YUCATEC AND TEOTIHUACAN VASES.
In this way we learn that the hacienda of S. Francisco, some little distance from Sacalun, is an ancient Indian centre with two unexplored mounds, in one of which a skeleton and vases in good preservation were found some years since. I was seized with the desire to explore these eminences, but my repeated attempts proved bootless, and I was obliged to give up the enterprise.
But kind friends here did not wish me to go away empty-handed, so they sent me some vases which had been unearthed in these mounds, just as I was sitting down in the evening to record my failure. Two are shown in our cut, on each side of the central one from Teotihuacan.
The resemblance between the ceramic art of Yucatan and that of the table-land, is seen at a glance. Their value as works of art is nil, but the peculiar ornamentation, common to all, cannot be over-estimated from the point of view of our theory. On examining this pottery, it is found that the potter made the vases with reliefs, which he coloured, varnished, and baked before he gave them to a carver who sculptured devices and figures with a flint chisel, as seen on the larger Yucatec vase, where palms, or, more likely, a symbolical figure was portrayed. The other is a sitting figure, with a feather head-dress, and tassels towards the top; whilst the Teotihuacan fragment represents a man in a stooping posture, a stick or sceptre in his right hand, offering an indeterminate object with his left to some figure engraved on the portion of the vase which has disappeared.
Our route to the ruins of Kabah lay through the hacienda of Santa Anna, to which they properly belong; but a path had to be opened first through woods and forests, and as the work would take two days at least, we accepted an invitation to witness an entertainment given by Don Fajardo at his hacienda of Yokat.
Entertainments are as well attended in this part of the world by this pleasure-loving people, as in a city. This will last three days, and will include national dances, bull-fights, high banqueting and junketing. The owner, with natural pride, shows me the vast proportions of his noble mansion, which stands at the foot of a hill and is surrounded by beautiful gardens full of flowers. This being Sunday we all go to chapel, consisting in a long rambling gallery. Mass is followed by a sermon in Maya, which to my ear is very soft and pleasing.
The congregation numbers a large proportion of pretty women, all in their gala dress, kneeling and devout; but at the “Ite missa est,” they disappear swifter than a flight of birds. I am introduced to the belles of the impending ball; refreshments are handed round, when every one of these houris comes up to dip her rosy lips in my glass; such is the fashion here, which I need hardly say I think a very nice fashion indeed. The guests are arriving very fast, filling already the courtyard, and the immense open space fronting the house which has been turned into a circus. Opposite to this is the ballroom, a leafy bower of flowering shrubs and evergreens; here and there are booths supplying thirsty customers with fiery staventum and English beer; and ere long these people, usually so grave and silent, make the whole place resound with the hubbub of thousands of voices and peals of merry laughter and joyful cries. The bulls have come; the circus is invaded by an immense multitude, all eager to see the sport. For my part, I prefer looking up at the galleries, crowded with beaming, bewitching Meztizas. Ye immortals! What faces and what figures! Mother Eve must have been a Meztiza, who “once beguiled, is ever beguiling.”
Curious enough, in this assemblage, numbering over 2,000 people, hardly 400 men are found. As a fact, this disproportion between the masculine and feminine element is more or less noticeable in all warm countries, where the births average five females to two males. This degeneracy does not apply to the Indian portion of the population, for the civil wars, in which great numbers of able-bodied men perished, have added, no doubt, to the feminine excess of the population. It is only fair to state that this is mere assumption on my part, based on no statistics, so that the fact may be exaggerated. What the morals of the natives are in face of a quasi-seraglio life, is a somewhat delicate question not easily answered. Broadly speaking, it may be said that the Indians are not a virtuous race; the frequency of these entertainments, extending over several days or rather nights, is hardly conducive to strict propriety of demeanour in an impassioned, amorous people. Be that as it may, this assemblage offers many interesting types for observation: the lower grades are a cross between the Malay and the Chinese; the aquiline nose of former times has become flat, the eyes somewhat sloping up, the lips thick, and the cheek-bones prominent, while wavy hair indicates an admixture of negro blood; very small hands, with thumbs so undeveloped as to be almost simian, are also observable.
Wearied of the tumult and the discordant sounds of native music, of national dances, which, however graceful, pall by their sameness, I set my face towards Ticul, to look after my men; when to my great relief I find that the path to the ruins has been cleared, and I can start whenever I choose. Don Antonio goes with us to the hacienda of Santa Anna, which is to be our head-quarters; whence volan-cochés will easily take us to Kabah, barely three miles distant. This hacienda was abandoned like so many others during the social war, and is now being restored with the material of an important pyramid lying at a short distance, once crowned by edifices now totally demolished. I notice square pillars in the detritus in good preservation topped by Doric capitals, and curiously enough, the angles are cut like the stones of our pavements, and bear evident traces of a metal instrument.