The North Americans of Antiquity / Their origin, migrations, and type of civilization considered

by John T. Short

CHAPTER VIII.

ANCIENT AMERICAN CIVILIZATION AND SUPPOSED OLD WORLD ANALOGIES—ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE AND HIEROGLYPHICS.

Analogies, Real and Fancied—Maya Architecture—The American Pyramid—The Palace of Palenque—The French Roof at Palenque—The Trefoil Arch—Yucatanic Architecture—Uxmal—The Casa de Monjas—Kabah—Casa Grande of Zayi—Quiché Architecture—Copan—Circus of Copan—Description by Fuentes—Utatlan—Nahua Architecture—Remains in Oajaca—Mitla—Grecques at Mitla—Remains in the State of Vera Cruz—Cholula—Pyramid of Xochicalco—The Temple of Mexico—Teotihuacan—Los Edificios of Quemeda—Maya and Nahua Architecture Compared—Old World Analogies—Sculpture—Of the Mounds—At Palenque—At Uxmal—At Chichen-Itza—On the Isla Mujeres—Of the Nahuas—Ancient American Art and its Old World Analogies—Egyptian Tau at Palenqué—Serpent Sculpture—Nahua Symbolism probably Asiatic—Hieroglyphics—Maya MSS. and Books—Landa’s Alphabet—The Attempts at the Interpretation of Maya MSS. by Bollaert, Charencey, and Rosny—Rosny’s Classification of the Hieroglyphics—Hopes that a Key has been Discovered—The Mexican Picture-writing—Aztec Migration Maps.

WITHOUT pretending to furnish an exhaustive treatment of the subject proposed for this chapter, we desire to make observations on some phases of the development of American civilization in the Pre-Historic period. One of the most natural fruits of the study of the arts and customs of any people, is a disposition on the part of the investigator to institute a comparison with corresponding features of civilization in all parts of the world. Unfortunately this disposition has led many writers on America into wild and fanciful speculations, which tend only to deceive the reader and add nothing to true investigation. In a few instances pronounced old world analogies have been proven to exist in ancient American institutions and arts, but their number bears a small ratio to the multitude of fancied analogies which never existed, except in the imaginations of their discoverers. To discuss the subject in hand without transcending the limits of the period which is treated in previous chapters, namely, the Primitive period—that which antedates the era of the annals of those ancient peoples, is a somewhat difficult task, since the question of dates is a very uncertain one in the absence of any sufficient key to the hieroglyphic and picture records. The customs and political organization, together with the Aztec civilization, have been often treated, and by none better than our own Prescott and Bancroft. The repetition of their labors here would be highly superfluous. We shall, however, ask the attention of the reader to some considerations upon the following divisions of the subject:

1. Architecture. 2. Sculpture and Hieroglyphics. 3. Chronological and Astronomical Knowledge. 4. Religious Analogies.

Architecture.—The works of the Mound-builders and Pueblos have already been described and their transitional forms or stages noted. To seek for parallelisms or analogies between the Mound-builders and the people of Asia because mounds are common to both continents, or to seek to identify them with the people of Northern Europe because the shell-heaps of our sea-board resemble those of Denmark, would certainly be an unjustifiable use of the imagination, in anything like a serious discussion of the question. We have no disposition to speculate on this subject, since such speculation cannot furnish any satisfactory results. Certain resemblances between American and Hindoo-mounds have been supposed to exist, but the resemblance, if any, proves nothing.[491] That more fruitful and wonderful field of ancient architecture in Central America, Yucatan and Mexico, furnishes abundant opportunity for the discussion of our subject. Detailed descriptions of the remains found in different localities have been given by travelers, artists and authors, the latter availing themselves of several accounts and instituting comparisons between the statements of different explorers. Such works, savoring somewhat of the critical, cannot be underrated, since their development of the true facts has contributed largely to our knowledge of the subject. It has been generally the rule for writers to undertake the description of remains in a particular locality and treat them in detail, thus presenting to the mind a pleasant picture of the whole, together with the relation of parts. This is certainly a satisfactory plan to many readers, but it seems to us that such a course is unnecessary, after it has been once pursued by the explorer. By repetitions nothing is gained, unless the work of classification (by which certain architectural forms and methods are woven into a style and their variations noted) receives attention. In preceding chapters we have treated of the Maya, the Quiché, and the Nahua peoples, and in this, it is our purpose to briefly note the main features of their styles of architecture, sculpture, etc., as indicated in the divisions above laid down.

Maya Architecture furnishes evidence of growth, and may be classified into the Chiapan or ancient and the Yucatanic or modified styles. The Chiapan or ancient style is exhibited in the imposing remains of Palenque, with which the reader is supposed to be already familiar, from the descriptions of several explorers.[492] Palenque is situated in the Usumacinta River region in Chiapas, on a small stream sometimes called the Otolum, a tributary of the Tulija, which is itself a branch of the Usumacinta. The ruins are situated in a small valley of the foothills, from which rise the high table-lands of the interior. They are known as the Palace, with a pyramidal base measuring two hundred and sixty by three hundred and ten feet and forty feet high; Temple of the three Tablets; Temple of the Beau Relief; Temple of the Cross, and Temple of the Sun. The most conspicuous feature of the architecture employed, and seen in most of the Central American structures, is the massive pyramidal foundation. The sides of the pyramid of the Palenque palace are faced with regular blocks of hewn stone, with extensive flights of stairs, upon the east and north leading to its summit.[493] Mr. Bancroft has analyzed the structure of the American pyramid in a philosophical way, and no doubt has in part explained its object. “I think,” he remarks, “that perhaps with a view to raise this place or temple above the waters of the stream, four thick walls, possibly more, were built up perpendicularly from the ground to the desired height; then, after the completion of the walls, to strengthen them, or during the progress of the work to facilitate the raising of the stones, the interior was filled with earth, and the exterior graded with the same material, the whole being subsequently faced with hewn stone.”[494]

Mode of Constructing Pyramid.

In the above cut Mr. Bancroft illustrates his opinion. Stephens and Waldeck, who excavated from the summit downwards, imply that the interior D is of earth. Twenty years later Charnay found a perpendicular wall on the eastern side, quite contrary to the observations of all previous travelers. Mr. Bancroft accounts for this on the supposition that the stone facing, loosened by the growth of trees which covered it, had fallen from B to F, and that the earth which filled the sides at E E had been washed away by the rain and left the perpendicular wall exposed at B. Such a supposition we consider to be perfectly probable in view of the rapid dilapidation of the ruins since Dupaix’s visit in 1806. The ancient model thus established in the construction of this, perhaps oldest of existing American cities, may have determined the style of many similar edifices. A plan of the palace has been furnished by several authors.[495] The accompanying restoration from Armin’s Das Heutige Mexiko, employed by Mr. Bancroft, may serve to give an idea of the proportions of the structure. The edifice occupies the entire summit platform of the pyramid except a narrow passage-way around the edge, and measures 228 feet by 182, and about 30 feet in height. The doorways, of which there are forty in the outer wall, are wider than the piers intervening between them, and were constructed originally with flat wooden lintels, all of which have disappeared. The main architectural features will be observed in the accompanying plate from Waldeck. The lower right-hand figure shows the angle of the foundations of one of the interior buildings and the manner in which the stones were laid. The left-hand figure affords a sectional view of the eastern stairway descending from the principal corridor into the grand court. It will be observed that the height of the steps considerably exceeds their width. Waldeck illustrates this singular disproportion by a diagram in which a native is represented as sitting upon the stairway. The perpendicular face of a step is shown to be considerably higher than the Indian’s knee, and must have measured two feet. The upper left-hand figures represent the forms of niches, which are of frequent occurrence. The T shaped niche is the representative of a numerous class so resembling the Egyptian tau or cross as to excite no little interest in its origin. M. Waldeck found the marks of lamp-black upon the tops of some of them, and supposes them to have held torches which illuminated the corridors; others, which extend through the walls, may have served for the purposes of ventilation; while others perhaps contained idols.[496] The right-hand upper figures represent the highly artistic double cornices employed. Nothing of a definite nature is known of the style of roof with which the palace was covered, since every vestige of it has disappeared. Castañeda represents it as sloping and plastered, while Dupaix refers to it as consisting of large stone flags, carefully joined together.[497]

The Palace Restored.

Architectural Features at Palenque.

The neighboring buildings, such as the Temple of the Three Tablets, the Temple of the Cross, and the Temple of the Sun, each have well-preserved roofs of masonry, which are quite remarkable. The first of these stands upon its lofty pyramidal base, measuring one hundred and ten feet on the slope, with continuous steps on all sides. The temple, which is thirty-five feet high, is crowned with a sloping ornamental roof of great beauty. Stephens illustrated the temple in several views, subsequently copied by Bancroft.[498] The roof is divided into three parts; the lower section recedes from the cornice with a gentle slope, and resembles the corresponding section of a French or Mansard roof. The stucco decorations of this lower section, which is also painted, add considerably to the general effect. Five solid square projections with perpendicular faces suggestive of the attic windows of a modern French roof are found on this section, corresponding to the several doors of the temple immediately below. The second section, which slopes back at a more acute angle, is of solid masonry. The crowning section seems to have been purely ornamental, consisting of a line of pillars of stone and mortar, eighteen inches high and twelve inches apart, surmounted by a layer of flat stones with projecting sides. The Temple of the Cross and Temple of the Sun both have roof-structures which may be described as resembling a lattice-work of stone.

