet high and broad, extending inward for several hundred feet and branching into several auxiliary galleries, which terminate in some instances abruptly. The floors are paved with small blocks of stone, to a thickness of a foot and a half; masonry in some places support the sides, and all the interior surface shows traces of red paint upon the polished cement coating with which it was finished. The principal gallery, after turning a right angle toward the left and extending some hundred feet in a straight line, enlarges into a subterranean chamber eighty feet long by about sixty feet in width. Two circular columns of living rock were left in making the excavation as supports for the roof. The most singular feature connected with the chamber is the perfectly circular excavation found at its south-east angle, or that corner of the room diagonally opposite to the corner at which the passage-way enters it. This circular apartment is only about six feet in diameter, and while it is no deeper than the adjoining chamber, rises above its ceiling in a dome-shaped roof, lined with stones hewn in curved blocks. The curve of this dome-like ceiling corresponds with that of a well-proportioned Gothic arch. At the apex of the dome, a round hole ten inches in diameter extends vertically upwards; some suppose to the pyramid above, but a moment’s calculation suffices to show that in view of the considerable diameter of the hill and the comparatively short distance from the chamber to its exterior slope, such is impossible. The exterior of the hill presents a most wonderful display of masonry. Its entire circuit is compassed with five terraces of well-laid stone and mortar, faced with perpendicular walls. Each terrace of masonry is about seventy feet in height, and is constructed in an irregular line, forming sharp angles, like the bastions of a fortress; each wall supporting the terraces rises above the level of their respective platforms in parapets, evidently for defence. The pavements of the platforms are of stone and inclined slightly toward the south-west, with a view to draining off the rainfall. Dupaix is the only explorer who mentions the means of ascent, which he describes as a roadway eight feet wide, leading to the summit. The summit platform measures 285 by 328 feet, and is surrounded by a wall which is perpendicular on the inside, and on the outside conforms to the slope of the terrace wall of which it is an extension. This parapet, built of stones without mortar, rises five and a half feet above the plaza, and is two feet and nine inches thick, we presume at its top, since the outer slope of the terrace would make a difference between the top and bottom. Near the centre of the plaza stands the base of a pyramid which presents some remarkable architectural contrasts from anything we have thus far described. Its sides face the cardinal points, and measure sixty-five feet from east to west, and fifty-eight feet from north to south. One of the façades, the northern, according to Nebel, and the western, according to the Mexican Government Survey in the _Revista_, is cut in two in the centre by an opening twenty feet wide, where it is supposed a stairway formerly led to the superstructure. The cut from Nebel, and reproduced by Mr. Bancroft, shows the façade to the left of the opening, as the observer faces the pyramid.

The great granite or porphyritic stones which constitute the facing of the pyramid, some of them eleven feet in length and three feet in height, must have been brought to the summit of the hill at the expense of great labor, especially since they must have been transported from a considerable distance, no such material being found within a circuit of many leagues. The stones were laid without mortar, and so nicely that it is said the joints are scarcely perceptible. Fragments of a ruined superstructure surmount the pyramid. The foundation walls of the second story were two feet and three inches from the edge of the cornice below it, except on the west where the space was four and a half feet wide. In 1755, so say the inhabitants of the vicinity, the structure was yet complete, having five receding stories like the first, and probably reaching a height of sixty-five feet. On its crowning summit, on the eastern side, stood a large throne-like block of stone, ornamented with elaborate sculptures. The second story foundations indicate the position of three doorways at the head of the grand stairway, and the account in the _Revista_ describes an apartment twenty-two feet square observable at the summit of the first story, but now filled with fragments of stone. Mr. Bancroft suggests that from this apartment there may have been some means of communication with the subterranean galleries already described. The colossal sculpture on the face of the pyramid will receive our attention on a future page.[540]

The general description given above, together with the reported character of the superstructure of this magnificent monument, calls to mind the main features of the great teocalli dedicated to the bloody god Huitzilopochtli in the Aztec capital called Tenochtitlan or Mexico. This blood-stained temple upon whose altars smoked the hearts of countless human victims, is supposed to have occupied the site of the cathedral fronting the Plaza Mayor of the modern city of Mexico. Not a vestige of that terraced pyramid has survived the destructive hand of fanaticism and the transforming work of man and nature which have been going on ever since upon the old site of the capital of the Montezumas. It is said to have been built in five stories, with flights of steps affording access to the summit; but each flight was so constructed with reference to the platform at its top, as to require almost a complete circuit of the building before the next flight could be reached. It was necessary, therefore, in order to reach the summit platform, to pass four times around the pyramid. It is supposed that this was intended to display to better advantage the solemn processions of the priests as their long train mounted gradually the sides of the edifice. The specialist is already familiar with the descriptions by Bernal Diaz, whose particular extravagance of statement renders his work altogether unreliable. Also with the accounts by Torquemada, Gomera, Cortez and Clavigero. The reader has no doubt acquainted himself with the main facts in the writings of the graceful and imaginative Prescott, whose seeming romance, _The History of the Conquest of Mexico_, has been proven by recent and reliable investigation to have approached much nearer to fact than to fiction. Mr. Tylor, after careful exploration, has expressed in his “Anahuac” his surprise and satisfaction at what he considers to be the proof of Mr. Prescott’s general correctness of statement as to the extent of the Aztec capital and the probable character of its edifices.[541]

