To return to our excavations, “El Palacio de las Monjas,” or Nuns’ Palace, is one of the most important monuments at Chichen-Itza, and possesses a greater number of apartments than any other. Whether the name is due to this circumstance, or from its traditionary appellation, is uncertain; but we know from Mexican writers that it was the custom among the Aztecs to dedicate girls of noble birth to the service of the gods, on their attaining the age of twelve or thirteen. Some remained there until they were about to be married; some few took perpetual vows; others, on account of some vow they had made during sickness, or that the gods might send them a good husband, entered the Nunnery for one, two, three, or four years. They were called deaconesses or sisters; they lived under the superintendence of staid matrons of good character, and upon entering the convent, each girl had her hair cut short. They all slept in one dormitory, and were not allowed to undress before retiring to rest, that they might always be ready when the signal was given to rise. They occupied their time with weaving and embroidering the tapestry and ornamental work of the temple. They rose in the night to renew the incense in the braziers, a matron leading the procession; the maidens with eyes modestly cast down filed up to the altar, and returned in the same manner; they fasted often, and were required to sweep the temples and keep a constant supply of fresh flowers on the altars. They did penance for the slightest infringement of their religious rules by pricking their tongues and ears with the spines of the maguey plant. Death was the punishment of the Mexican maiden who violated her vow of chastity.[126]
It has been supposed, from the latter custom, that an order of Vestals, similar to those in Rome, existed in America, but the analogy is more apparent than real. According to Clavigero, priesthood was not binding for life among the Mayas. Of the different male and female religious orders, those dedicated to Quetzalcoatl deserve particular mention; their members had to submit to the strictest observances, but in compensation the people paid them almost divine honours, whilst their power and influence were boundless. Their chief or superior bore the name of Quetzalcoatl, and never walked abroad except to visit some royal personage.[127] Thus the Nunnery may very well have been both a convent and a priestly abode. It is not a considerable pile, the façade measuring only some 29 feet by 19 feet 6 inches high, while its grotesque, heavy ornamentation reminds us in its details of a Chinese carving. The base up to the first cornice is occupied by eight large superimposed idols, and four of these figures are enclosed within two very salient cornices. The door is crowned with a medallion representing a cacique or priest with the usual head-dress of feathers, the inscription of the palace and stone spires, some of which have entirely disappeared, while the outline of the rest is much defaced. The whole length of the frieze of the north façade has a row of similar gigantic heads, bearing the general characteristics of the ornamentation observable throughout this structure. The Nunnery is typical of the Toltec calli, of which we gave a drawing in our chapter on Tula. The left wing is but 26 feet wide, by 13 feet deep, and about 32 feet high; it consists of three cornices, with two friezes intervening in which the same designs are repeated; the first two high-reliefs represent stooping figures, one having his body locked in a tortoise shell, while the centre and the sides of the frieze are decorated with grotesque figures like those of the main façade, which, with small variations, are the same throughout the peninsula. As we have seen in a former chapter, these monstrous masks have been called elephants by Waldeck and others, who wished to claim a fabulous antiquity for these monuments, but the types they most resemble are the Japanese or Chinese. Here, as at Palenque, the upper portion of the wall is ornamented so as to enhance the effect of height.
The main body of the Nunnery rests on a perpendicular pyramid, the platform of which is occupied by a solidly constructed building, intersected with small apartments having two niches facing each other, traversed by a corridor running from east to west of the pyramid. Over this is a smaller structure or third story. The first platform is reached by a steep, broad stairway 50 feet wide, which continues with additional steps to the second platform, where the apartments of the ruined building were but cells. The ornamentation of the first story differs from that of other buildings at Chichen; it consists of small sunk panels, having in the centre a large rose-like device, framed with exquisitely moulded stones. The lintels, likewise of stone, were covered with sculptures and inscriptions now fallen into decay; we could only collect three, and even these are much defaced. In this building are curious traces of masonry out of character with the general structure, showing the place to have been occupied at two different epochs.
ORNAMENTATION OF THE UPPER STORY OF THE NUNNERY, CHICHEN-ITZA.
This second construction, or rather restoration, was effected with the materials of the ancient building, as is seen in the fragments of sculptured stones which in the later construction are identical with those of the first, save that they were put up haphazard, so that the systematic ornamentation of the older structure is no longer reproduced, but in places a thick plaster coating was laid over the whole. The rebuilding may have been the work of the aborigines, since we know that Chichen was abandoned and reoccupied towards the middle of the fifteenth century; or, more likely still, the clumsy restoration may have been the work of the Spaniards during their sojourn in the city, when the Nunnery, from its elevated position, constituted a valuable fortress. Traces of their passage are observable in various other buildings, notably in the Castillo, where their natural fanaticism, coupled with their ignorance, caused them to see in the portraiture of the national and religious life of the Mayas, representations of the devil. This could not be suffered to remain, and as they were unable to demolish the temples and palaces in which they lived, they whitewashed the ornamentation, in order that their eyes might not be constantly offended by the subjects therein represented.
MAIN FAÇADE OF THE NUNNERY OF CHICHEN-ITZA.
We try with small success to undo their savage work by means of daggers, brushes, and repeated washes, taking up much time, but in most cases the relief is lost to science, being much too defaced to allow us to take squeezes. The idea that the chiefs who erected these monuments were the authors of their defacement is too absurd for serious consideration.