The most interesting feature of Palenque architecture is the arch, of which there are two styles, if one of them may be classed as an arch at all; of this we have doubts. The style to which we allude is that which has been designated as the Yucatan arch. A section of the double corridor of the palace furnishes an example as shown in the cut from Mr. Bancroft’s work.

Section of Palace Corridor.

This so-called arch is nothing more than the approach of two walls toward each other in straight lines, nearly forming an acute angle at the top. These inclining walls are constructed of overlapping stones, with a small surface of exposed ceiling, produced by a lintel-like covering. The principal doorway, which is eighteen feet high, is constructed in the form of a trefoil arch, while niches or depressions of the same trefoil form are ranged along the inclined face of the gallery on each side of the entrance. This arch is suggestive of the Moorish pattern, though the latter probably is the more modern. The accompanying cut—a photographic reduction from Waldeck—will convey a clear idea of its form.

The tower situated in the southern court is considered by Waldeck as the crowning work of all. The frontispiece is a photographic reduction from Waldeck’s drawing, and no doubt indicates the true number of its stories, as well as the remarkable growth of vegetation upon its roof. The descent of the little roots and tendrils of the trees above in quest of nourishment, furnish a striking illustration of the luxuriant vegetable growth which pervades the region. The very air is laden with life, though the remains of man’s handicraft and power are but the lifeless monuments of his vanished glory. The gentle evening breeze which plays upon the tendrils stretching themselves down the tower’s wall, produces a soft melodious sound, resembling that of the Æolian harp, and gives rise to the apprehension in the minds of the natives that the place is enchanted.[499]

Trefoil Arch, Palenque.

The second division of Maya architecture, namely, the Yucatan or modified style, presents some variations from the ancient or Chiapan. Probably the most remarkable group of ruins in that richest of American architectural fields—Yucatan—is situated at Uxmal, in Lat. 20° 27′ 30″, thirty-five miles south of Merida. The reader is of course acquainted with the detail of the survey of this remarkable city of antiquity through the work of Stephens and Catherwood.[500] These indefatigable explorers examined about forty ruined cities, nearly all of which were previously unknown to others than the natives, and many of them were unknown at Merida, the capital of the country. While these travelers are pre-eminently the explorers of Yucatan, there are others whose services have been of great value in the same field.[501]

Mr. Bancroft has divided the architectural remains in Yucatan into four groups, classifying them geographically. We do not consider it necessary to follow such a course, nor enter into the detailed description of any group, but will content ourselves by simply noting any variations from the Palenque models. At Uxmal our attention is at once arrested by the irregular pyramidal base of the building known as the Casa del Gobernador. The base of the pyramid is a figure of an irregular rectangular form. The northern and eastern sides of the base are equal, and measure about six hundred feet each; the southern and western are, however, irregular. As all the angles are right angles, and two contiguous sides are equal, it will be understood that the figure of the base would have been a square, but for the irregularity of the remaining two sides. These irregularities fall within the figure of the square. The pyramid is terraced, the first promenade when observed being but three feet from the ground. The second terrace rises from this to a height of twenty feet, and supports a platform with sides 545 feet in length. A trifle west of the centre of this platform rises the third terrace, nineteen feet high, and supporting the summit platform, measuring about 100 by 360 feet, with an elevation above the ground of upwards of forty feet.[502] The pyramid is composed of fragments of limestone thrown together, but with the terraces substantially faced with walls of regular and smoothly-hewn limestone-blocks, laid in mortar which has become intensely hard. The corners of the pyramid differ from those usually met with in that they are rounded. The terrace walls incline slightly toward the centre of the pyramid. The second platform was reached by a long inclined plain on the south side one hundred feet wide. A regular stairway with thirty-five steps, and one hundred and thirty feet wide, furnished the means of ascent from the second platform to the summit. The crowning feature of the structure is the Casa del Gobernador, a characteristic Yucatan building, measuring three hundred and twenty-two feet long but only thirty-nine feet wide. The Casa is surrounded by a promenade thirty feet wide, and in its interior contains two parallel rows of apartments (a plan of which is given by Mr. Stephens).[503] A sectional view of the Casa resembles the sectional view of the palace corridors at Palenque, except that in the arches conspicuous in the latter, the irregularities produced by the square overlapping stones (which are filled up to an even surface by mortar and plastering), are avoided in Yucatan, by the overlapping stones of the arch being dressed carefully to the angle of inclination of the wall or ceiling, thus presenting a smooth surface. The roof is formed by filling in the space between the tops of the arches and between the arches and the outer walls with stone, up to the desired level; after which a perfectly flat covering of well-cut stones is laid over the whole, having a neat though small projecting cornice, as will be observed in the accompanying cut from Bancroft’s work. The rear wall is about nine feet thick and perfectly solid. The comparative modernness of the building may be realized when we state that Mr. Stephens found the top of each doorway supported by a heavy beam of zapote-wood. One of these, which was elaborately and beautifully carved, and measuring ten feet long and ten by twenty inches wide, he brought to New York, where, unfortunately, it was destroyed by fire with the remainder of his collection. It is presumed that the zapote-wood was prized for its rarity, as it is not found at present near Uxmal. Inside of and above the doors of the Casa were stone rings, which occur frequently in Yucatec structures, and are supposed to have supported curtains for closing the doorways. Stephens presents in a cut ([page 346]) a view of the imposing and elegant front looking toward the south.[504]

Casa del Gobernador, Uxmal.

Section of Casa del Gobernador.

Of the several Uxmal edifices, one especially demands attention as representing the highest state of ancient architecture and sculpture in America. This is known as the Casa de Monjas, or Nunnery, and is situated nearly three hundred yards north of the Casa del Gobernador, on a pyramid with three terraces, and measuring three hundred and fifty feet square at its base. On the summit platform, only nineteen feet above the level of the ground, stand four of the characteristic Yucatan buildings upon four sides of a nearly square court. The northern building does not stand quite parallel to the building on the opposite side of the court. The plan from Stephens will present clearly the arrangement of the apartments, in which it will be observed that of the eighty-eight rooms contained in the Casa de Monjas, not more than two apartments open into each other, except in one instance, which occurs in the eastern front.[505] The court formed by these long narrow edifices measures 258 by 214 feet, and according to M. Waldeck was paved with 43,660 blocks of stone six inches square. In the centre stood the fragments of a rude column similar to others observed in the Casa del Gobernador.[506]

Ground Plan of the Nunnery.

A cut of one of the beautifully sculptured façades of the Casa de Monjas will be found on a future page. Near the Casa de Monjas stands the pyramid and edifice generally known as the Casa del Adivino or Prophet’s house, and named by M. Waldeck the Pyramid de Kingsborough. The pyramid rises to a height of 80 feet from a base of 155 by 235 feet. The corners are rounded, and the sides, which are carefully faced with cubical blocks of stone, rise so steep that the ascent and descent by the grand stairway on the eastern face is giddy and dangerous. The stairway measuring one hundred and two feet on the slope is inclined at an angle of eighty degrees.[507]

About a dozen miles south-eastward from Uxmal are the remains of the ancient city known as Kabah, where ruins quite similar and nearly as extensive as those already described are found. However, new architectural features here meet the observer. In one instance the structure which surmounts a terraced pyramid is square, instead of long and narrow as at Uxmal. The inner rooms of the edifice have floors two feet higher than the floors of the outer rooms, and are entered by two stone steps. In one instance these were cut from a single block with the lower step in the form of a scroll. At Kabah we meet with an entirely new feature in Maya architecture, and the reader’s acquaintance with the terraced casas, of the New Mexican region, will supply the lack of an illustration at this point. In the style of building referred to, the pyramid instead of serving as a foundation for the building, serves as a central support around which the house with its receding stories, one above another, is built. The first story of the building referred to is built upon the ground, with the perpendicular sides of a mound for its rear wall. Just above, on a level with the roof of the first story on the platform of the first terrace of the mound, stands the second story, with the roof of the first serving as a promenade in front of it, while the third story rests upon the second platform of the mound. The platforms or roofs of the first and second stories are reached by means of a stone stairway supported upon a half arch. The first story is accessible from the ground by doorways. The interior apartments are constructed on the model of the Yucatec arch. Here, however, lintels of stone are met with, supported in the centre by rude stone columns surmounted by square capitals. These buildings are of large proportions, equalling any we have thus far described. The decorations of the edifices were considered by Mr. Stephens equal to those of any known era, even when tried by the severest rules of art.[508] At Zayi, one of the finest illustrations of this style of architecture is to be seen in what is known as the Casa Grande. The dimensions of the Casa Grande are as follows: lower story, 120 by 265 feet; the second story, 60 by 220 feet; and the third, resting on the summit platform of the mound, 18 by 150 feet; a stairway thirty-two feet wide furnishes a means of ascent to the third story on the front, while a narrow stairway leads to the second story at the rear. Round columns both in doorways and the façade constitute the chief variation from the styles already observed. An “elephant trunk” ornament protruding from the cornice (also found on Casa del Gobernador and the Casa de Monjas at Uxmal) is a marked feature of decoration. It is unnecessary for us to say that its presence has given rise to much speculation as to its origin. M. Waldeck has given the figure the name which we have applied to it, and perhaps with some reason.[509]

At Labná ruins of a curious and extraordinary nature exist, though far gone in decay. The accompanying cut, employed in Stephens’, Baldwin’s and Bancroft’s works, will serve to show the extravagant decoration lavished upon the cornices of the edifices. At Chichen-Itza, the so-called “Nunnery” is supported by a solid mass of masonry, with perpendicular walls. The dimensions of this base are one hundred and twelve by one hundred and sixty feet and forty-two feet high. This was crowned by a building having two receding stories. The great pyramid of Chichen is celebrated for the solid stone balustrade which guards its northern stairway of ninety steps, forty-four feet wide. These balustrades terminate in colossal serpent heads, ten feet long.[510] Both at Chichen and at Mayapan circular structures are met with and are figured by Stephens.[511] The same author has described the rectangular watch-towers of Tuloom, which rise majestically amid the extensive ruins of the ancient city of the same name, situated upon the eastern coast in latitude 20° 10´. At Tuloom, Mr. Stephens (its only describer), found the first walled city in Yucatan. He believes it to have been occupied long after the conquest, and probably was one of the cities whose many towers met the gaze of the wondering Spaniards, who beheld them as they coasted along the shore.[512]

Corner at Labná.