For a description of the palaces of Mexico and Chapultepec, the museums, mansions of the nobles, the pavements and aqueducts of that buried city, we refer the reader who has not access to the sources, to the admirable account by Prescott, especially since it more properly belongs to the province of history (now that all traces of them have disappeared) than to that of archæology.[542]

Of many interesting localities where architectural remains still exist, we select one more in the Central region, to illustrate our subject. The ancient religious city of the early Nahuas, Teotihuacan, with its famous pyramids—the traditional origin of which we have already noted[543]—deserves our attention. The city of the gods has had many describers, from the illustrious Humboldt to the observant and philosophical Mr. Tylor. The most complete description, however, is that given in the report of a scientific commission appointed by the Mexican government in 1864, containing accurate plans and views.[544] Sr. Antonio Garcia y Cubas, a member of the commission, subsequently published a most interesting memoir on the pyramids of Teotihuacan, entitled _Ensayo de un Estudio comparativo entre las Pirámides Egípcias y Mexicanas_ (Mexico, 1871). The analogies between Teotihuacan and Egyptian pyramids receive the greater share of attention, though some valuable facts not mentioned in the report of the commission are here made known. Mr. Bancroft has reproduced the main features of the report of the Mexican Commission and compared it with previous researches, thus presenting the reader with probably the best critical version of the exploration of Teotihuacan, to be found in any language.[545] The cut reduced from Almaraz for Mr. Bancroft’s work shows the plan of the Teotihuacan monuments on a scale of about twenty-five hundred and fifty feet to an inch.

The pyramid marked A in the plan is known as Metztli Itzacual, which is interpreted “House of the Moon.” It measures 156 metres or 512 feet from east to west by 130 metres or 426 feet from north to south. According to Almarez, its height is 42 metres or 137 feet, but Sr. Garcia y Cubas, who took his measurement on the opposite side of the pyramid from that measured by Almaraz, says that it is 46 metres or 150 feet high. The summit platform, according to Garcia y Cubas, is six metres or nineteen and a half feet square; quite a discrepancy is here observable between the estimated area given by Beaufoy and copied by Mr. Bancroft as thirty-six by sixty feet, and this actual measurement. The sides of the pyramid nearly face the cardinal points. The eastern slope is 31° 30′, while the southern is somewhat steeper, being 36°. The slope on the east seems to have been unbroken except by a zigzag roadway, leading to the summit. The remaining sides are plainly marked by the remains of three terraces, one of which is still about three feet wide. Humboldt and Tylor both speak of remains of stairways of which no mention is made by the Government Commission. Most observers have described the pyramids as faced with hewn stone, but the commissioners on the contrary found them coated with successive layers of different conglomerates as follows: “1st, small stones from eight to twelve inches in diameter, with mud forming a layer of about thirty-two inches; 2d, fragments of volcanic tufa, as large as a man’s fist, also in mud, to the thickness of sixteen inches; 3d, small grains of tetzontli (a porous volcanic rock) of the size of peas, with mud, twenty-eight inches thick; 4th, a very thin and smooth coat of pure lime mortar. These layers are repeated in the same order nine times and are parallel to the slopes of the pyramid, which would make the thickness of the superficial facing about sixty feet.”[546] On the southern slope, sixty-nine feet from the base, according to Almarez, a gallery large enough to admit a man crawling on hands and knees, extends inward on an incline, a distance of twenty-five feet, and terminates in two square wells or chambers, each five feet square, and one of them fifteen feet deep. Mr. Löwenstern, according to Mr. Bancroft, states that “the gallery is a hundred and fifty-seven feet long, increasing in height to over six feet and a half, as it penetrates the pyramid; that the well is over six feet square, extending apparently down to the base and up to the summit; and that other cross galleries are blocked up by débris!” It is probable that these remarkable galleries never existed, except in Mr. Löwenstern’s imagination, since Sr. Almarez in the report of the official survey pronounces the tunnel already described as simply excavations by treasure-hunters. The pyramid B of the plan, situated five hundred and seventy-five yards south of the House of the Moon, is called Tonatiuh Itzacual, or “House of the Sun.” This pyramid requires no description, except to give its dimensions, since in all other respects it is precisely similar to the House of the Moon. The House of the Sun, according to the measurement of Sr. Garcia y Cubas, which is the most recent, is at the base 232 metres or 761 feet by 220 metres or 722 feet. Its height is 66 metres or 216 feet, while the summit platform measures 18 by 32 metres or 59 by 105 feet. Both this pyramid and the preceding have each a small mound on one of their sides near their base. In the latter instance this mound seems connected with an avenue of mounds just west of it. An embankment marked _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, one hundred and thirty feet wide on the summit and twenty feet high, widening out at the extremities into platforms, extends around three sides of the “House of the Sun.” Across the Rio San Juan, and at the distance of twelve hundred and fifty yards southward of the “House of the Sun,” stands the Texcalpa or “citadel.” This is a quadrangular enclosure, measuring on its exterior twelve hundred and forty-six by thirteen hundred and thirty-eight feet. The embankments are of enormous strength, being two hundred and sixty-two feet thick by thirty-three feet high, except on the western side, which is but sixteen feet high. The enclosure is divided unequally by a wall as strong as that upon the sides. On the centre of this wall stands a pyramid ninety-two feet high. At its base are two small mounds besides one in the western enclosure, while fourteen others averaging twenty feet in height are arranged with regularity upon the summit of the enclosing wall. An avenue two hundred and fifty feet wide formed by mounds and measuring two hundred and fifty rods in length, extends from a point south of the “House of the Moon” to the river, as is shown from C to D, in the plan. The avenue is cut up into compartments by six cross embankments, a rather strange feature for which no explanation has been afforded. These mounds are mostly conical, built of fragments of stone and clay, and some of them reach a height of thirty feet. The native traditions call it Micaotli, which may indicate that they were designed for the purposes of sepulture. Almaraz, who excavated one of the multitude of mounds or _tlalteles_ in the vicinity, found four walls meeting at right angles, though a little inclined and forming a small square. Connected with this were steps, at the top of which four other walls enclosed a little room, supposed to have been a tomb. The natives describe the discovery of a stone box in one of the mounds containing a skull, with about such a collection of trinkets as is commonly met with in the stone graves of Tennessee. Mayer describes a massive stone column, ten feet long and four feet square, cut from a single block. This resembles the elaborate capitol of a column resting on a base with scarcely a shaft intervening. It is called the fainting stone by the natives, who believe that whoever sits on it is sure to faint instantly.

