BAS-RELIEFS AT KABAH (FROM STEPHENS).
It is usual for a nation to commemorate a return to independence by the erection of triumphal arches, statues, and monuments. That this was the case at Kabah is shown in the two remarkable bas-reliefs in our drawings, which were probably part of a monument raised in honour of the victory obtained by the allied caciques. Like the Tizoc stone, these bas-reliefs represent a conqueror, in the rich Yucatec costume, receiving the sword of a captive Aztec; the latter is easily recognised from his plainer head-dress and the maxtli girding his loins. His head-dress is identical to those described by Lorenzana in his letters to Cortez and Charles V., and not unlike those which the Mexican conquerors sometimes exacted from their vanquished foes. The other bas-relief has the same characteristics, but the head-dress is even more significant, for it is fashioned out of the head of an animal like those of the Mexican manuscripts. In this relief the conqueror spares the life of the vanquished, bidding him depart in peace. It is obvious, nay, we affirm, that this is a representation of a battle between Yucatecs and Mexicans dating somewhere between 1460 and 1470;[148] since we know that Mayapan was the only city which implored the aid of the Aztecs, and that after its destruction the inhabitants obtained permission to establish themselves in the province of Maxcanu, east of Merida, where their descendants are found to this very day. These repetitions were necessary to convince a class of archæologists who claim for these monuments a hoary antiquity.
HACIENDA OF UXMAL.
CHAPTER XX.
UXMAL.
From Kabah to Santa Helena—A Maya Village—Uxmal—Hacienda—The Governor’s Palace—Cisterns and Reservoirs—The Nunnery and the Dwarf’s House—Legend—General View—“Cerro de los Sacrificios”—Don Peon’s Charter—Stephens’ Plan and Measurements—Friederichsthal—Conclusion—Our Return.