Quiché Architecture.—The propriety of classifying the great ruins of Honduras and Guatemala as Quiché in their origin and style, may be questioned by some of our readers. It must be admitted that great contrasts in style are found in this region, which was occupied by the powerful kingdom of the Quichés and Cakchiquels, at the time of the conquest. However, it is probable that the ancient Quichés (who, as we have already seen, at an early day developed a religion and literature), were the authors of the more ancient cities, like Copan and Quirigua. The Quiché-Cakchiquels of more modern times were quite another people, whose institutions, language, and no doubt their architecture, had been largely influenced by Nahua people from the Mexican plateau. Utatlan, the magnificent capital of this modern and mixed people, was in the height of its glory just before the blighting power of the conquerors laid it in ruins. As ours is not an attempt at the history of discovery, we omit entirely that interesting feature in the treatment of antiquities, and call attention at once to the features conspicuous in Quiché architecture. The ancient city known as Copan, on the eastern bank of a river of the same name, in latitude 14° 45´ and longitude 90° 52´ in Honduras, and four leagues from the Guatemala line, is interesting in furnishing material for study in this department. It is probably the most ancient city on the continent. Copan no doubt could successfully contend with Palenque for the palm of antiquity. It is again to the indefatigable Stephens and the skillful Catherwood that we are most indebted for our knowledge of these ruins.[513] The period of the abandonment of Copan is a question with reference to which we possess too few data to render an intelligent decision concerning it. Following the example of Stephens and Bancroft, we first introduce the account of Fuentes contained in Juarros.[514] “In the year 1700, the great circus of Copan still remained entire. This was a circular space, surrounded by stone pyramids about six yards high and very well constructed; at the base of these pyramids were figures, both male and female, of very excellent sculpture, which then retained the colors they had been enameled with; and what was not less remarkable, the whole of them were habited in the Castilian costume. In the middle of this area, elevated above a flight of steps, was the place of sacrifice. The same author (Fuentes) relates that, a short distance from the circus, there was a portal constructed of stone, on the columns of which were the figures of men, likewise represented in Spanish habits, with hose, ruff round the neck, sword, cap, and short cloak. On entering the gateway there are two fine stone pyramids, moderately large and lofty, from which is suspended a hammock that contains two human figures, one of each sex, clothed in the Indian style. Astonishment is forcibly excited in viewing this structure, because, large as it is, there is no appearance of the component parts being joined together; and although entirely of stone and of an enormous weight, it may be put in motion by the slightest impulse of the hand. Not far from this hammock is the cave of Tibulca; this appears like a temple of great size hollowed out of the base of a hill, and adorned with columns having bases, pedestals, capitals and crowns, all accurately adjusted according to architectural principles; at the sides are numerous windows faced with stone exquisitely wrought. All these circumstances lead to a belief that there must have been some intercourse between the inhabitants of the old and new world at very remote periods.” The swinging stone hammock is probably a work of the fancy rather than that of the artist’s hand, though the padre at Gualan told Stephens that he had seen it, and an Indian remembered to have heard his grandfather speak of it. None of these remarkable remains have been identified with certainty, though it is not improbable that they might be discovered if the heavy growth of vegetation were removed by a conflagration and explorers to extend their observations farther from the banks of the Rio Copan. According to Stephens’ survey, a wall encloses a rectangular area measuring about nine hundred by sixteen hundred feet. The principal group of buildings is designated as the temple. It is built of heavy blocks of cut stone, with walls of about twenty-five feet in thickness, and when examined they were between sixty and ninety feet high on the river’s bank. The temple measured six hundred and twenty-four feet north and south by eight hundred and nine feet east and west. The general feature of the ruin is that of an immense pyramidal terrace, with a platform elevated about seventy feet above the ground. The river side of the terrace is perpendicular, while the remaining sides are sloping; viewing the ruin from this general platform seventy feet high, depressions such as amphitheatre-like courts descend from it in some instances thirty or forty feet, or about half way to the level of the ground, while above the level of the general platform pyramidal structures rise to a considerable height, in one instance one hundred and twenty-two feet. It is difficult to conceive of what might have been the nature of the superstructure, if any surmounted the general platform. It is probable that for the purposes of assembly the amphitheatres with their sloping sides may have answered every purpose, while the pyramids may have been surmounted by temples now in ruins. Of the sculptured columns of this locality we will speak farther on. Utatlan, the former capital of the modern Quiché kingdom, would naturally be selected as a point at which to seek for remains of the newer Quiché styles of architecture. The conquerors, however, left little that can serve as the basis for architectural study. The city was surrounded by a deep ravine or barranca, which can be crossed at only one point, and there long lines of stone fortifications still guard the passage. A fortress, called El Resguardo, is among these works. It rises one hundred and twenty feet high in the form of a terraced pyramid, with a stone wall plastered with cement enclosing its summit platform, on which a circular tower provided with a stairway was built. Only fragmentary walls of the Quiché palaces remain; their dimensions were eleven hundred by twenty-two hundred feet, and nothing but their cement covered floors have survived the vandalism of the conquerors and the architects of the modern town; the latter having carried away the upper portions for building purposes. A pyramidal structure near by, known as El Sacrificatorio, presents no architectural contrasts to pyramids already described. Its stairway, composed of nineteen steps each eight inches broad and seventeen inches high, is characteristically Central American.[515] In the province of Vera Paz, especially in the Rabinal Valley, Brasseur de Bourbourg observed numbers of tumuli, resembling those of the Mississippi Valley both in material and structure. These were especially prevalent in the neighborhood of the villages, and sometimes were associated with pyramidal structures equal in finish to any we have described. The name cakhay, “red houses,” is generally applied to these tumuli.[516]

Nahua Architecture.—It would be quite impossible for us to devote that space to this subject which the number of remains would justify, and the presentation of the typal features of the architecture of that interesting family of nations will be all that we shall here attempt; of geographical and detailed treatments there are several on the different departments of the subject.[517] In the pages which follow we will select a few examples of Nahua architecture in order to illustrate our subject, but we would state that many equally important works, though perhaps presenting no new features, have been purposely passed by unnoticed. In a preceding chapter we referred to those intermediate nations which occupied the transition position between the Mayas and Nahuas. The Miztecs, Zapotecs and others, were probably a mixed people, related in different degrees to both of the great families on the north and south of them. Oajaca and Guerrero were the homes of these peoples, where they developed their own civilization and styles of art in channels distinct from those of their neighbors. The isthmus of Tehuantepec presents some interesting remains, chief among which we may cite two stone pyramids situated three leagues west of the city of Tehuantepec. One of these measures fifty-five by one hundred and twenty feet at the base and thirty by sixty-six feet on the summit. A grand stairway composed of forty steps and thirty feet in width leads up the western slope. The summit is also made accessible by smaller stairways on the north and south sides. The lower of the four terraces composing the structure, is perpendicular; the others have inclined walls. On the face of the second terrace were four ranges of flat stones, one above another, extending entirely around the pyramid and furnishing a series of shelves, devoted no doubt to some sacred or sacrificial use. The whole structure was plastered with a cement, colored brilliantly by red ochre. The adjoining pyramid presents an architectural novelty in its gracefully curved sides. Castañeda has sketched and Dupaix described it. The height of the pyramid is over fifty feet while its general dimensions are about the same as those of its neighbor. In close proximity to the pyramids, altar-like structures were observed, one of which was composed of eight circular stones, like mill-stones, placed one above another. The base measured ten and a half feet, but the summit only four and a half feet; the height measures twelve feet.[518] Numerous earthen tumuli resembling those of the Mississippi Valley were observed by the German traveler Müller, scattered over the region, especially to the south-east.[519] The most important group of ruins in Oajoca is that at Mitla, situated about thirty miles south-east of the capital of the State. This is probably the finest group of remains north of the isthmus of Tehauntepec. Still they are not purely Nahua in their style, being, according to tradition, the work of the Zapotecs. This group has been described several times by explorers, whose accounts have differed considerably in value. The most important of these are the descriptions and drawings by Dupaix and Castañeda, made in 1806, and the description and valuable photographs by Charnay, the latest explorer of this group, whose work was performed in 1859.[520]