One additional group of ruins, as yet unclassified with any of the types we have described, merits our attention. This group is known as Los Edificios of Quemada, situated in southern Zacatecas north of the Central plateau and probably the home of the Chichimecs.[547] Mr. Bancroft has attempted to reconstruct the unsatisfactory accounts of the several explorers of Quemada, but with little success. We therefore decline adding another comparative failure to the list of literature on these ruins. Some general observations, however, may not be out of place. The Cerro de los Edificios is a natural eminence about half a mile long and between one hundred and two hundred yards wide, except at its southern extremity where it increases to a width of five hundred yards. The authorities differ as to its height, one saying from two to three hundred feet, and another eight to nine hundred feet above the plain. Ancient roads well paved radiate in various directions from the hill, some of them extending a distance of five or six miles. The northern brow of the hill, where the descent is not so precipitous as at the other points, is guarded by a stone wall, as are all other points where the precipitous sides do not offer a sufficient barrier to an intruder from without. The surface of the hill is quite uneven, and these irregularities have been formed into terraces supported by stone walls. Foundations have thus been secured for a multitude of structures, some of them perfectly pyramidal and others consisting of quadrangular enclosures or squares, terraced and having steps descending to the court within, where pyramidal structures of stone are found. On the eastern terrace of the Cerro, a round pillar, eighteen feet high and nineteen feet in circumference, stands in proximity to a wall of as great height as the pillar. Traces of nine similar pillars are visible, and the probability is that they formed part of a balcony or perhaps a portico. Adjoining this wall is an enclosure measuring 138 by 100 feet, in which are eleven pillars in line, each seventeen feet in circumference and as high as an adjacent wall, namely eighteen feet. The distance from the wall is twenty-three feet, and the presumption is that the pillars supported a roof. There are no doorways, properly so called, since the doorways are large quadrangular openings extending to the full height of the halls. No windows were discovered anywhere. The material is gray porphyry from hills across an intervening valley, and the mortar is reddish clay, mixed with straw, and is of poor quality. Sculpture, hieroglyphics, pottery, human remains, idols, arrow-heads, and obsidian fragments are totally wanting, thus presenting a strange contrast with all other Mexican ruins. Nevertheless, the massiveness of the fortifications, the height and great thickness of the walls, none of which are less than eight feet thick and in one instance over twenty, the extensive system of paved roads, besides great elevated stone causeways running through the city, the size of the enclosed squares, one of which contains six acres, all indicate that this might have been the capital city of a powerful people, a people whose architectural affinities with all others that we are acquainted with are very few, and whose contrasts are numerous. Certainly the type and execution of the masonry, though massive, is more primitive than found elsewhere in Mexico. We do not mean that it is more ancient, for such cannot be true, but inferior to that in other parts of Mexico and the Central American region. The arch of overlapping stones is entirely wanting, and but for the round columns without either base or capitol, the steps toward advancement in the art would only be those common to that generally vigorous and warlike period which, in the history of every people, has preceded a higher civilization. Mr. Bancroft has published Burghes’ plan of Quemada but to little purpose, since the descriptive matter available does not contain a reference to more than one-fourth of the many structures indicated.

