We now wish to speak of one class of ruins which are present at Uxmal, but which we did not describe. They are two parallel walls. On the plan of Uxmal they are noticed between the Governor’s House and the House of Nuns. This illustration represents this feature. These walls are each two hundred and seventy-four feet long, thirty feet thick, and twenty-six feet high. The distance separating them is one hundred and twenty feet. About one hundred feet from the north end, is seen a building fronting the open space between the walls. A building stood in a like position at the south end. In the cut a stone ring is seen projecting from each side. On the rim and border of these rings were sculptured two serpents, represented below. The general supposition is that this structure was used in the celebration of public games. Mr. Stephens refers us to the writings of Herrera, an early historian, for a description of a game of ball played at Mexico, where the surroundings must have been much the same as is here represented.
Most of the structures in Yucatan have been left in undisturbed quiet since the visit of Mr. Stephens. Five years after his visit, the Indians rose in revolt, and a large portion of country through which he traveled in perfect safety has, since then, been shunned by cautious travelers. As he says, “For a brief space the stillness that reigned around them was broken, and they were again left to solitude and silence.” At Uxmal, and some places near the coast, more recent travelers have investigated the ruins, wondered over them, and passed on, without materially adding to our knowledge respecting them. In 1873 a French scientists Dr. A. Le Plongon, accompanied by his wife, visited Yucatan for the purpose of exploring the ruins. They spent a year in Meridia, thoroughly studying the customs of the country, and preparing for work.
Their first field of work was this ancient city, Chichen-Itza. As a result, he lays before us a picture of life and times not only vastly remote from us, but surpassing in wonder any thing hitherto presented. In the field of American antiquities we need scarcely be surprised at whatever conclusions are presented to us. We believe, however, we are not too harsh in saying that scholars, as a rule, consider Le Plongon as too much carried away by enthusiasm to judge coolly of his discoveries.54 The most important part of his discoveries seem to have been in the buildings in connection with the Gymnasium last described.
At the time of the Spanish conquest, a very common tradition among the natives was that, in ancient times, three brothers governed the country. This legend of three rulers in olden times, was not peculiar to the Mayas, but was found among all the Indian nations of Central America.55 In our opinion this last statement at once shows we have here to deal with a question belonging to mythology and not to history. But M. Le Plongon considers the buildings at Chichen, especially those of the Gymnasium, illustrative of the lives of the three brothers, and of the queen of one of them. In brief, he tells us the names of these three brothers were, Chaac-mol, Huuncay, and Aac. The first of these, Chaac-mol, means Tiger King. It was he who raised Chichen-Itza to the height of its glory. M. Le Plongon would have us believe that the merchants of Asia and Africa traded in its marts, and that the wise men of the world came hither to consult with the H-men,56 whose convent, together with their astronomical laboratory, is still to be seen. Aac was the younger brother of the three. He conspired against the life of Chaac-mol, and finally killed him. The queen of Chaac-mol then erected the buildings around the Gymnasium as his memorial.
At the south end of the eastern wall Mr. Stephens noticed two ruined buildings, an upper and a lower one, of which our next cut is a representation. He was struck with the remains of painting, which entirely covered the walls. He tells us the walls were everywhere covered with designs in painting, representing, in bright and vivid colors, human figures, battles, houses, trees, and scenes of domestic life. We give, in a plate, detached portions of these figures. We must understand that, in the original, these were beautifully colored. The colors used were “green, yellow, red, blue, and reddish brown, the last being invariably the color given to human flesh.”