The mitla ruins are distributed into four groups of buildings (generally called palaces or temples) and two pyramids. The principal edifice is described as follows: three low oblong mounds only six or eight feet high but surmounted by stone buildings, enclose a court. The court measures 130 by 120 feet. The eastern and western buildings are in a fallen and ruined condition. The northern building, however, presents a singular example of ancient grandeur. The southern portion measures 36 by 130 feet, and the northern 61 feet square. The edifice is about eighteen feet high, having walls varying from four to nine feet in thickness. The accompanying cut, a photographic reduction of Charnay’s photograph, gives a correct idea of the western façade of the northern building.[521]

The walls of this edifice are constructed in a somewhat novel manner, their interior portions being nothing more than clay intermixed with stones, thus furnishing a poor substitute for the cement and stone filling in the inner parts of Yucatanic walls. However, the exterior facing of the walls is of hewn stone blocks cut in different forms and sizes, and so set in relation to each other as to present examples of perhaps the finest variety of grecques found in any structure in the world.[522] Two layers of large stone blocks form the base of the palace, from which rises buttresses and a framework of stone, filled in with panels of mosaic, in patterns as described. We pronounce these grecque patterns mosaics, because of the manner of their structure. They are not of the nature of sculpture, since each pattern, with all its regularity, is composed of small brick-shaped blocks of stone built into the wall, mosaic-like, thus forming the graceful patterns shown in the cut. No trace of mortar has been found at Mitla. The inner surface of the wall in the northern building was smoothly plastered without any ornament. Six round stone columns standing in line occupy the centre of the apartment, and no doubt supported a roof of wood or stone, but more probably of the former.[523] The cut in Baldwin’s work, copied by Bancroft showing the interior of the apartment and the six columns, conveys an incorrect impression as to the form of the columns and the character of the walls, as is proven by Charnay’s photograph.[524] The façades of the inner court of the northern wing of the palace are finished with mosaics of great beauty. Four or five feet of the wall is plain at the bottom except that the plastering was evidently frescoed in various colors. The remainder of the wall is decorated with bands of mosaic grecques, as shown in the cut, which is a fac-simile of Charnay’s photograph engraven for Mr. Bancroft’s work. We should not fail to note the use of immense stones in the base, framework and lintels of the southern wing of the building. One of these is of granite, sixteen or nineteen feet long, with the pattern of the adjacent grecques sculptured on its face. None of the other buildings at Mitla present any architectural contrasts to the one already described, and require no special attention. Under a temple on the south-west side of the one we have just referred to, is a subterranean gallery, constructed in the form of a cross. The opening is at the base of the mound upon which the temple stands. The arms of the cross pointing toward the East, North and West, are each twelve feet long, five and a half feet wide, and six and a half feet high. The southern arm is, however, about twenty feet long, and not more than four feet high throughout most of its length. Near the centre of the cross (which lies directly under the centre of the temple above) a flight of four steps descends in the southern arm of the cross to a lower level, so that the southern arm of the passage is somewhat lower than the others. The entire subterranean chamber was roofed with large flat stones reaching from side to side. The walls, besides being painted red, were ornamented with panels of mosaic, but of a ruder style than that of the superstructure, which is suggestive of an earlier period in the growth of the art. A circular pillar resting on a square base, and called by the natives “the pillar of death,” because of the belief entertained among them that whoever embraced it would immediately die, supports the large flagstone which covers the intersection of the galleries. An immense fortification over a mile in circumference and with stone walls six feet thick and eighteen feet high crowns the summit of a hill, which stands three-fourths of a league south-west of Mitla. The place was inaccessible except on the side toward the village where the wall was double. Castañeda has delineated and Bancroft copied the plan of this fortress.[525]

Western Façade of the Palace at Mitla.

Grecques of an Interior Room at Mitla.

Passing into the state of Vera Cruz, the attention of the observer is arrested by great numbers of mounds of all the varieties peculiar to the Mississippi Valley. Excavations have yielded pottery of burnt clay, idols, and flint and stone weapons, as well as implements of agriculture, but no trace of iron or copper is recorded. As the Nahuas are said by Duran and Sahagun to have landed on the Gulf coast not far north of this region, and to have traversed it in their wanderings southward, and since the tradition derives them from Florida, it is not improbable that here we see the continuation of the works of the lower Mississippi.[526]

Of several interesting specimens of ancient architecture in the state of Vera Cruz we have selected a few examples. At Puente Nacional the remarkable pyramid shown in the cut is situated. It was described by J. M. Esteva in the Museo Mexicano in 1843. The pyramid is six stories high, and the eastern side is faced by a grand stairway in the form of a cross. Mr. Bancroft has described it, employing the accompanying cut. At Centla, twenty-five or thirty miles north of Cordova, a series of remarkable fortifications were discovered in 1821, which have been most thoroughly described by Sr. Sartorius, who visited the locality in 1833, but whose account was not published until 1869.[527]

Pyramid near Puente Nacional.

The most notable fortification is situated at a narrow pass between two ravines, with perpendicular walls several hundred feet deep. The distance between the precipices at this point is only twenty-eight feet. The defensive works consist of several pyramidal structures built of stone and mortar. The largest of these has three terraces rising from the rear until they approach a perpendicular wall, fronting a narrow passage-way only three feet wide. This perpendicular wall is surmounted with parapets and loop-holes for defence. A pyramid on the opposite side of the passage-way, the platform of which is reached by a single flight of steps, is possessed of the same defensive features, with the addition of a ditch at its front eleven feet wide excavated in the solid rock to a depth of five and a half feet. The object of the fortress seems to have been the protection of an oval-shaped tract of fertile land containing about four hundred acres, lying between the barrancas. At the opposite end of the oval tract, the precipices approach so closely to each other as to leave a narrow passage of only three feet in width, which also is guarded by stone walls. Of numerous pyramids in the region, the one figured in the cut (from Bancroft’s work) is pronounced by Sr. Sartorius as typical of all of them.[528]

Type of Pyramids at Centla.

Half a league below the town of Huatusco, Dupaix discovered a remarkable pyramid crowning a hill on a slope of which was also a group of ruins called the Pueblo Viejo. This structure known as El Castillo, measures sixty-six feet in height, though there is some uncertainty as to the size of the base.[529] Dupaix’s text states it to be two hundred and twenty-one feet square, but Mr. Bancroft calls attention to the fact that Castañeda’s drawing makes it about seventy-five feet square. The pyramid in three terraces measures thirty-seven feet high. The superstructure is in three stories, with a single doorway in the lowest. This seems to have been the only opening through the walls of the castle, which were eight feet thick; we presume, however, only at their base, as their exterior shows a sloping rather than a perpendicular surface. The lowest story forms a single apartment with three pillars in the centre supporting the beams of the floor above. Portions of the beams were visible when Dupaix visited the locality. The walls of the castle are of rubble made of stone and mortar, as in the Yucatan structures, having stone facings. The exterior of the castle proper was coated with polished plaster and ornamented with panels containing regular rows of round stones embedded in the coating. Some unimportant fragments of sculpture in stone and terra-cotta were found in the ruin. El Castillo is of special interest because of the well-preserved condition of its superstructure. About one hundred and fifty or sixty miles north-west of the city of Vera Cruz, the German artist Nebel found a group of ruins known as those of Tusapan, buried in a dense forest at the foot of the Cordillera. The only structure which remains standing closely resembles the pyramid above described, except that the walls of the pyramid are not terraced, and the tower surmounting the pyramid is built with a single story. The only opening in the tower is the doorway at the head of the stairway. The interior contains a single apartment twelve feet square. The ceiling is said to have been arched or pointed, but Herr Nebel has failed to furnish definite information as to whether the arch was of overlapping stones or not, an oversight of an unpardonable character, since it would be of greatest interest to know whether the Maya arch existed so far north. The pyramid is described as thirty feet square, and built of irregular blocks of limestone, which was probably covered with a coat of the plastering generally employed and so polished in its appearance.[530] One remaining structure in the State of Vera Cruz merits special attention, namely, the pyramid of Papantla. This pyramid, known as El Tajin, “the thunderbolt,” is situated in a dense forest near the modern town of Papantla, which lies about forty miles east of Tusapan. There is a wide divergence of expression as to the dimensions of the pyramid. Herr Nebel, however, makes the base something over ninety feet square and the height fifty-four feet. The pyramid is seven stories high and apparently solid, except the topmost story which contained interior departments. This crowning structure is now sadly dilapidated. Dupaix’s statement, copied by Humboldt, that the material of the pyramid is porphyry, cut in immense blocks, appears to be an error, since later exploration has revealed the fact that the pyramid was constructed of regularly cut blocks of sandstone laid in mortar, and coated with a hard, smooth cement, three inches thick. A stairway on the eastern front is divided as well as being guarded by solid stone balustrades.[531]