In the course of the chapter, we have indicated the principal resemblances and contrasts between the various styles treated. The pyramidal structure we have found employed by both Mayas and Nahuas, with certain modifications and with such resemblances as would seem to indicate that both peoples had been originally, or at an early day, near neighbors, and that the younger people, at least the more recent in their occupancy of Mexico and Central America, the Nahuas, may have copied the pyramid in its perfected form from the Mayas. We have noted some difference between the ancient and modern Maya styles. In the ancient or Chiapan, the irregularities in the face of the pyramid caused by constructing it of tiers of rectangular stones were filled with mortar, and an even surface produced. In the modern or Yucatec style the blocks of stone-facing are bevelled to the angle of the slope. Furthermore, in some instances the corners of the pyramids were rounded. At Palenque the superstructures were of only one story, while Yucatec structures were often formed of three receding stories. Of the Copan ruins little can be said intelligently, except that the pyramid combined with the terrace is all-pervading, but still is not unlike the Palenque style in its main features. The Nahua architecture offers a great variety of styles, but at the same time the pyramidal structure is the fundamental feature of all kinds of structures. Mitla offers an exception to this rule, but there are doubts as to whether Mitla may be classified as a Nahua ruin at all. The early writers devoted much of their attention to seeming old world resemblances in ancient American architecture, but their speculations in most cases were puerile and trivial. Mr. Stephens, with the experience which the careful study and observation of old world monuments afforded him, strongly denies that any such analogies are to be found among the Maya groups.[548] M. Viollet-le-Duc considers the monuments of Mexico, especially those of Maya origin, to have been influenced by white and yellow races, the former of the Aryan from the north-east, the latter the Turanian from the north-west. He seems to find some analogy between ancient Japanese temples (and quotes a description from Charlevoix, _Histoire du Japan_, ed. 1754, tom. i, chap. x, p. 171) and those of ancient America. He thinks that the style of architecture at Uxmal indicates clearly that the first structures were of wood and resembled the style prevalent in Japan. However, the wooden structures more properly originated with the white races, while the use of stucco is characteristic of the Turanian or Yellow races of the north-west. He thinks it certain that Mitla and Palenque were influenced by a white race.[549] Señor Garcia y Cubas has attempted to prove in a careful argument that the pyramids of Teotihuacan were built for the same purposes as were the pyramids of Egypt. He considers the analogy established in eleven particulars, as follows: the site chosen is the same; the structures are oriented with slight variation, the line through the centres of the pyramids is in the astronomical meridian; the construction in grades and steps is the same; in both cases the larger pyramids are dedicated to the sun; the Nile has a “valley of the dead,” as in Teotihuacan there is a “street of the dead;” some monuments of each class have the nature of fortifications; the smaller mounds are of the same nature and for the same purpose; both pyramids have a small mound joined to one of their faces; the openings discovered in the Pyramid of the Moon are also found in some Egyptian pyramids; the interior arrangement of the pyramids is analogous.[550] Mr. Delafield by a less systematic argument advocates the same theory. However, his capability to discern analogies is not confined to a single structure, since in the pyramid of Cholula and the teocalli of the city of Mexico he finds a counterpart to the temple of Belus at Babylon, as described by Herodotus. The walls around the hill at Xochicalco explain the use of similar embankments at Circleville and Marietta in Ohio, while the order of the apartments at Mitla bears a striking analogy to the arrangements of apartments in the temples of upper Egypt. This and much more Mr. Delafield has been able to discover, but unfortunately only with certainty to his own mind.[551] Löwenstern is equally certain that the American monuments were not constructed by a nation analogous to that which built the pyramids of Egypt.[552] Ranking, on the other hand, finds that Teotihuacan was named after the illustrious dead buried beneath its pyramids, as was the custom in Egypt, but in this instance the name is analogous to that of Thiautcan or Khan, the name of the grand Khan of the Monguls and Tartars who occupied the throne of China at the time of Sir John Mandeville’s visit to Pekin in the fourteenth century; and as at Teotihuacan and among the Monguls the sun and moon were worshipped, so, according to Ranking, those American monuments are attributable to Mongul architects.[553] It would be easy for us to continue the citation of these fancied analogies, but it is no doubt already apparent to the reader that they are generally of too trivial a character to serve the ends of science, and we therefore dismiss their further consideration.[554]

Fig. 1.]

_Sculpture and Hieroglyphics._—The mound sculpture, as has been observed in the cuts illustrating a previous chapter of this work, though comparatively rude in most cases, still, in a few instances, is quite remarkable as affording true representations of animals and possibly of the human face. Considerable progress in the art of ornamentation in terra-cotta is displayed on many of the vases and burial urns exhumed from the mounds. Many of the lines, figures and borders traced in relief and sometimes in taglio on those vessels indicate not only that a sense of the beautiful was present, but that it had been cultivated to a considerable extent. The same remarks apply to the pottery of the Pueblos and Cliff-dwellers. At Palenque, however, the student of art meets with no mean attempts at delineating the human form—in fact, the success obtained in this difficult field alone characterized the work of the Palenque artists. It is presumed that nearly all of the piers separating the doorways in the eastern wall of the palace were ornamented with stucco bas-reliefs. Two out of six of the best preserved are shown in the following cuts. The most remarkable feature of the first (Fig. 1, reduced from Waldeck for Bancroft’s work) is the cranial type, deformed to a shocking degree, probably by artificial pressure, so generally employed by the ancient American races. Possibly it is but a caricature.

Fig. 2.]

Fig. 2 (a photographic reduction from Waldeck) presents us with a subject which has called forth no little discussion. The “elephant’s trunk” which protrudes from the elaborate head-dress of the priest has been thought to indicate an Asiatic influence.[555] We have already referred to the frequent occurrence of the “elephant trunk” ornament in Yucatan. The hieroglyphic signs at the top and on the faces of these reliefs no doubt hold locked up in their mysterious symbols the history of the scene.

