The City of the Sacred Well

by T. A. Willard

“While the Mayas seem never to have used the bow and arrow, their neighbors to the north did. Possibly the Mayas actually preferred the more primitive and possibly more powerful weapon in whose use they were very expert, holding it in the hand with the hooked portion down and resting the feathered end of the dart upon it. The shaft of the dart lay between the fingers grasping the hul-che, with the pointed arrow-head even with the wrist. A powerful overhand motion of the arm or a side swing and release of the dart sent it hurtling through the air, and legend says that the dart thus thrown by a strong man might be driven clear through the body of a deer.

“When these weapons of wood were brought up from the Sacred Well they seemed to be in as good condition as on the day, centuries before, when they were cast into the water; but almost immediately upon being exposed to the air they began to decompose and it was only by treating them immediately with preservatives that I was able to save them.

“With the copal balls and baskets and the wooden objects, we also brought up great quantities of rubber incense and rubber objects. The early legendary people who are supposed to have settled Yucatan were called Hulmecas, which means literally ‘rubber people,’ and the name was derived from the extensive use of rubber in their religious and public rites; just as the Sapotecas, or ‘sapote people,’ are so called to this day because of their extensive use of the sapote tree and its fruits and derivatives. So says the gifted historian Torquemade, following much the same line of reasoning as other writers, who say that the name of the tribe called Olmecas was derived from their general term or name for their chief or overlord.

“Whatever the answers to these mooted questions of etymology may be, it has become evident, from the finds brought up from the Sacred Well, that the Mayas were users of rubber in various ingenious ways. Many of the masses of copal which I raised from the well bore, imbedded at or near the surface, nodules or small cylinders of rubber, and in some cases wooden splinters still protruded from the rubber insets. Obviously both the splinters and the rubber portions were intended as lighters for the copal, and this evidence substantiates Torquemade’s statement: ‘They light the fires in their vessels containing the copal used in their sacrificial ceremonies with rubber.’

“Upon several of the balls or masses of copal, as found either in their original baskets or vases or without their containers, small figures of rubber, built around the wooden splinters, were placed in a standing position. At times the legs of these little rubber grotesques were half buried in the copal. Evidently they were merely more elaborate forms of lighters or fuses.

“One day when the dredge came up with its customary load of decayed leaves and silt and one of my natives had, as usual, pushed his arms, clear to the elbows, into the oozy mass, he leaped back with a cry of terror. We all clustered about him to see what was amiss. Silently he pointed to the head of a small dark-colored serpent with a white-ringed neck, which stood up menacingly from amidst the muck. It was precisely of the shape, size, and appearance of a small and extremely poisonous viper which is native to Yucatan. Some seconds elapsed before we became convinced that it was, after all, made of rubber. Although made by hands dead, possibly, ere Christ was born, it turned sinuously in our fingers as we drew it from the mud. It has retained the elasticity of vulcanized rubber, a substance reinvented by Goodyear in modern times. After its centuries of immersion it would surely have shriveled and crumpled to bits if it had been long exposed to the air. I took no chances, but at once put it in a rubber-preserving fluid.

“A number of dolls were found, made of wood and adorned with plastic copal and rubber. They are perfectly formed and artistically colored and decorated. Several have movable arms and legs, with joints made of rubber.

“There was evidence that human nature has not changed—that there were cheats and dishonest sharpers then as now. Some of the copal balls, instead of being clear, heavy, and pure throughout, as were the majority, had a perfect exterior appearance but within were a conglomeration of leaves, sticks, and rubbish—evidently the skimming or residue from the melting-pot. Doubtless some ancient and not too honest profiteer grew wealthy through their fabrication.

El Castillo, the Temple of Kukul Can, on its great pyramid, is the center of the Sacred City and the largest edifice.