For Nahua monuments of the purest type we naturally turn to Anahuac the home of Toltec and Aztec art during its most advanced period of development. But alas! the hand of the conqueror and the zeal of the fanatic have robbed irretrievably the antiquarian and the student of the history of architecture and art, of the best and noblest remains of that strangely interesting civilization. Our attention is naturally directed to the architecture of that ancient religious centre—Cholula—the origin of which, together with that of its great pyramid, we have described in a previous chapter. We have already seen that the prime object for erecting the immense pile, according to Duran, was the worship of the sun, and not to afford a refuge from a deluge as has been generally supposed. The pyramid of Cholula is situated in the eastern portion of a village to which it has given its name, and is reached by a ride of about ten miles westward from the city of Puebla de los Angelos. The magnificent temple upon its summit dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, fell a prey to the destroying vengeance of Cortez, who no doubt was enraged at the stubborn resistance with which he was met by the devoted natives, in a hard-fought battle at the foot and upon the slopes of the pyramid. Of the large number of descriptions, either made from personal observation or written from a comparison of accounts, none surpass that of Humboldt, which was the result of a careful survey, performed in 1803. Humboldt’s drawing, however, was a restoration and not a picture of the condition of the shrub-grown hill as he saw it.[532] The pyramid, according to Humboldt, measures at the base six hundred and thirty-nine metres or a trifle more than fourteen hundred and twenty-eight feet square; in other words, about forty-four acres. The base is shown by Humboldt to be more than twice as large as that of Cheops. Humboldt and Dupaix give its height as fifty-four metres or one hundred and seventy-seven feet; Mayer says it is two hundred and four feet; Tylor, two hundred and five feet, and Heller[533] states that its summit platform covers an area of 13,285 square feet. Its height is somewhat greater than that of the pyramid of Mycerinus. Humboldt compares it to a mass of brick, covering a square four times as large as the Place Vendôme and twice the height of the Louvre. He considers it of the same type as the temple of Jupiter Bélus—the pyramids of Meïdoùn Dahchoùr, and the group of Sakharah in Egypt. This great monument was constructed in four equal terraces of small sun-dried bricks, laid in a mortar which has been pronounced by some a mixture of clay with fragments of stones and pottery, by others a cement intermixed with small pieces of porphyry and limestone. Herr Heller discovered that the entire structure had been covered with a coating of cement composed of lime, sand and mortar.[534] The present appearance of the pyramid is sufficient to induce the opinion that it was originally a natural eminence faced up with adobes in terraces, in accordance with the architectural idea, but its position in the centre of a plain, together with the revelations as to its contents, disclosed by the construction of the Pueblo road through one corner of its base, furnish partial if not conclusive proof that it was entirely of artificial construction. The excavation revealed the perfect regularity with which the bricks were laid in the interior, and brought to light a tomb containing two skeletons, two basalt figures, a collection of pottery and other articles not described. Humboldt has fully described this chamber, which was constructed with stone walls supported by cypress timbers. No doorway could be found opening into the tomb.

At Xochicalco, the “hill” or “castle of flowers,” situated seventy-five miles south-west from the city of Mexico and distant from Cuernavaca fifteen miles in nearly the same direction, are found the most remarkable specimens of ancient Mexican architecture north of the isthmus of Tehuantepec. The most important descriptions of the ruins are by Alzate y Ramirez,[535] Humboldt,[536] Dupaix and Castañeda,[537] Nebel,[538] and one prepared by the authority of the Mexican government.[539]

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.

Pyramid at Xochicalco.

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.

Plan of Teotihuacan.

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]

Stucco Bas-relief in the Palace. 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.

Stucco Bas-relief in the Palace. 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).

Sculptured Tablet in the Palace.

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.

Beau Relief in Stucco.

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]

Tablet of the Cross.

Palenque Statue.

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.

Western Court Façade—Casa de Monjas.

Sun Symbol.

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.

“Elephant Trunk.”

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.

Sculptured Slab found at Chichen-Itza.

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.

Sculptured Slab found at Chichen-Itza.

Statue of Chaac Mol.

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]

Mural Painting from Chaac Mol Monument Chichen-Itza.—(From a copy by Dr. and Mrs. Le Plongeon.)

Terra-cotta Figure from Isla Mugeres.

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

The Cara Gigantesca.

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.

Copan Statue.

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]

Figure from Monte Alban.

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.

Several minor objects of sculpture found in the States of Oajaca and Vera Cruz might be cited, but their interest for the reader would be too insignificant to justify a description.[576] One of the principal objects of this class and much superior to any of the others is a grotesque fountain cut in the living rock at Tusapan. The statue is that of a woman in a kneeling posture, and measures nineteen feet in height. The waters of a neighboring spring formerly ran into a basin formed among the plumes of the female’s head-dress, from which it found its way through the entire length of the figure, and flowed forth from beneath her skirts.[577] At Panuco the traditional point of the arrival of the Nahuas, several rude limestone statues were found, some of which have been figured in the Journal of the London Geographical Society, by Mr. Vetch, one of which is copied by Mr. Bancroft.[578] The marked features of these statues is the elaborateness of the style of head-dress worn. We cannot see that they are far removed in their style from similar statues dug from mounds in the Mississippi Valley. In the State of Puebla, at various points, especially at Tepexe el Viejo, at Tepeaca, and at Quanhquelchula, minor sculptures of animals, birds, reptiles, monsters, etc., were observed by Dupaix.[579] Rattlesnakes were found plentiful both in sculptures and in a state of nature. At Cuernavaca, in the State of Mexico, numerous boulder-sculptures, finely executed in low-relief, exist. Dupaix has figured and Bancroft copied one in particular, showing a beautiful coat-of-arms, sculptured on the smooth face of a huge boulder. A circle of arrows and Maltese cross which compose them, are all symbolical of power.[580] Similar coats-of-arms were observed in the State of Puebla. Probably the most remarkable sculpture found in the country occupied by the Nahuas, is that upon the walls of the pyramid of Xochicalco, illustrated on a preceding page.[581] Most of the sculptures are of colossal dragons’ heads, which occur at each of the corners. Human figures, seated cross-legged and holding something like the Assyrian sun symbol in the left are found on the frieze, though some observers have considered this figure to be that of a curved cross-hilted sword, a weapon never employed by the Nahuas. The elaborate head-dresses and strings of enormous pearls worn by the seated figures bear a striking resemblance to the stuccoes of Palenque. At Xochimilco on the western shore of Lake Chalco, Dupaix found several interesting specimens of ancient sculpture.[582] The most celebrated article of Aztec sculpture, unquestionably, is the calendar-stone, which, together with the so-called sacrificial stone and the idol Teoyaomiqui, was in December, 1790, dug up in the Plaza Mayor, in the city of Mexico, on the supposed site of the great teocalli, destroyed by the conquerors. The calendar-stone, now built into the wall of the cathedral, where it can be seen by all passers-by, is a rectangular block of porphyry, thirteen feet one inch square and three feet three inches thick, and of the enormous estimated weight of twenty-four tons. The sculptured portion of the block, on the exposed face, is contained in a circle, eleven feet one inch and four-fifths of an inch in diameter. The regularity and geometrical precision with which the figures are executed called forth enthusiastic admiration from Humboldt, and has been the source of equal wonderment to many later observers. Our cut is a reproduction of Charnay’s photograph, by means of the photo-engraving process, and may be relied upon as absolutely correct. Prescott considers that the original weight of the block before it was mutilated must have been nearly fifty tons; and as no similar stone is found within a radius of twenty-five miles of Mexico, that it must have been brought from the mountains beyond Lake Chalco.[583] Some remarks upon the Aztec calendar will be found in the following chapter. The sacrificial stone is a cylindrical block of porphyry, nine feet ten inches in diameter and three feet seven inches thick, and is now lying in the courtyard of the University of Mexico. If the reader will imagine the border of the calendar-stone outside of the eight triangular points removed entirely, will substitute a concave basin in the place of the central face or sun, also instead of all the calendar signs intervening between the face and the circle, upon which the base of the four principal triangular figures rest, will imagine the existence of several concentric circles not unlike strings of beads, he will have a general idea of the top of the stone. We should not omit to state that a groove or channel leads from the central basin to the outer circumference. The use of the stone is a matter of controversy, Humboldt considering it the gladiatorial stone, Gama a calendar-stone, and Tylor that it was an altar on which animals were sacrificed. Fifteen groups of two human figures, each dressed in the insignia of royalty, are sculptured around its circumference. Bancroft, as well as several others, give cuts of the stone and sculptures. The horrid monster Teoyaomiqui—goddess of death—is sculptured in high-relief on a block of porphyry ten feet high and six feet wide and thick. Probably no mythology nor all the mythologies of the world besides could produce so hideous and unsightly a combination of reptile, human and infernal forms, as make up the three sides of this idol.[584] Mr. Bancroft first figured the beautiful earthen burial vase dug up in the Plaza Tlatelulco and sketched by Col. Mayer. It is twenty-two inches high and fifteen and a half inches in diameter; a closely fitting lid most chastely sculptured covered it, as will be seen in the accompanying cut.

Aztec Calendar Stone in its Present Condition.

Burial Urn from Mexico.

Among the elegant sculptures upon one of its sides is a comely face surmounted by a crown, from each side of which project wings of the same character as were employed to symbolize the sun among the Assyrians.[585] The original is pronounced one of the finest relics preserved in the Mexican Museum. M. Waldeck has figured many beautiful examples of Mexican ceramic art preserved in the above collection as well as in others. The finest specimens of ancient terra-cotta work of which we have any knowledge are shown in the cut, photographically reduced from Waldeck’s plate.[586]

No description can convey any idea of their beauty. The upper left-hand vase, it will be observed, is supported on three feet, each perforated by a perfect Maltese Cross. The central lower vase, of remarkable symmetry, is distinguished by the perfect crux ansata which adorns its side. The lower right and left hand figures are different views of a swinging lamp. These vases cannot but command the admiration of all who see them. M. Waldeck has delineated with remarkable artistic skill three specimens of Mexican mosaic work now in the Christy collection in London. One of these beautiful relics is shown in the cut, reduced from Waldeck’s colored plate for Mr. Bancroft’s work.

