Part 6 (1/2)
A remark to Dr. Le Plongeon about the statues above described drew from him the following statement: ”We have seen the remnants of the statues you referred to as mentioned by Landa; some one has broken them to pieces.” He also speaks of the resemblance of the statue he discovered to those of ancient Egypt, from the careful finish of the head and the lesser degree of attention bestowed on the other parts of the body.
Dr. Le Plongeon has stated in the first of the three communications contained in this paper, that from his interpretation of mural paintings and hieroglyphics in the building upon the South-East wall of the Gymnasium at Chichen-Itza, he was induced to make the excavation which resulted in his discovery. Elsewhere we learn that in the same building, and also on the tablets about the ears of the statue, he was able to read the name Chac-Mool, &c., &c. (Chaac or Chac in Maya means chieftain, Mol or Mool means paw of an animal.) He says that the names he gives, ”were written on the monuments where represented, written in characters just as intelligible to my wife and myself, as this paper is to you in latin letters. Every personage represented on these monuments is known by name, since either over the head or at the feet the name is written.” He also states that he knows where the ancient books of the _H-Menes_ lie buried, as well as other statues. The discovery of one of these hidden books would be a service of priceless value.
A perusal of the communications contained in this paper lead to the impression that their writer accepts many of the theories advanced by Bra.s.seur de Bourbourg, that he is a believer in the interpretations of Landa, and that he thinks he has been able to establish a system which enables him to read Maya inscriptions.
Dr. Le Plongeon has been accompanied and a.s.sisted in all his labors by his accomplished wife, and he has frequently stated that a great part of the credit for the results achieved is due to her intelligent judgment and skilful execution. His last date is from Belize, British Honduras, September 1. In that letter he announces the preparation of a paper for the Royal Geographical Society of London, in which he says he shall give his researches _in extenso_.
After four years of toil and exposure to danger, and after a large expenditure of money paid for services in opening roads, clearing ruins, and making excavations, Dr. Le Plongeon finds himself deprived of all the material results of his labors and sacrifices which could secure him an adequate return. We hope that he may soon receive just and satisfactory treatment from the government, and a fitting recognition and remuneration from the scientific world.
In judging of the subject here presented, the reader will bear in mind that facts substantiated should not be rejected, even if the theories founded on them advance beyond the light of present information.
In August, Dr. Le Plongeon sent the following letter with the request that it should be published in a form which would allow of its presentation to the _Congres International des Americanistes_, which would be held at Luxembourg in the month of September. It was printed in the Boston Daily Advertiser, in the issues of Sept. 3d and 4th, and is now repeated in the same type in this connection. The spelling of the name Chac-Mool in the letter was changed by the writer from that employed in the text by Dr. Le Plongeon, which is invariably _Chaacmol_; a liberty taken in consequence of the unanimous preference in favor of the spelling Chac-Mool shown in all the written or printed articles from Yucatan relating to this discovery, which have come to our observation.
Copies of the letter were sent to Luxembourg, and also to the Bureau of the Societe des Americanistes at Paris.
LETTER FROM DR. LE PLONGEON.
ISLAND OF COZUMEL, YUCATAN,} June 15, 1877. }
_Stephen Salisbury, jr., esq., Worcester, Ma.s.s.:_--
Dear Sir,-- ... The London Times of Wednesday, January 3, 1877, contains views on the projected congress of the so-called Americanists, that is expected to be held at Luxembourg in September next. Was the writing intended for a damper? If so, it did not miss its aim. It must have frozen to the very core the enthusiasm of the many dreamers and speculators on the prehistoric nations that inhabited this western continent. As for me, I felt its chill even under the burning rays of the tropical sun of Yucatan, notwithstanding I am, or ought to be, well inured to them during the four years that my wife and myself are rambling among the ruined cities of the Mayas.
True, I am but a cool searcher of the stupendous monuments of the mighty races that are no more, but have left the history of their pa.s.sage on earth written on the stones of the palaces of their rulers, upon the temples of their G.o.ds. The glowing fires of enthusiasm do not overheat my imagination, even if the handiwork of the ancient artists and architects--if the science of the Itza _H-Menes_--wise men, fill my heart with a surprise akin to admiration. Since four years we ask the stones to disclose the secrets they conceal. The portraits of the ancient kings, those of the men with long beards, who seem to have held high offices among these people, have become familiarized with us, and we with them.