In all of these reliefs the flattened cranial type is present, and no doubt represents the ideal of beauty among those ancient people. The stuccoes appear to have been moulded upon the undercoating of cement after it had become hard. The brush of the painter was then employed in its final embellishment.[556] Adjacent to the eastern stairway leading downward into the main court of the palace are great stone slabs, forming a surface on each side of the steps fifty feet long by eleven feet high. Waldeck, Stephens and Bancroft furnish views of gigantic human figures sculptured in low relief upon these surfaces. Both the attitudes and expressions portrayed indicate that the groups represented are either captives or possibly victims for sacrifice.[557] On the opposite side of the court, and on the stone face of the balustrade of a stairway, two figures, male and female, are sculptured, which, according to Waldeck, are of the Caucasian type. The same artist has shown the beautiful grecques which adorn the panels of the cornice.[558] Waldeck and Bancroft have figured a remarkable stone tablet of elliptical form, in which a princely personage is represented as sitting cross-legged on a chair formed of a double-headed animal, pronounced by Stephens to resemble a leopard. Catherword’s plate, in Morelet’s _Travels_, shows an ornament suspended from the neck of the chief figure resembling an effigy of the sun, while in Waldeck’s drawing the Egyptian Tau is graven upon the ornament.[559] The accompanying cut shows Waldeck’s drawing (employed by Mr. Bancroft).

Four hundred yards south of the palace stands the ruins of a pyramid and temple, which, at the time of Dupaix’s and of Waldeck’s visits were in a good state of preservation, but quite dilapidated when seen by Charnay. The temple faces the east, and on the western wall of its inner apartment, itself facing the eastern light, is found (or rather was, for it has now entirely disappeared) the most beautiful specimen of stucco relief in America. M. Waldeck, with the critical insight of an experienced artist, declares it “worthy to be compared to the most beautiful works of the age of Augustus.” He therefore named the temple the Beau Relief. The above cut is a reduction from Waldeck’s drawing used in Mr. Bancroft’s work, and is very accurate. However, the peculiar beauty of Waldeck’s drawing is such that it must be seen in order to be fully appreciated.

It is scarcely necessary for us to call the reader’s attention to the details of this picture, in which correctness of design and graceful outlines predominate to such an extent that we may safely pronounce the beautiful youth who sits enthroned on his elaborate and artistic throne, the American Apollo. In the original drawing the grace of the arms and wrists is truly matchless, and the chest muscles are displayed in the most perfect manner. The embroidered girdle and folded drapery of the figure, as well as the drapery around the leopards’ necks, are arranged with taste. The head-dress is not unlike a Roman helmet in form, with the addition of numerous plumes. The sandals of the feet are secured by a cord and rosette, while ornaments on the animals’ ankles seem secured by leather straps. The engraving does not do justice to the face-like ornament suspended by the string of pearls upon the youth’s breast. In the original drawing it is quite beautiful, and of a female cast.[560]

The next subject of interest to the student of sculpture is found in the Temple of the Cross, in the inmost sanctuary of all, and is known as the Tablet of the Cross. Three stones cover most of the surface of the rear wall of the sanctum sanctorum, and present an area six feet four inches high by ten feet eight inches wide. The central of the three stones bears the celebrated sculpture of the cross which has excited so much interest and comment, to say nothing of speculation as to its origin. The cut is a photographic reduction from Waldeck’s drawing. A priest and priestess appear to be offering an infant to an ugly bird which stands perched upon the cross. The infant’s face is completely hid by a fantastic mask or cap. The expression of pain on the faces of the officiating personages is very marked. The symmetry of proportion employed in the sculpture is conceded by all observers. The two lateral stones (the left-hand one being shown in our cut) are covered with hieroglyphics, which begin at the left-hand upper corner with a large capital letter. Some one had removed the central stone from its position prior to Waldeck’s visit, and conveyed it to a point in the forest not far distant. Stephens also found it in the same locality. By referring to the hieroglyphic tablet at the left of the cross it will be observed that just below the large initial letter or word is a threefold hieroglyphic, while seven others in the same column are double. This would indicate, we should think, that the characters were read from the top downwards, though it is possible that the lines were read horizontally, each line beginning with a capital as in poetry.[561]

On either side of the doorway opening to the inner sanctuary of the Cross, were originally two male figures sculptured in low-relief on stone; one of them, which appears to represent an aged royal person, is beautifully clad in a leopard’s skin, while the opposite figure, designed probably to represent youthful manhood, is arrayed in what may be an elaborate military dress and plumed crest of magnificent character. He wears what appears to be a cuirass about his shoulders and chest. These tablets were removed to the village of Santo Domingo years ago and set up in a modern house, where they were offered to M. Waldeck on the sole condition that he should marry one of the proprietresses, though he at the time was more than sixty-four years of age. Stephens could have obtained them by purchasing the house in which they had been placed, but did not.[562] On the slope of the pyramid of the Cross, M. Waldeck found two statues just alike, one of which was unfortunately broken; the other, subsequently sketched by Catherwood, is shown in the cut, a photographic reduction from Waldeck. These statues were ten and a half feet high, though two and a half feet of their length, not shown in the cut, formed a tenon by which they were embedded in the floor of the pyramidal surface, where Waldeck supposes they stood supporting a platform about twenty feet square, in front of the central doorway. These are the only statues ever found at Palenque; but it is doubted whether they can be technically called statues, since the back is of rough stone, and unsculptured. They probably rested against a wall and served as supports for an upper roof or floor, as indicated by Waldeck. The head-dress has been pronounced Egyptian by all who have seen it.[563]