Vases from Waldeck.

Mosaic Knife—Christy Collection.

However, the cut conveys but a faint idea of its beauty, especially of the handle. The blade is of semi-translucent chalcedony from the volcanic regions of Mexico, while the handle is a most artistic mosaic of bright green turquoise, malachite, and white and red shells. The blade is of a light straw-colored tint, and is mortised in the handle, which is wrapped nearest to the blade with what appears to be a golden braid. Mr. Bancroft remarks “it is certainly most extraordinary to find a people still in the stone age, as is proved by the blade, able to execute so perfect a piece of work as the handle exhibits.”[587] Among the few relics recovered at Tula, the ancient Toltec capital Tollan, the column shown in the cut (from Mr. Bancroft’s work) is very interesting, both for its sculpture and for the exhibition it affords of the manner in which the Toltecs formed their columns, namely, by fastening the sections together by means of circular tenons. The largest block measures four feet long by two and a half in diameter.

A Column from Tula.

Our National Museum at Washington contains numerous fine specimens of Mexican terra-cotta ware, some of which have been figured recently in Dr. Charles Rau’s “Archæological Collection of the U. S. National Museum.”[588] Two large vases in particular demand attention. These were brought to the United States by General Alfred Gibbs at the close of the Mexican war, and are shown in the cut.

The upper vase, which is thirteen and a half inches high, is very elaborately wrought, being surrounded with ten female figures in relief, each alternate figure bearing a child on the left arm. It is noticeable that the head-dresses of the figures holding the children are more elaborate than those of the remaining figures. The second or lower vase, Dr. Rau considers equal to many Etruscan or Greek vases in gracefulness of outline. “The vessel may be compared to a pitcher with two handles, standing opposite each other, and with two mouths projecting between them.” Among the terra-cotta images of Mexican origin in the National Museum the two shown in the cut are of interest. The left-hand figure is that of a woman pressing her hands upon her ears. The face represents an aged individual. The Museum possesses almost an exact duplicate of this image. The right-hand figure is much smaller and is hollow, enclosing a clay ball, and was probably used as a rattle. It is scarcely necessary for us to remark that the seeming analogies between the Maya (Central American) sculpture and that of Egypt have often been noted. Juarros, in speaking of Palenque art, says: “The hieroglyphics, symbols and emblems which have been discovered in the temples, bear so strong a resemblance to those of the Egyptians, as to encourage the supposition that a colony of that nation may have founded the city of Palenque or Culhuacan.”[589] Giordan found, as he thought, the most striking analogies between the Central American remains, as well as those of Mexico, and those of the Egyptians. The idols and monuments he considers of the same form in both countries, while the hieroglyphics of Palenque do not differ from those of ancient Thebes.[590] Señor Melgar, in a communication to the Mexican Geographical Society, has called attention to the frequent occurrence of the (Τ) tau at Palenque, and has more studiously advocated the early relationship of the Palenqueans to Egypt than any other reliable writer.[591] He cites Dupaix’s Third Expedition, page 77 and plates 26 and 27, where in the first figure is a goddess with a necklace supporting a tau like medallion to which the explorer adds the remark that such is “the symbol in Egypt of reproduction or abundance.” In the second plate he finds an altar dedicated expressly to the tau. He considers that the cultus of this, the symbol of the active principle in nature, prevailed in Mexico in many places. Señor Melgar also refers to two idols found south of the city of Mexico, “in one of which two symbols were united, namely, the Cosmogonic egg, symbolical of creation, and two faces, symbols of the generative principle. The other symbolized creation in the bursting forth of an egg. These symbols are not found in the Aztec mythology, but belong to the Indian, Egyptian, Greek, Persian, Japanese and other cosmogonies.” This, the Señor considers proof that these peoples were the primitive colonists of that region, and seeks to sustain his views by references to the Dharma Sastra of Manou and the Zend Avesta. The reader has no doubt been surprised at the frequent occurrence of the [Τ]-shaped niches in the Palenque palace, and has observed the same symbol employed on some of the hieroglyphics of the Tablet of the Cross. The Egyptian tau, one of the members of the Crux ansata, is certainly present at Palenque, but whether it was derived from any one of the Mediterranean peoples who employed it, cannot be ascertained. Among the Egyptians it signified “life,” as is shown by the best Egyptologists.[592] The tau was usually surmounted by a roundlet, though such was not always the case. On a stele from Korasabad, an eagle-headed man is depicted as holding the oval in one hand and the cross in the other.[593] M. Mariette recently, while exploring the ancient temple of Denderah, discovered the sacred symbol in a niche of the holy of holies. It is probable that this emblem was the central object of interest in these inner precincts of the temple, as it was preserved with scrupulous care as the hidden wisdom.[594] Macrobius tells us that the crux ansata was the hieroglyphic sign of Osiris or the Sun,[595] but other writers inform us that it was an ancient symbol of majesty and divinity, and so employed in a modified form in the hands of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva.[596] The associations of the tau in Central America are such as to lead us to believe that it may have had a significance analogous to that which it possessed on the shores of the Mediterranean, the Nile, and the Ganges. The Palenque Cross tablet is a most singular work of American antiquity, and though Mr. Stephens attempted to prove that no analogy exists between it and Egyptian sculptures, still Mr. Bancroft has shown that the former was unfortunate in his selection of Egyptian specimens for the purpose of comparison, since marked analogies between the sculpture of the Vocal Memnon of Thebes and the top of the fallen obelisk at Carnac and the Palenque Tablets exist.[597]

Mexican Vases in the National Museum.

Statuettes in the National Museum.

It has been argued that the Egyptian and Palenque sculpture resemble each other in that both are generally in profile; but the trivialness of the reasoning will be at once apparent. On the contrary, Mr. Bancroft remarks, “Sculpture in Egypt is for the most part in intaglio, in America it is usually in relief.” Notwithstanding the oft-repeated assertion that a resemblance between Egyptian and Maya hieroglyphics exist, no one of the Egyptologists so successful in their chosen field have been able to decipher the Maya writing. It is not improbable that the Palenque and Copan civilization received its first impulse from some of the peoples of the southern or eastern shores of the Mediterranean, but from which it would be impossible to say even if we were certain that such was the case. Whatever of a foreign character it may have had at first has been mostly lost in the independent development of new and original characteristics, the natural outgrowth of new wants and new conditions, arising through the lapse of many centuries. The latter remark we think may be applied with even more certainty to the Nahua civilization as displayed in its sculpture. All through Mexico the favorite subject for the Toltec or Aztec sculptor was the serpent, generally the rattlesnake. Mr. Bancroft in his fourth volume has given numerous examples of this fact. Serpent sculpture was also common among the Mayas, but to a less extent, and it is not improbable that the symbol entered into their art through the Quichés—a mixed people composed of Mayas and Nahuas. We have already observed the same disposition to sculpture the rattlesnake among the Mound-builders. In the great serpent upwards of a thousand feet in length on Brush Creek, Adams County, Ohio, we find a striking analogy to the tendency of Mexican art. Furthermore, the great serpent grasps in its jaws (if they may be so called) an immense oval figure of precisely the shape of an egg, and “the combined figure is regarded as a symbolical illustration of the Oriental cosmological idea of the serpent and the egg.” We have seen in the remarks of Señor Melgar that two examples of the egg possessing precisely the same significance which is attached to it in Eastern Asia were found near the City of Mexico. The part which the serpent symbol plays in the south and east Asiatic sculpture and mythology is probably well known to the reader; and if not, a perusal of Maurace’s Indian Antiquities or Moor’s Hindu Pantheon will satisfy him that it occupied a place equally important among Nahuas and Hindoos. The great serpent in Ohio may be a connecting link between the art of both Mexicans and Asiatics. In the course of independent development which the Nahuas underwent during thousands of years, the cosmological symbol of the egg may have been lost and supplanted by that of the serpent alone, the emblem of the life principle in both America and Asia. However, we may safely close these speculations with the conclusion that though the Mayas and Nahuas were probably descendants of foreign stock, their civilization, so far as we are able to judge from their arts, was indigenous—developed upon our soil, and offering but few analogies to any other.

Hieroglyphics.—No well authenticated Mound-builder hieroglyphics have as yet come to light. The Grave Creek Mound tablet we believe is now shown unquestionably to be an archæological fraud. The Cincinnati tablet figured in our first chapter seems to bear some symbolic signs upon its face, but no resemblance can be traced between them and any other known hieroglyphic signs. The Davenport tablet if genuine is of great interest in that it abounds in hieroglyphics, some of which are not unlike some of the signs employed by the Aztecs; besides, the element of picture-writing so common to that people plays a prominent part on both sides of that mysterious stone. Col. Charles Whittlesey, in the second chapter of his Report to the Centennial Commission of Ohio (already cited), has figured and described rock sculpture near Barnesville, Newark, Independence, Amherst and Wellsville, most of which are of the lowest grade of savage art, and we think can only be attributed to the red Indian.

Mr. W. H. Holmes has furnished specimens of picture-writing of a rude character found engraven in the rocks of the cañon of the Rio Mancos and San Juan, but there is no evidence that they are or are not the work of the Cliff-dwellers whose works abound upon neighboring rocks.[598] We have already called attention to the tablets of hieroglyphics at Palenque, Copan and in Yucatan, a specimen of which is shown in a cut on [page 390]. The accompanying cut, employed by Stevens, Baldwin and Bancroft, show the thirty-six squares of hieroglyphics engraven upon the top of a Copan altar.

