During their supreme period they built great pyramids and marvelous temples. They wrote books and set up intricately carved record-stones. They brought the whole of Yucatan into a federation of government that held the people together in a unity which has few parallels in the history of the human race. They evolved a calendar which is ingenious, complicated, and amazingly correct. They read the heavens and knew the planets and their seasons and changes. They displayed in all they did a genius to invent and an ability to execute which cause us to rate their culture very high; and this culture is all the more wonderful because it was purely original and cut off by an ocean on each side from any contact with the rest of the world.
CHAPTER IV
DON EDUARDO’S FIRST VIEW OF THE CITY OF THE SACRED WELL
DON EDUARDO has described to me his first trip to Chi-chen Itza, and his impressions, which are somewhat as follows if my notes and memory do not err:
“I had traveled all of a hot and dusty day, on horseback, through the jungle and over animal trails. In many places my Indian guide, who went afoot, had to lead my horse over or around the huge stones that blocked our path. After the first few miles I was painfully aware that running blithely from my city into Mérida, for forgotten trifles or even for sorely needed supplies, was another of my pleasant fancies thoroughly punctured.
“Darkness overtook us ere we reached our journey’s end, and the ensuing coolness was delightfully refreshing even though the dark slowed our already snail-like progress. Just when I had abandoned all hope of making further headway, the moon sailed majestically into view—a gorgeous full moon in a perfect Yucatan night, lighting every object softly, gently, with a caressing touch so lacking in the masculine directness of Old Sol. A more lovely silver and black-velvet night I have never seen. Truly, the moon magic of Yucatan is no less than divine stage-craft which subtly wafts one completely away from the Land of Things as They Are and into the Realm of Enchantment. I should not have been surprised to meet the March Hare, Lancelot, Gulliver, Scheherezade, or Helen of Troy. In fact, I was prepared to stop and chat with any of them and offer a bite from the one remaining cake of chocolate in my pocket.
“Sometime, and most reluctantly, I suppose I must go the way of all flesh. If so, then by all means let it be in the full glory of a Yucatan moon and the going will not be unpleasant.
“For days I had been traveling, first by train, then by volan,—that satanic contrivance which leaves one bruised and bumped from head to foot,—and finally in the saddle, dozing over the head of a somnambulant horse.
“Even the witchery of the moonlight could not long hold alert my fatigued body and mind. On and on we plodded, hour after hour. Midnight passed and how many more hours I do not know, when I heard an exclamation in the vernacular, from my guide. Startled out of a half-conscious dream I came erect in the saddle.