In the temple of the Sun, in a position precisely corresponding to that occupied by the tablet of the cross, stands a somewhat similar tablet cut in low-relief on three slabs covering an area of eight by nine feet. The figure of the cross in this instance is displaced by a hideous face or mask supposed to represent the sun, supported by a framework resting on the shoulders of crouching men. The priest and priestess occupy the same positions as occupied by them in the tablet of the cross. Each is in the act of presenting a child with masked face to the sun, and each is standing upon the back of a kneeling slave. The lateral tablets are covered with columns or rows of hieroglyphics, as in the tablet of the cross.[564] The stuccoed roofs and piers of both the temples—Cross and Sun—may be truly pronounced works of art of a high order. On the former, Stephens observed busts and heads approaching the Greek models in symmetry of contour and perfectness of proportion. M. Waldeck has preserved in his magnificent drawings some of these figures, which are certainly sufficient to prove beyond controversy, that the ancient Palenqueans were a cultivated and artistic people. In passing to Uxmal the transition is from delineations of the human figure to the elegant and superabundant exterior ornamentation of edifices, and from stucco to stone as the material employed. The human figure, however, when it is represented, is in statuary of a high order. The artists of Uxmal did not improve upon the Palenque models so much in the design as in the execution of their subjects. Uxmal statuary approximates more closely to what properly may be called statuary, being cut more nearly “in the round” and having less unfinished back surface than the Palenque statue. The elegant square panels of grecques and frets which compose the cornice of the Casa del Gobernador, delineated in the works of Stephens, Baldwin and Bancroft, are a marvel of beauty, which must excite the admiration of the most indifferent student of this subject. The ornamentation of this great cornice, equal to one-third the height of the building, is cut on blocks of stone and inserted in the wall with the utmost precision, so that every line matches, and the graceful arabesques and bas-reliefs, which sometimes cover several blocks with a single figure, are unbroken by apparent joints. The grandest specimens of American ornamental sculpture are, however, to be seen on the inner fronts of the four buildings of the Casa de Monjas, a plan of which is given on page 351 of this work. It will be remembered that these fronts face the court around which the buildings were constructed. The court front of the eastern building is probably one of the most tasteful and interesting specimens of sculpture to be met with in America.[565] M. Waldeck considers that it presents an appearance of grandeur of which it would be difficult to give an idea, while Stephens considers its chasteness of design a great relief from the gorgeous masses of other façades. The cornice over the central doorway and the corners of the eastern court façade are ornamented with ugly masks and “elephant trunks” protruding from them, as in the Governor’s home.[566] If the preceding façade is the most generally admired of those at Uxmal, “the most magnificent and beautiful front in America” is that of the Serpent Temple, or western court façade of the Nunnery, as is shown in the accompanying engraving, which is a photographic reduction of Waldeck’s drawing employed in Mr. Bancroft’s work.

The marked feature of the sculpture is the formation of square panels by the intertwined bodies of two huge stone serpents with monster heads, surmounted by plumes and enclosing between the jaws of each a human face. A head and tail as shown above occupy opposite extremes of the front. This may be a representation of the plumed serpent of the Central American mythology. The stone lattice-work (a feature of Uxmal sculpture) underlying the serpents and covering the panels formed by their folds, is more complicated and beautiful than any other in America. At regular intervals large grecques or arabesques, with their connecting bars lengthened to the width of the entire sculptured portion of the façade, are distributed. Several panels are ornamented with life-sized human figures, while each panel contains a human face, some of which are as beautiful as the Greek models. The upper cornice is ornamented, as are all the other cornices of the Nunnery, with what are supposed to be Sun symbols, one of which is shown in the cut, reduced photographically from Waldeck’s drawing. The appended “feathers” are almost Assyrian in their type, while the double triangle within the circle is certainly an ancient symbol in the old world.

The “elephant trunks” and rude masks employed as ornaments above the doorways of the other fronts, are also numerous here. Since M. Waldeck’s visit portions of this wonderful example of ancient decorative art have fallen.[567] The northern building of the court offers no sculptured contrasts with the other buildings, except that above the upper cornice, thirteen turrets, each seventeen feet high and ten feet wide, are distributed at regular intervals, and are also covered with sculpture resembling the grecques of the Serpent temple. Most of the sculptures at Uxmal were probably painted, as traces of various colors were observed in sheltered localities. The rich sculptures of the prophet’s house were painted blue, red, yellow and white, according to M. Waldeck. The Mayas no doubt employed the brush freely, and in some instances with skill. In the gymnasium at Chichen-Itza, Stephens grew enthusiastic over the exceedingly fine series of paintings in bright colors, which cover the walls of one of the chambers. Many of the pictures have been destroyed by the falling of the plaster upon which they were painted. In this series of pictures, battles, processions, houses, trees and a variety of objects are represented—blue, red, yellow and green are the colors employed, though the human figures are painted reddish brown.[568] At Chichen, as elsewhere, the favorite subject for the Maya sculpture was the serpent. A colossal serpent balustrade is one of the wonders of this interesting place.