In addition to these stone and stucco records, the Mayas had books, which Bishop Landa describes as written on a large leaf doubled in folds and enclosed between two boards which they ornamented; they wrote on both sides of the paper, in columns accommodated to the folds; the paper they made from the roots of trees, and coated it with a white varnish on which one could write well. These books were called Analtees, a word which, according to Villagutierre, signifies the same as history.[599] Bishop Landa confesses to having burned a great number of the Maya books because they contained nothing in which were not superstitions and falsities of the devil.[600] Bancroft has quoted from Peter Martyr a description of these books, which conveys the additional information that they were written on many leaves joined together but folded so that when opened two pages are presented to view.[601] Three of the Maya manuscripts are known to have escaped the vandalism of the early Fathers. These are, first, the Mexican MS. No. 2 of the Imperial Library at Paris, called by Rosny the Codex Peresianus, which has been photographed by order of the French government, but we believe is still unedited. The second, the Dresden Codex, in the Royal Library at Dresden, a complete copy of which was published by Lord Kingsborough. It is a Maya, and not an Aztec MS., as is proven by its marked resemblance to the tablets of Palenque and Copan, a fact pointed out by Mr. Stephens, though at the date of his exploration everything was pronounced Aztec.[602] The third, the Manuscript Troano, found by Brasseur de Bourbourg at Madrid in 1865 in the possession of Señor Tro y Ortolano, from whom it derives its name, is a Maya MS. of unknown origin and history. The French government and the Commission Scientifique du Mexique reproduced it in fac-simile by means of chromo-lithography, and Brasseur, with the expenditure of great labor, attempted to translate part of it, which he has published; but in a subsequent work he confesses that he began his reading at the wrong end of the manuscript, which, as Mr. Bancroft humorously remarks, was a “trifling error perhaps in the opinion of the enthusiastic Abbé, but a somewhat serious one as it appears to scientific men.”[603] Mr. Bancroft has reproduced a page of the MS. Troano in his work, and accompanied it with a condensed account from the Abbé’s description as follows: “The original is written on a strip of maguey paper about fourteen feet long and nine inches wide, the surface of which is covered with a whitish varnish, on which the figures are painted in black, red, blue and brown. It is folded fan-like in thirty-five folds, presenting when shut much the appearance of a modern large octavo volume. The hieroglyphics cover both sides of the paper, and the writing is consequently divided into seventy pages, each about five by nine inches, having been apparently executed after the paper was folded, so that the folding does not interfere with the written matter. * * * The regular lines of written characters are uniformly in black, while the pictorial portions, of what may perhaps be considered representative signs, are in red and brown, chiefly the former, and the blue appears for the most part as a background in some of the pages.”[604] Notwithstanding the bigoted spirit exhibited by Bishop Landa in his destruction of the native Maya books in the presence of their sorrowful and helpless owners, he did one act of service for the antiquarian, which will ever entitle him to the gratitude of every student of ancient American civilization. That act was the record which he made of the Maya hieroglyphic alphabet. The Bishop has left us scarcely two and a half octavo pages (of his work as edited by Brasseur de Bourbourg) upon this important subject, yet it is the only known key to the mysteries of Palenque, Copan and the numerous inscriptions found in Yucatan. His explanation of the manner in which letters are combined into words is not clear, and though Mr. Bancroft has translated it literally and introduced parenthetic explanations, still the sense is not very apparent. Brasseur de Bourbourg in his French translation has not succeeded much better, and complains of Landa’s style as being untranslatable. One important fact, however, is deducible from the Bishop’s remarks and example, namely, that the Maya letters were formed into words in much the same order as in the English and other languages which read from the left to the right.[605] Landa’s alphabet is given in the accompanying cut which is an exact photographic reproduction of the original.

Hieroglyphics on the Copan Altar.

Landa adds nothing after this table except the remark: “Of the letters which here fail, this language is wanting and has others added of ours, for other things of which they have need, and already they do not use these characters of theirs, especially the young people who have learned ours.”[606] Landa has left us other hieroglyphic signs, relating to the Maya months and days, which will be given in the next chapter. Many of the hieroglyphics in his alphabet are plainly recognizable in the three Maya MSS. which we have named, though it is quite certain that other signs, which are wanting in his list, are found not only in the MSS. but also among the inscriptions of the several localities we have already described. Besides the attempts made by Brasseur de Bourbourg to decipher the Maya writing, three Américanistes in particular have bestowed labor upon the subject. These are Mr. Wm. Bollaert,[607] M. Hyacinthe de Charencey,[608] and M. Leon de Rosny,[609] the latter of whom is the honorable president of the Société Américaine de France.

Landa’s Alphabet.

By means of Landa’s key, Mr. Bollaert obtained encouraging results from hieroglyphics figured in Stephens’ works. In that author’s Yucatan, vol. ii, page 292, is seen a sculptured figure with hieroglyphics represented on the upper part of the door called Akatzeeb at Chichen-Itza. This tablet is examined by Mr. Bollaert with the following result: “The figure (male) is nude; the cap is like those on the figures at Kabab, and has an ornament round the neck; the large crucible-form before him contains fire, in which some small animal is being burnt or sacrificed. Comparing the hieroglyphs on either side of the figure with the Maya key, I get the following words: Ahau, ‘king’; oc, ‘leg’; Muluc, ‘to unite’; ik, ‘courage’; cib, ‘copal’; eznab, ‘magician’; no, ‘frog’; which may mean that the magician has in the crucible a frog to be sacrificed, in which copal as incense is used. The two lines of hieroglyphs give something like the following: Kings must die—they have courage, and after death are united to those who went before them. The king is with his fathers; the chief and his family burn copal and mourn for his death.”[610] On the tablet of the cross at Palenque, Mr. Bollaert found in squares eznab, “magician”; dz, “a hand”; the “aspiration sign” ⋃; and a part of zip, “tree.” Among the hieroglyphs he traced ahau, “king”; zip, “tree”; akbal, “a plant”; pax, “a musical instrument.” Mr. Bollaert has attempted to read several other inscriptions with no more satisfactory results.[611] One or two of the same scholar’s attempts with the Dresden Codex yield the following: We come to thy presence to implore. The young female implores before the deity, she weeps but has courage. In a group representing a king and a young female, he reads: She has made a vow about the king to the magician, the king is happy. Again: The sacred bird chel is sacrificed, there is weeping; the bride weeps for the bird, she makes a vow or prays for the king, she offers a tortoise, a great feast is given.[612] M. de Charencey translates the hieroglyph found just above the child which is being offered to the bird on the tablet of the cross at Palenque, by the word Hunabku, “the only holy one.” He also finds the name of Kukulcan and eznab, “magician,” the name of a month.[613] M. de Rosny in his able essay on the decipherment of the hieratic writings of Central America has undertaken the solution of this interesting and perplexing problem in a scientific manner, and we have the fullest confidence that his system constructed on Landa’s key will open to us the books and inscriptions of the Mayas. But two of the four parts which constitute the work have been published, still we think sufficient data has been placed at the hands of scholars by M. de Rosny to justify the opinion that if the remainder of his essay should never appear, the work of interpreting some of the Maya writings might be carried on with reasonable certainty. Landa’s key contains seventy-one signs (twenty for the days, eighteen for the months, and thirty-three in the alphabet.) M. de Rosny, by a careful examination of all the hieratic texts of the Mayas which are known, has discovered more than seven hundred different signs. Of this number he has deciphered and classified four hundred and thirty-nine as follows: Alphabetic signs, including Landa’s (of which all the others are but varieties), two hundred and sixty-two; signs of the days, one hundred and fifty-nine; and the eighteen signs of the months given by Landa. All these signs are classified in a double folio plate (Pl. XIII) which we believe deserves to be regarded as the larger portion of the much-sought-for Maya Rosetta stone. Considerable difference of opinion has existed as to the direction in which the hieroglyphics should be read. Brasseur held the view that the proper order was from right to left, and that the beginning of a book was where our books end. This mistake brought down the ridicule of scholars upon the Abbé’s head, when it was discovered that he had begun at the wrong end to translate the Troano MS. Mr. Bollaert says, “I have read from the bottom upwards and from right to left.”[614] Dr. Brinton[615] has suggested some such order as the following arrangement of the word marvellous:

o ll m
u e a
s v r

M. de Rosny has shown that the statement of Landa and the fact that the human faces shown in the hieroglyphs look toward the left, indicate that the signs should be read from left to right.[616] In rare cases this order is reversed, as is seen on a couple of leaves of the Codex Peresianus. There are, no doubt, numerous instances in which the signs are arranged in perpendicular columns, and the order in which such columns are to be read is not the same in all manuscripts. In the Maya inscriptions and manuscripts, the “illustrations” or pictorial figures are interwoven with the alphabetic signs forming an important part of the writing. In many cases a page of MS. (as shown in Rosny’s plates) is divided into sections or squares, in which the hieroglyphics are inseparably connected with grotesque figures which accompany them and form a part of the writing. M. de Rosny has undertaken the classification and interpretation of all these figures which are found in the existing Maya MSS. This doubtless will prove an important auxiliary to the table of signs already alluded to. We may reasonably expect that since M. de Rosny has shown the extensive character of the Maya phonetic and symbolic alphabet, he will furnish us examples of its application in the practical interpretation of the hieroglyphics, in the latter part of his work. Recently Dr. Ph. Valentini has pronounced the Landa alphabet a Spanish fabrication, of later date than the conquest. See Proceedings of Amer. Antiquarian Soc. for April, 1880.