At times they appear to our eyes to be not quite devoid of life, not entirely deaf to our voice. Not unfrequently the meaning of some sculpture, of some character, of some painting,--till then obscure, unintelligible, puzzling,--all of a sudden becomes clear, easy to understand, full of meaning.
Many a strange story of human greatness and pride, of human, petty and degrading pa.s.sions, weakness and imperfections, has thus been divulged to us;--while we were also told of the customs of the people; of the scientific acquirements of the _H-Menes_; of the religious rites observed by the _kins_ (priests); of their impostures, and of the superst.i.tion they inculcated to the ma.s.ses; of the communication held by the merchants of Chichen with the traders from Asia and Africa; of the politeness of courtiers and gracefulness of the queen; of the refinement of the court; of the funeral ceremonies, and of the ways they disposed of the dead; of the terrible invasions of barbarous Nahua tribes; of the destruction, at their hands, of the beautiful metropolis Chichen-Itza, the centre of civilization, the emporium of the countries comprised between the eastern sh.o.r.es of Mayapan and the western of Xibalba; of the subsequent decadence of the nations; of their internal strife during long ages. For here, in reckoning time, we must not count by centuries but millenaries. We do not, in thus speaking, indulge in conjectures--for, verily, the study of the walls leaves no room for supposition to him who quietly investigates and compares.
How far Mrs. Le Plongeon and myself have been able to interpret the mural paintings, bas-reliefs, sculptures and hieroglyphics, the results of our labors show. (Some of them have been lately published in the ”Ill.u.s.tration Hispano-Americana” of Madrid.) The excavating of the magnificent statue of the Itza king, Chac-Mool, buried about five thousand years ago by his wife, the queen of Chichen, at eight metres under ground (that statue has just been wrenched from our hands by the Mexican government, without even an apology, but the photographs may be seen at the residence of Mr.
Henry Dixon, No. 112 Albany street, Regent park, London, and the engravings of it in the ”Il.u.s.tracion Hispano-Americana”); the knowledge of the place where lies that of Huuncay, the elder brother of Chac-Mool, interred at twelve metres under the surface--of the site where the _H-Menes_ hid their libraries containing the history of their nation--the knowledge and sciences they had attained, would of itself be an answer to Professor Mommsen's ridiculous a.s.sertion, that we are anxious to find what _cannot be known_, or what would be _useless_ if discovered. It is not the place here to refute the learned professor's sayings; nor is it worth while. Yet I should like to know if he would refuse as _useless_ the treasures of King Priam because made of gold that belongs to the archaic times--what gold does not? Or, if he would turn up his nose at the wealth of Agamemnon because he knows that the gold and precious stones that compose it were wrought by artificers who lived four thousand years ago, should Dr. Schliemann feel inclined to offer them to him. What says Mr. Mommsen?
Besides my discovery of the statues, bas-reliefs, etc., etc., which would be worth many thousands of pounds sterling to--if the Mexican government did not rob them from--the discoverers, the study of the works of generations that have preceded us affords me the pleasure of following the tracks of the human mind through the long vista of ages to discover that its pretended progress and development are all imaginary, at least on earth. I have been unable to the present day to trace it. I really see no difference between the civilized man of today and the civilized man of five thousand years ago. I do not perceive that the human mind is endowed in our times with powers superior to those it possessed in ages gone by, but clearly discern that these powers are directed in different channels. Will Professor Mommsen pretend that this is also _useless_ after being found? Man today is the same as man was when these monuments, which cause the wonder of the modern traveller, were reared. Is he not influenced by the same instincts, the same wants, the same aspirations, the same mental and physical diseases?
I consider mankind alike to the waters of the ocean; their surface is ever changing, while in their depths is the same eternal, unchangeable stillness and calm. So man superficially. He reflects the images of times and circ.u.mstances. His intellect develops and expands only according to the necessities of the moment and place.
As the waves, he cannot pa.s.s the boundaries a.s.signed to him by the unseen, impenetrable Power to which all things are subservient. He is irresistibly impulsed toward his inevitable goal--the grave.
