At Sacbé,—meaning a 'paved road of white stone,' a name derived from such a paved way in the vicinity, which will be mentioned later,—four or five miles south-east of Uxmal, besides other 'old walls' is a group of three buildings. One of them is twelve and a half by fifty-three feet; none, however, present any peculiar feature, save that in one of the doorways two columns appear.[V-56]
Pyramid of Xcoch.
Nohpat Sculpture.
THE PYRAMID OF XCOCH.
SKULLS AND CROSSBONES AT NOHPAT.
Somewhat less than ten miles eastward of Uxmal is the town of Nohcacab, 'the great place of good land,' preserving the name of an aboriginal town which formerly existed somewhere in this vicinity. In this village are several mounds; and a sculptured head, with specimens of pottery, has been dug up in the plaza. The surrounding country within a radius of a few miles abounds in ruins, two of which are particularly mentioned. The first is known as Xcoch, and consists of the pyramid shown in the cut. It is between eighty and ninety feet high, plainly visible from the Prophet's House at Uxmal, but the buildings on its summit, like its sides, are almost completely in ruins, although traces of steps yet remain. Great and marvelous stories were told by the natives concerning a senote, or well, in this vicinity; and it proved indeed to be a most wonderful cavern with branching subterranean galleries, worn by the feet of ancient carriers of water; but it was entirely of natural formation, a single block of sculptured stone, with the worn paths being the only traces of man's presence. The second of the ruins is that of Nohpat, 'great lord,' three miles from Nohcacab toward Uxmal, whose buildings are plainly visible from it, and of which it may, not improbably, have been a continuation or dependency. A mound, or pyramid, two hundred and fifty feet long at the base, and one hundred and fifty feet high on the slope, with a nearly perfect stairway on the southern side, supports a portion of a dilapidated building, which overlooks the numerous ruins scattered over the plain at its foot. A single corridor, or room, is left intact, and is only three feet and five inches wide. At the foot of the stairway is a platform with a picote, as at Uxmal, in its centre. There was also lying at the foot of the steps, the flat stone represented in the cut, measuring eleven and one third feet in length by three feet ten inches in width. The human figure in low relief on its surface is very rudely carved, and was moreover much defaced by the rains to which for many years it had been exposed. Near the pyramid another platform, two hundred feet square, and raised about twenty feet, supports buildings at right angles with each other, one of which has two stories built after a method which will be made clear in describing other ruins. The only others of the many monuments of Nohpat which throw any additional light on Yucatan antiquities, are those found on a level spot, whose shape is that of a right-angled triangle with a mound at each angle. Here are many scattered blocks and fragments, two of which united formed the statue shown in the cut on the next page. It is four and a quarter feet high and a foot and a half in diameter. The face seems to be represented as looking sideways or backward over the shoulder, and is surmounted by a head-dress in which the head of a wild beast may be made out, recalling slightly the idols which we have already seen in Nicaragua. Other statues might doubtless be reconstructed by means of a thorough search, but only the stone blocks shown in the cut are particularly mentioned. They are twenty-seven inches high and from sixteen to twenty-two inches wide, bearing alternately sculptured on their fronts the skull and cross-bones, symbols in later times—perhaps also when these carvings were made—of death. In its original condition Nohpat may not unlikely have been as grand a city as Uxmal, but it is almost completely in ruins.[V-57]