We do not deem it necessary to assure the reader that while the Aztec picture-writing was not as far advanced in the scale of graphic development as the system employed by the Mayas, still it was an accurate means of communication and of recording events. The “scribes” of the Mexicans were an educated class of men, who with strictest accuracy painted in hieroglyphic symbols the record of national, historic and traditional affairs, as well as the tribute rolls, the calendar with its feast days, the stated services of the gods, the genealogical tables of noble and royal personages, and even the customs of the humble classes. No doubt many educated persons who did not belong to the priestly and lettered class, were acquainted with the system employed, and many others understood it sufficiently to recognize calendar and feast signs. The Aztec books were painted mostly on cotton cloth, prepared skins and maguey paper, and when not rolled were folded fan-like and bound with thin wooden covers, like the Maya books. The priests who accompanied the conquerors and immediately followed them, mistook the pictured figures painted in these books to be representations of heathen deities, and consequently inaugurated a system of wholesale destruction of all the picture-writing. Las Casas informs us that they were actuated by the fear that in matters of religion the existence of these books would be injurious. The infamous crime committed against the cause of knowledge and the irreparable injury done to the natives, their successors, and to students of history for all time, by the destruction of those valuable MSS., must ever remain an unerasable blot upon the name of the early church in Mexico, and must be ranked with the worst deeds of Goths and Vandals. Juan de Zumárraga, the chief of these sacrilegious destroyers who committed the annals of the Mexican States publicly to the flames in his tour of the principal cities of the country, will ever be remembered with proper contempt. Fortunately, many of the MSS. were hidden by their owners and have since come to light; the greater number of these, however, were tribute rolls, which, down to the last century, played an important part in the Mexican courts of justice. Prescott informs us that “until late in the last century, there was a professor in the University of Mexico especially devoted to the study of the national picture-writing. But as this was with a view to legal proceedings, his information probably was limited to deciphering titles.” In the course of time the priests became acquainted with the harmless nature of the hieroglyphics, through their use by the natives in their making confessions and in recording the Lord’s prayer. Many documents written since the conquest were provided by their authors with a Spanish translation or with an explanation in Aztec written with Spanish letters. Many of these are in existence, and with a few authentic documents, written previous to the conquest, are preserved in public and private libraries of Europe and this country, the finest collection of which is that of the National Museum of the University of Mexico. The reader is no doubt already familiar with the splendid fac-similes of several Mexican MSS. published in Lord Kingsborough’s work. Mr. Bancroft has concisely narrated the events and vicissitudes which have attended the transmission of some of these documents through the hands of successive owners to their present depositories.[617] Several writers on hieroglyphic systems, and the above author among them, have classified the progressive steps of picture-writing into representative, symbolic, and phonetic. Of these, the first is by far the simplest, and has invariably preceded the others in the development of the graphic art. It was natural for the savage to represent an object by a picture, in which that object was surrounded with certain conditions; at first the entire object was pictured, but subsequently only a portion of the object, as in the case of a bird, the head or foot or wing in the more advanced stages of art, would be substituted for the object itself. In symbolic picture-writing, we find an attempt at representing abstract ideas and actions. Some quality or attribute of a person is portrayed by means of the representative process, by symbols which would naturally seem to suggest the distinguishing characteristic of the person or occasion. A certain Aztec festival might be symbolized by the conventional calendar sign, an altar, a flint knife held by a human hand, and a smoking human heart. Phonetic picture-writing is, of course, dependent upon the sounds of the language for which it is designed. Its province is to represent those sounds by pictures of objects in whose names the sounds occur. Words, syllables and elementary sounds which are represented by alphabets, are thus gradually evolved in the progression which follows. Mr. Bancroft, by a most ingenious example, has illustrated this principle as applied to our own language. “According to this system,” he says, “the

signifies successively the word ‘hand,’ the syllable ‘hand’ in handsome, the sound ‘ha’ in happy, the aspiration ‘h’ in head, and finally, by simplifying its form or writing it rapidly, the

becomes

and then the ‘h’ of the alphabet.”[618] The Aztecs never reached the last stage of phonetic development, namely, the alphabet. They, however, employed the system in the syllabic formation of words to a very considerable extent. The priests soon found the natives applying their art of writing to the record of the standard expressions employed in teaching the new faith. Amen was expressed by the sign of water, atl associated with a maguey plant, metl which united gave the word atl-metl, or after the ever present Aztec termination tl is stricken off, we have a-me, an approximation to our word Amen. Mr. Bancroft gives also the following example of the manner in which the name Teocaltitlan was expressed by this syllabic-phonetic writing: “It is written in one of the manuscripts of the Boturini collection by a pictured pair of lips, tentli, for the syllable te; footsteps, symbolic of a road, otli for o; a house, calli for cal; and teeth, tlantli for tlanti, being a common connective syllable.” We think the reader will find a clearer illustration in the word Chapultepec, which literally means “hill of the grasshopper.” By reference to the Aztec migration map which has been published by several authors[619] (the most correct copy accessible to the general reader is that by Bancroft).[620] A hill surmounted by a grasshopper will be observed among the figures. The same representation in different form will be seen in Boturini’s picture-map of the migration. Chapultepec is well known as the royal hill, a short distance west of the city of Mexico, celebrated as the country residence of Montezuma. Numerous similar examples might be selected from the migration maps of this combination of the three methods employed. Proper names were always expressed in a similar manner. An example of the representative and symbolic stages of the picture-writing of the Aztecs has been given by Mr. Bancroft from the Codex Mendoza in Kingsborough.[621] We here reproduce the plate used in the Native Races. It describes four steps or periods in the education of children; each period is supposed to refer to a particular year. In the upper left-hand group we see a father (fig. 3) punishing his son by holding him over the fumes of burning chile (fig. 5); in the right-hand group the mother threatens her daughter with similar punishment. In the second group (figs. 12–13), a father punishes his son by exposing him bound hand and foot on the damp ground. A bad boy twelve years of age, according to Aztec custom was always punished in this way, and his punishment lasted during an entire day. A disobedient girl of the same age was obliged to rise in the night and sweep the whole house, as is shown in the right-hand group, or, as no tear is seen in her eye, she may be learning. At the age of eight years children were only shown the instrument of punishment; at ten they were pricked with maguey thorns, or if still unruly, were whipped. The above groups show the methods employed during the eleventh and twelfth years, after which age a child was supposed to be pretty well disciplined. In the third group a father directs his boys (fig. 21) how to transport wood, both upon the back and in the canoe, while the mother teaches the daughter (fig. 23) to make tortillas and use the mealing stone and other utensils (figs. 25, 26, 28); the tortillas are also represented (fig. 27). In the fourth group the son learns the use of the fish-net and the daughter that of the loom. The allowance of tortillas apportioned to the children at the ages represented are shown in figs. 2, 8, 11, 16, 20, 24, 30 and 34. The remaining figures are not representative, but symbolic. The small circles (figs. 1, 10, 19, 29) are numerals indicating that the child was successively eleven, twelve, thirteen and fourteen years of age. A circle or dot was always used for a unit. The comma-like figure issuing from the mouth of the parent is the symbol of speech. The tears in the children’s eyes need no explanation. The singular figure (17) above the girl in the second group is said to be symbolical of night, and to indicate that the sweeping was required in the night.

Education of Children according to the Codex Mendoza.

For most interesting specimens of Aztec picture-writing as well as their supposed explanation, we refer the reader to the Gemelli Carreri and Boturini Migration maps in the Atlas of Garcia y Cubas, or in the second volume of Mr. Bancroft’s work, which are the only places where they are to be found correctly reproduced. Mr. Delafield sought to find an analogy between the Aztec and Egyptian hieroglyphic systems on no other ground than that both were representative, symbolic and phonetic, a most wonderful discovery indeed.[622] Notwithstanding this fact, and many similar efforts, no marked analogy between the Aztec picture-writing and the hieroglyphic systems of any other peoples has yet been pointed out.[623]

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Map of Yucatan.—We have found it impossible in this chapter to convey any adequate idea of the number and extent of the ruins scattered over Central America and Mexico. Only by reference to an accurately prepared map, having distinctness and detail, can a proper understanding of this interesting field be reached. Maps of Northern and Central Mexico alone, meeting the requirements, have for some time been accessible, but a reliable map of Yucatan and of neighboring States has long been a desideratum. This great want has recently been supplied by the publication in New York of a rare specimen of cartography, bearing the title, Mapa de la Peninsula de Yucatan, compilado por Joaquin Hübbe y Andres Azuar Perez y revisado y aumentado con datos importantes por C. Hermann Berendt, 1878—size, 28 × 36 inches. Stephens, in his work on Yucatan, indicated the sites of many remains discovered by him; but Señor Perez has for the first time brought before us a view of the whole field, including Yucatan and Campeachy, together with the greater part of Tabasco and Belize, and portions of Guatemala and Chiapas, showing, by means of appropriate symbols, the great number of known ruins. The map has met with merited approval from the American Antiquarian Society, and has been reproduced in Dr. A. Petermann’s Mittheilungen aus Justus Perthes Geographische Anstalt, Gotha, Band 25, No. VI, 1879.

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