Dr. Augustus Le Plongeon, during the last quarter of the year 1875, made an extensive exploration of Chichen-Itza. The reports of his discoveries seem at first well-nigh fabulous, though their authenticity is so well attested as to leave no room for doubt. Mr. Stephen Salisbury, Jr., of Worcester, Massachusetts, has in several memoirs of intense interest and unusual scientific value, communicated the progress and results of Dr. Le Plongeon’s exploration in Yucatan to the American Antiquarian Society. Mr. Salisbury has also presented the explorer’s original memoirs, accompanied by photographs made at Chichen-Itza and on the Islands of Cozumel and Mugeres. These valuable documents have reached the public in Mr. Salisbury’s publications entitled, (1.) _The Mayas, the Sources of their History_ (Worcester, 1877, with heliotype reproductions of the photos); (2.) _Maya Archæology_ (Worcester, 1879, with heliotype reproductions of photos and drawings).[569] In these pages we are impressed with the fact that the darkness which has so long enveloped the antiquity of Yucatan is soon to be displaced by the noon-day of scientific investigation. Still we cannot refrain from expressing the regret that Dr. Le Plongeon’s enthusiasm is so apparent in his reports. A judicial frame of mind, as well as the calmness which accompanies it, are requisites both for scientific work and the inspiration of confidence in the reader. Notwithstanding this, our views have been most happily expressed by the committee of the American Antiquarian Society, to whom was entrusted the publication of Dr. Le Plongeon’s memoirs. Their statement is as follows: “The successes of Du Chaillu, Schliemann, and of Stanley, are remarkable instances of triumphant results in cases where enthusiasm had been supposed to lack the guidance of wisdom. If earnest men are willing to take the risks of personal research in hazardous regions, or exercise their ingenuity and their scholarship in attempting to solve historical or archæological problems, we may accept thankfully the information they give, without first demanding in all cases unquestionable evidence or absolute demonstration.”

Dr. Le Plongeon says of the columns at Chichen, “the base is formed by the head of Cukulcan, 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 mind the same worship in Assyria.” In consequence of the successful interpretation of certain hieroglyphic inscriptions at Chichen, the explorer and his wife (who accompanied him in his perilous enterprise), learned that the statue of Chaac Mol, or Balam, (the tiger king), the greatest of the Itza monarchs, had been buried below the surface of the ground at a certain point, distant four hundred yards from the palace. The first result of excavation in the locality indicated was the discovery of a sculptured tiger of colossal size, having a human head, which, unfortunately, was broken off. Several slabs bearing sculptures of tigers and birds of prey in relief were unearthed. A pedestal supporting the sculptured tiger apparently had once occupied the spot, and its destruction had left a mound of débris. Seven metres below the surface of this mound a rough stone urn containing a little dust was secured, and upon it an earthen cover. This was near the head of the statue of Chaac Mol, which was next disclosed. The statue is of a white calcareous stone, one metre fifty-five centimetres long, one metre fifteen centimetres in height, and eighty centimetres wide, and weighed fifty kilos. The statue represents the reclining figure of a man, who is naked except that he is adorned with a head-dress, with bracelets, garters of feathers, and sandals similar to those found upon the mummies of the ancient Guanchies of the Canary Islands.

The statue of Chaac Mol was seized by Mexican officials and sent to the capital. Our friend, the Rev. John W. Butler, of the city of Mexico, writes to us (letter received October 10, 1878) concerning the statue: “It is just as represented. It may be seen in the National Museum, just opposite its exact duplicate, which was found under the Plaza of the city of Mexico, some years ago. What is the meaning of this? The tribe whose king (or god) it was, must have _migrated southward_, for the one excavated in Mexico shows _greater age_ than the one from Yucatan.” In reply we would say that the evidences are sufficient that the Maya civilization once extended farther north than the city of Mexico, but the conquests of the Nahuas drove that ancient people no doubt to abandon their northern territory and to confine themselves to their lands farther south.

Dr. Le Plongeon, in speaking of the historical value of the statue, says Chaac Mol was one of the three brothers whom tradition declares were the co-rulers of Yucatan at a very ancient period. Chaac Mol and his beautiful queen Kinich-Kakmó were the powerful sovereigns of the kingdom of Chichen-Itza. Aac, one of the brothers, becoming enamored of his sister-in-law Kinich-Kakmó, slew Chaac Mol that he might make her his wife. The funeral-chamber, the mural paintings, the statues, and the monument of the murdered king found by the explorer, were memorials of the sad event which the faithful queen caused to be executed by the artisans and artists of the royal city. Dr. Le Plongeon remarks: “In the funeral-chamber, the terrible altercation between Aac and Chaac Mol, which had its termination in the murder of the latter by his brother, is represented by large figures, three-fourths life size. There Aac is painted holding three spears in his hands, typical of the three wounds he inflicted on the back of his brother. These wounds are indicated on the statue of the dying tiger (symbol of Chaac Mol) by two holes near the lumbar region, and one under the left scapula, proving that the blow was aimed at the heart from behind. The two wounds are also marked by two holes near each other in the lumbar region, on the _bas-relief_ of the tiger eating a human heart that adorned the Chaac Mol mausoleum (see sculptured slab on page 398).”[570]

