NORTH WING FAÇADE OF THE NUNNERY OF UXMAL.
The Nunnery is the largest building at Uxmal; if less magnificent than the Governor’s Palace, its ornamentation is throughout exceedingly rich, varied, and elaborate. We give Stephens’ plan and measurements. This monument, supported on three superimposed terraces, forms a vast quadrangle consisting of four wings of different dimensions, surrounding a court 258 feet by 214 feet. The southern front is 279 feet long, while the centre is occupied by the main entrance, 10 feet 8 inches wide, with a triangular arch some 20 feet high. This side is less richly decorated than the rest. Facing this entrance stands the northern wing, the ornamentation of which is wonderfully diversified, consisting of grecques, lattice-work, and bas-reliefs, representing birds and human beings, whilst small porticoes, intersected by pavilions with the usual superimposed great idols, are found everywhere. The southern front is reared on a terrace which is reached by a stairway 264 feet long by 95 feet wide, and about 25 feet high; it is pierced by thirteen openings, corresponding to a range of thirteen small apartments two deep. The western wing, almost entirely destroyed, gives nevertheless a good idea of its fine ornamentation. It consisted of a frieze divided into panels with the usual devices, and huge Indian statues in high relief; two immense feathered serpents wreathed the panels occupying the whole length of the façade, 173 feet from end to end, whilst the heads, and the tails with rattles, met at the extremities, like those on the table-land. The eastern wing is entire and almost intact; the front measures 158 feet, having an elegant frieze composed of stone trellis-work, intersected by serpentine trophies disposed in fan-like fashion, while towards the top are symbolic figures admirably treated. This side is severe in design, more simple, and in better taste than the rest. The Nunnery consisted of eighty-eight apartments, of all dimensions, varying from 19 feet to 32 feet long.
SHOWING DETAILS OF EASTERN FAÇADE OF THE NUNNERY, UXMAL.
The Dwarf’s House, also the Casa del Adivino, the Prophet’s House, is a charming temple crowning a pyramid with a very steep slope 100 feet high. It consists of two parts: one reared on the upper summit, the other a kind of chapel lower down, facing the town. It was richly ornamented, and presumably dedicated to a great deity. Two stairways facing east and west led to these buildings. Padre Cogolludo, who visited this temple in 1656, is the first to complain of the steep staircase, which caused his head to swim. He found in one of these apartments offerings of cocoa and copal which had been burnt very recently; consequently, fifteen years after the Conquest the natives were still sacrificing to their gods, and practising their superstitions in their own temples. That these edifices were entire in Cogolludo’s time is beyond doubt, since the Governor’s Palace, the eastern and southern sides of the Nunnery, are still standing. They appeared new to Lizana, who (1616) says: “These buildings are alike both in style and architecture; all are reared on supporting mounds (ku, plural kues), which inclines one to think that they were built at the same time, by the order of one guiding head, seeing that they are similar. Some look so new and so clean, their wooden lintels so perfect, that they do not seem to have been built more than twenty years. These palaces must have been used as temples and sanctuaries, for the dwellings of the natives were thatched, and always in the depths of the forests.”[149]
THE DWARF’S HOUSE OF UXMAL.
This quotation is not indicative of very early monuments, while it shows that the similarity of the monuments was noticed and recorded by the first explorers; it will not, therefore, appear unnatural that aided by documents, when we write the history of one monument should be equivalent to writing the history of all; and that the architectural manifestations which are identical throughout Central America should be ascribed to one people, the Toltecs. The culture of a nation is gauged by their monuments; if so, where are the structures marking the existence of the Toltecs? Although of great solidity, and not four hundred years old, had they entirely disappeared at the time of the Conquest, and are the monuments we now behold the remains of ancient buildings unknown to them? But such a conclusion is belied by history and tradition. We will terminate these discussions with a few words from Cogolludo, who says of these edifices: “They are about the same as those in New Spain, described by Torquemada in his ‘Indian Monarchy.’”[150]
Stephens has a legend relating to the Dwarf’s House, which we reproduce: “An old woman lived alone in her hut, rarely leaving her chimney-corner. She was much distressed at having no children; in her grief, one day she took an egg, wrapped it up carefully in a cotton cloth, and put it in a corner of her hut. She looked at it every day with great anxiety, but no change in the egg was observable; one morning, however, she found the shell broken, and a lovely tiny creature was stretching out its arms to her. The old woman was in raptures; she took it to her heart, gave it a nurse, and was so careful of it, that at the end of a year the baby walked and talked as well as a grown-up man; but he stopped growing. The good old woman in her joy and delight exclaimed that the baby should be a great chief. One day, she told him to go to the king’s palace and engage him in a trial of strength. The dwarf begged hard not to be sent on such an enterprise; but the old woman insisted on his going, and he was obliged to obey. When ushered into the presence of the sovereign, he threw down his gauntlet; the latter smiled, and asked him to lift a stone of three arobes (75 lb.). The child returned crying to his mother, who sent him back, saying: ‘If the king can lift the stone, you can lift it too.’ The king did take it up, but so did the dwarf. His strength was tried in many other ways, but all the king did was as easily done by the dwarf. Wroth at being outdone by so puny a creature, the prince told the dwarf that unless he built a palace loftier than any in the city, he should die. The affrighted dwarf returned to the old woman, who bade him not to despair, and the next morning they both awoke in the palace which is still standing. The king saw with amazement the palace; he instantly sent for the dwarf and desired him to collect two bundles of cogoiol (a kind of hard wood), with one of which he would strike the dwarf on the head, and consent to be struck in return by his tiny adversary. The latter again returned to his mother moaning and lamenting; but the old woman cheered him up, and placing a tortilla on his head, sent him back to the king. The trial took place in the presence of all the State grandees; the king broke the whole of his bundle on the dwarf’s head without hurting him in the least, seeing which he wished to save his head from the impending ordeal, but his word had been passed before his assembled court, and he could not well refuse. The dwarf struck, and at the second blow, the king’s skull was broken to pieces. The spectators immediately proclaimed the victorious dwarf their sovereign. After this the old woman disappeared; but in the village of Mani, fifty miles distant, is a deep well leading to a subterraneous passage which extends as far as Merida. In this passage is an old woman sitting on the bank of a river shaded by a great tree, having a serpent by her side. She sells water in small quantities, accepting no money, for she must have human beings, innocent babies, which are devoured by the serpent. This old woman is the dwarf’s mother.”
Uxmal is the only city where the monuments are so grouped as to make it possible to take a panoramic view, which the reader can follow one by one in our drawing. To the left, in the distance, is the “Casa de la Vieja,” the Old Woman’s House; next comes the Governor’s Palace, showing the west side and about three-fourths of the edifice; more in front, to the right, the “Casa de las Tortugas,” Turtle House, so called from a row of turtles occurring at regular intervals above the upper cornice. To the rear, a great pyramid crowned by a vast platform, without monuments, known as “Cerro de los Sacrificios,” Mound of Sacrifice. It is on the plan of the Mexican temples, which consisted, like this monument, of a pyramid with small wood chapels containing idols and the terrible techcatl. The Toltecs, who did not practise human sacrifice, had real temples on the summits of their pyramids, like those in Yucatan, where they developed this kind of architecture. Consequently, if human sacrifices are met among the Mayas, they must be attributed to Mexican influence, and all writers agree that the monuments devoted to this horrible practice date from the fifteenth century (1440), and are of Aztec origin.