There, as far as he positively knows, all his powers are silenced.
But from there also he sees springing new forms of life that have to fulfil, in their turn, their destiny in the great laboratory of creation. The exploration of the monuments of past generations, all bearing the peculiarities, the idiosyncracies of the builders, has convinced me that the energies of human mind and intellect are the same in all times. They come forth in proportion to the requirements of the part they are to represent in the great drama of life, the means in the stupendous mechanism of the universe being always perfectly and wisely adapted to the ends. It is therefore absurd to judge of mental attainments of man in different epochs and circ.u.mstances by comparison with our actual civilization. For me the teachings of archaeology are these: ”Tempora mutantur, mores etiam in illis; sicut ante homini etiam manent anima et mens.”
Alchemists have gone out of fas.h.i.+on, thank G.o.d! Would that the old sort of antiquaries, who lose their time, and cause others to lose theirs also, in discussing idle speculations, might follow suit.
History requires facts,--these facts, proofs. These proofs are not to be found in the few works of the travellers that have hastily visited the monuments that strew the soil of Central America, Mexico and Peru, and given of them descriptions more or less accurate--very often erroneous--with appreciations always affected by their individual prejudices. The customs and attainments of all sorts of the nations that have lived on the western continent, before it was America, must be studied in view of the monuments they have left; or of the photographs, tracings of mural paintings, etc., etc., which are as good as the originals themselves. Not even the writings of the chroniclers of the time of the Spanish conquest can be implicitly relied upon. The writers on the one hand were in all cases blinded by their religious fanaticism; in many by their ignorance; on the other, the people who inhabited the country at the time of the arrival of the conquerors were not the builders of the ancient monuments. Many of these were then in ruins and looked upon by the inhabitants, as they are today, with respect and awe.
True, many of the habits and customs of the ancients, to a certain extent, existed yet among them; but disfigured, distorted by time, and the new modes of thinking and living introduced by the invaders; while, strange to say, the language remained unaltered.
Even today, in many places in Yucatan the descendants of the Spanish conquerors have forgotten the native tongue of their sires, and only speak _Maya_, the idiom of the vanquished. Traditions, religious rites, superst.i.tious practices, dances, were handed down from generation to generation. But, as the sciences were of old the privilege of the few, the colleges and temples of learning having been destroyed at the downfall of Chichen, the knowledge was imparted by the fathers to their sons, under the seal of the utmost secrecy. Through the long vista of generations, notwithstanding the few books that existed at the time of the conquest, and were in great part destroyed by Bishop Landa and other fanatical monks, the learning of the _H-Menes_ became adulterated in pa.s.sing from mouth to mouth, merely committed to memory, and was at last lost and changed into the many ridiculous notions and strange practices said to have been consigned afterward to these writings.
Withal the knowledge of reading those books was retained by some of the descendants of the _H-Menes_. I would not take upon myself to a.s.sert positively that some of the inhabitants of Peten--the place where the Itzas took refuge at the beginning of the Christian era after the destruction of their city--are not still in possession of the secret. At all events, I was told that people who could read the Maya _pic-huun_ (books), and to whom the deciphering of the _Uooh_ (letters) and the figurative characters was known, existed as far back as forty years ago, but kept their knowledge a secret, lest they should be persecuted by the priests as wizards and their precious volume wrenched from them and destroyed. The Indians hold them yet in great veneration. I am ready to give full credit to this a.s.sertion, for during my rambles and explorations in Peru and Bolivia I was repeatedly informed that people existed ensconced in remote nooks of the Andes, who could interpret the _quippus_ (string writing) and yet made use of them to register their family records, keep account of their droves of llamas and other property.
I will not speak here at length of the monuments of Peru, that during eight years I have diligently explored; for, with but few exceptions, they dwindle into insignificance when compared with the majestic structures reared by the Mayas, the Caras, or Carians, and other nations of Central America, and become, therefore, devoid of interest in point of architecture and antiquity; excepting, however, the ruins of Tiahuanaco, that were already ruins at the time of the foundation of the Incas' empire, in the eleventh century of our era, and so old that the memory of the builders was lost in the abysm of time. The Indians used to say that these were the work of giants who lived _before the sun shone in the heavens_.