Mr. Stephen Salisbury, Jr., in his _Maya Archæology_, has reproduced one of Dr. and Mrs. Le Plongeon’s tracings of a mural painting in the funeral-chamber of the Chaac Mol monument at Chichen-Itza. Through the courtesy of Mr. Salisbury we have been permitted to copy it for this work. The Doctor interprets it as representing the queen Kinich-Kakmó when a child consulting an _H-Men_, one of the Maya wise men or astrologers, in order to know her destiny. The prediction is based upon the lines produced by fire on the shell of an armadillo or turtle, and is expressed in the colors of the elaborate scroll proceeding from the throat of the _H-Men_. Referring to his tracings of mural paintings at Chichen-Itza, Dr. Le Plongeon says “they represent war scenes with javelins flying in all directions, warriors fighting, shouting, assuming all sorts of athletic positions, scenes from domestic life, marriage ceremonies, temples with complete domes, proving that the Itza architects were acquainted with the circular arch, but made use of the triangular probably because it was the custom and style of architecture of the time and country.”[571] Besides the sculptures of long-bearded men seen by the explorer at Chichen-Itza mentioned on a preceding page, were tall figures of people with small heads, thick lips, and curly short hair or wool, regarded as negroes. “We always see them as standard or parasol bearers, but never engaged in actual warfare.”[572] He pronounces the features of the long-bearded men pictured on the walls of the queen’s chambers to be Assyrian in their type. On the Isla Mugeres (in the latter part of the year 1876), Dr. Le Plongeon exhumed portions of a female figure in terra-cotta, which indicate an advanced state of art among the ancient Mayas. The fragments of the statue, consisting of the head and feet, were probably attached to the front of a brasero or incense-burner used at the shrine of the Maya Venus, located on the southern extremity of the island. It was immediately in front of this shrine, visited by Cordova in 1516,[573] that the remains of the statue were found buried in the sand. The expression of the face is cruel and savage, the nostrils are perforated and also the pupils of the eyes. The teeth are filed as those of the statue Chaac Mol are said to be. The head is surmounted by a head-dress eight inches high. The fragments of this statue are now in the possession of Mr. Salisbury.[574]

Through the courtesy of the owner we are enabled to present a photographic reduction of the relics in the preceding cut.

At Izamel, the burial-place of the culture-hero Zamna, a remarkable example of aboriginal sculpture is found upon the side of a mound now enclosed in a private court-yard. This specimen of art, known as the Cara gigantesca, or gigantic face, measures seven feet in width and seven feet eight inches in height. “The features were first rudely formed by small rough stones, fixed in the side of the mound by means of mortar, and afterwards perfected with a stucco so hard that it has successfully resisted for centuries the action of air and water.” The accompanying cut from Mr. Bancroft’s work will show the type of features.

The subject of Maya sculpture is almost a limitless one, but we trust that the above-cited examples may give the reader a comprehensive acquaintance with the existing types. The sculpture of Copan is no less remarkable than its architecture. In fact, every object bore the skillful marks of the graver’s chisel. The great number of sculptured obelisks, pillars and idols have been the wonder of every reader of Mr. Stephens’ description. Since his work is so generally known, we refrain from presenting more than one example of Copan art. In the accompanying cut employed in Mr. Bancroft’s work the elaborateness of the sculpture will be observed, and may well be pronounced a marvel of aboriginal art.

But for the perfectly horizontal position of the eyes, the aspect of some of the faces represented by Stephens would strike us as having a Mongolian cast. The magnificently sculptured hieroglyphics which cover the sides and backs of these huge idols, no doubt could tell the sealed story of Copan’s greatness and the attributes of its many gods, were the key once discovered. Everything is covered with these significant symbols, differing slightly from those at Palenque; but who will read them? In the court of the temple, a solid block of stone six feet square and four feet high, resting on four globular stones was sketched by Catherwood, and pronounced an altar by Stephens. Sixteen figures in profile, with turbaned heads, breast-plates, and each seated cross-legged on hieroglyphic-like cushions, are sculptured in low-relief, four figures being on each side of the block. The top of the altar is covered with thirty-six squares of hieroglyphics, shown in a cut on a future page. Besides numbers of masks, effigies and rows of death’s heads at Copan, there are sculptures of the face which we may believe to have been portraits. The Copan sculpture is generally admitted to be of a high order, and Stephens thinks it unsurpassed in Egypt. The receding forehead of most of the portraits have excited general interest, and are believed to be delineations of the priestly or aristocratic type. No weapons are sculptured at Copan, but on the contrary altars abound in considerable numbers, especially in front of the sculptured obelisks or idols. The presumption is therefore strong that this was a religious centre, unmolested by any enemy, and undisturbed by the alarm of war.[575]

_Nahua Sculpture._—The Nahua sculpture is not of as high an order nor of as frequent occurrence as that of the Mayas. At Monte Alban in Oajaca, in a gallery within a mound, Castañeda sketched the sculptured profile shown in the accompanying cut, employed in Mr. Bancroft’s work. It is cut upon the face of a granite block about three feet square, and is interesting because of the Chinese-like queue which hangs from the figure’s head. At Mitla the grecques and arabesques which cover the façades of the several edifices are not sculptured, except in cases where large stones serve as lintels over doorways. On them the running borders are sculptured in low-relief, while the remainder of the profuse ornamentation is of the nature of mosaic work, being built into the wall.