Part 16 (1/2)

Nearly every one of these old towns presents some peculiarity of interest.

We can, however, only briefly describe three. _Palenque_ appears to be one of the oldest. It is in the most southern state of Mexico, Chiapas. The more important ruins are those of the ”palace” and five temples near it.

The buildings were all raised upon terrace platforms; they were long and narrow; the walls were thick, and built of stones and mud, with cement.

The walls were faced with slabs of stone, often carved with figures of G.o.ds, hieroglyphic characters, etc. Usually two long corridors ran lengthwise, side by side, through the building. These open upon the supporting platform by a line of rectangular doorways of uniform size.

There were no true arches, but the corridors had pyramidal arched vaultings. The roof went up from all four sides, at a low and then at a sharper angle. A curious crest or roof-comb surmounted the roof. Much plastering was used in these buildings; the walls were sometimes thickly and smoothly covered. Stucco figures were worked upon some of the walls.

One temple, called the ”Temple of the Beau Relief,” had a great tablet of stucco work, with the figure of a man seated upon a sort of rounded stone seat; he wore a coiled cap, with great waving plumes. His hands were making some sort of signs; he wore a necklace of beads, with a pendant carved with a human face. The stone upon which he sits is supported on a bench, the arms at the ends of which are lion heads, and the supports of which are four heavily carved, but well-made, lion feet. In other temples there were tablets of carved stone. Two of these are famous. One represents the sun, as a human face, placed upon two crossed shafts; on either side of this central object stands a profile figure, one of which appears to represent a priest, the other a wors.h.i.+per. Both stand on curiously bent human figures. In the second tablet, two similar figures are shown, but they stand at the two sides of a cross, upon which perches a bird. On these tablets of the sun and cross are many curious hieroglyphs forming an inscription.

_Copan_ in Honduras is another famous location of ruins left by some Mayan people. The most interesting objects there are great stone statues or figures with stone altars before them. These statues are taller than a man and are cut from single blocks of stone. They differ so much in face and dress that they have been believed by some writers to be portraits. The persons ate usually beautifully dressed and ornamented. They wear beads, pendants, ta.s.sels, belts, ear ornaments, and headdresses. The headdresses are usually composed of great feathers. The sides and sometimes the back of these figures are covered with hieroglyphics of the same kind as those at Palenque. The ”altars” in front of these stone figures, differ in form and size, but are cut from single blocks of stone. One which is nearly square has at the sides a series of figures of human beings sitting cross-legged; there are four of these on each side, or sixteen in all.

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

Ruined Building at Chicken Itza. (After Stephens.)

At _Chichen Itza_, the buildings are remarkable for the ma.s.s of carved stone work with which they are decorated, outside and inside. Great horrid masks, geometrical patterns, intertwined snakes, occur. At some corners of buildings are curious hook-like projections, which some persons have thought were meant to represent elephant trunks. Mr. Holmes describes carefully carved pillars resting upon gigantic snake-head carvings. One room in the ”Temple of the Tigers” has the inside wall composed of blocks of stone, each of which is sculptured. The carvings represent persons richly dressed. When the building was first made, these figures were brightly painted and traces of the colors still remain.

We can tell a good deal about the lives of the builders of these old buildings from a study of the figures and carvings. These show their dress and modes of wors.h.i.+p. The ruins themselves show how they built. Figures on tablets at Palenque show that they changed their head forms by bandaging like some tribes of whom we know.

At Lorillard City, ruins explored by Mr. Charnay, are some curious figures. Among them one represents a person kneeling, with his tongue out, and a cord pa.s.sed through a-hole in it. The old Mayas really used to torture themselves this way to please their G.o.ds. They pierced their tongues and pa.s.sed a rough cord through the hole, and drew it back and forward.

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

Map Showing Indian Reservations of the United States in 1897. (West)

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

Map Showing Indian Reservations of the United States in 1897. (East)

No one can read the characters on the tablets of Palenque and the stone figures at Copan. Similar characters occur at other ruins. At Tikal some were cut upon beautiful wooden panels. They were carved on greenstone ornaments, scratched upon sh.e.l.ls, and painted upon pottery, There were plenty of books among the Mayas, Some of these still exist, and four have been quite carefully studied. They contain many quaint pictures of priests, G.o.ds, wors.h.i.+pers, etc. They also contain many numbers and day names. There are also in them many of the same strange hieroglyphs, already mentioned. These are called ”calculiform” or ”pebble-shaped”

characters, because they present a generally roundish outline, as of a pebble cut through. It is plain that they were at first simply pictures.

Some of them, no doubt, are still simple pictures of ideas; others convey ideas different from those at first pictured; many can no longer be seen to be pictures at all; some, perhaps, represent sounds, and are not now pictures for ideas. It is possible, in a general way, to make out something of the sense of parts of Mayan books and inscriptions, but it is quite likely that they will never be exactly read as we read our own written books.