“Of jade personal ornaments we recovered a hundred and sixty large, handsome carved beads and pendants of varying sizes. These are nearly all perfect. There are seventy carved jade ear, nose, and labret ornaments, from two inches in diameter down to half an inch. They are all well cut and polished. Among the loveliest specimens are fourteen jade globes or balls, an inch and a half in diameter. These are beautifully polished and several of them are finely carved with human figures and other designs.
“The most prized of all the jade objects is a figurine four inches wide and of like height. It represents a seated figure of the Palenquin type, with an elaborate head-dress, and is probably the finest figurine of the Maya era which has ever been found. It is of flawless jade, perfectly carved and polished, and absolutely unharmed by its centuries at the bottom of the well. It alone is worth, a thousand times over, the hard years of my life spent in solving the mysteries of the great green water-pit whence it came.
“I have purposely left the mention of the jade finds to the very last, for they are the culmination of our discoveries, treasures which, instead of enlightening our ignorance, only add another unanswerable riddle, another intriguing enigma.
“These plaques and ornaments, green, gray, or black; this wonderful figurine—all are of genuine jade, and jade is simply not indigenous in America. Despite all seeking and all investigation, not one single outcropping vein of jade has been found on the American continents, not even an elementary nodule or crystal. Nephrite, or near-jade, and soft serpentine are common to both North and South America, but the jade of the ancient Maya cities is real jade, as easily distinguishable from nephrite as a real diamond from ordinary glass. Furthermore, I have never found, nor have I seen, any similar objects taken from the ancient Maya cities which are of nephrite, though the present-day Indians, particularly in northern Mexico, file out objects of soft serpentine and sell them to the gullible tourist as chalchuitl. The Nahuatl word chalchuitl originally meant nephrite or American jade—near-jade—but even before the coming of the Spaniards the word had become prostituted to mean almost any greenish stone.
“To the ancient Mayas jade was very precious—immeasurably more valuable than gold (sun metal), of which they had great store—even as in China to-day one may pay thousands of dollars for a string of perfect jade beads. The following authentic tale concerning Cortes and Montezuma illustrates the point. The story was recorded by one of Montezuma’s followers and has the ring of truth:
“Although Montezuma was, toward the last, virtually the prisoner of Cortes, he was for a long time treated not as a prisoner but as an honored guest. Cortes and Montezuma were accustomed to play each day a native game which in many ways resembles chess, and both became much interested. It was their further custom at the close of each day’s game to present each other with some gift.
“At the close of one day’s game the Aztec monarch presented Cortes with several large disks of gold and silver handsomely worked. Cortes was greatly pleased and so expressed himself. Montezuma smiled and said: ‘The gift of to-morrow shall be such that to-day’s gift will seem in value and preciousness, when compared with it, as no more than a single stone tile of the roadway.’
“As may be supposed, the mighty Cortes spent a sleepless night in anticipation of the priceless gift he was to receive. At length the morrow came and the game was played to a long-drawn finish. The gift of Cortes to Montezuma does not matter, but the royal treasurer of Montezuma brought in on a golden salver the royal gift, four small carved jade beads. The bitter disappointment of Cortes was so great that he could scarcely conceal it, but Montezuma had acted in good faith, for jade had throughout the Aztec ages possessed an intrinsic value far above that of gold and silver.
“So far as I can learn, the ancient Mayas considered silver of slight value, and they esteemed gold or sun metal more for its adaptability and malleability and its supposedly sacred origin than for its monetary value. It was an object of barter simply because of its utility in adornment and as a temple metal. Possibly copper may have had nearly as great a value in the eyes of these ancient people.
“Of all the jade objects we recovered, not more than a fifth are unbroken, and the broken jade ornaments were broken not by chance or accident but deliberately and by a practised hand. The fractures are not the result of a casual crushing blow, but of the splitting or cleaving impact from a sharp-edged instrument guided by a deft hand, so that the jade was broken but not pulverized or marred. Like so many of the relics from the well, they had been killed, just as the bottoms of terra-cotta vessels were punctured and weapons were broken so that the departing soul of him who died might be accompanied by the souls of the material objects he had most loved or used during his earthly life. And when the departed souls completed the long journey and at last stood before the almighty Hunal Ku, the supreme god in the heavens, each would wear the souls of his earthly jewels and have at hand the souls of his earthly implements.