The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations Part 15

In Mexico, as I have already set forth, the calendar system is bound up in the scheme of social organization and it is impossible to separate them. I cannot but think that it must be the same with the Zunis but that, as in ancient Mexico, only the priesthood were acquainted with the existence of a systematic calendar, and kept it a profound secret from the mult.i.tude, although the entire communal life and activities of the people were guided accordingly by their rulers, who had arranged a suitable time for all things, at proper seasons.

Having obtained through Mr. Cus.h.i.+ng invaluable material for the making of a composite image of the ancient American civilization let us now proceed to Yucatan, bearing in mind the native mode of thought and master-pa.s.sion for systematization.

A careful perusal of Cogolludo and Landa's work affords such interesting glimpses into the past history of the inhabitants of the Yucatan peninsula, that they merit presentation in a separate publication. Suffice it for the present to refer more fully to a few leading facts which will be found to ill.u.s.trate the development of the ancient civilization in the preceding pages.

The native opinion already cited was that a great chief or lord, named Kukulcan, reigned at Chichen-Itza, Yucatan, whilst this was occupied by the Itza tribe, which was driven from it in about 270 A.D. by the Tutul-xius who were ent.i.tled "holy men." Their name justifies Bra.s.seur de Bourbourg's inference that the conquerors may have been a Nahuatl tribe whose name was that of the much-prized blue-bird, Xiuh-tototl.

At the same time the fact that the Maya word for supreme lord and Master (also applied to the divinity) is _Ciu-mil_ seems to indicate that there may be a deeper origin and that the Xiuh-tototl may have only been a rebus employed by the Mexicans to convey the sound of a Maya t.i.tle, possibly "Kukul-Ciu," if the above t.i.tle "holy men" is to be regarded as a translation of Tutul-xiu.

"Kukulcan had no wife or children and was venerated in Yucatan as a G.o.d because he was a great republican, as was shown by the order he inst.i.tuted in Yucatan after the death of the native rulers. He went to Mexico whence he returned. He was there named Quetzalcoatl and was venerated by the Mexicans as one of their G.o.ds." When he had entered into treaty with the native chiefs inhabiting the country, they agreed to join him in founding and peopling a city which was named Mayapan, but was also known by the natives as Ichpa, meaning "inside of the circles."(53) "They proceeded, indeed, to build a circular walled enclosure with two entrances only. In its centre, the princ.i.p.al temple was erected and it was circular, with four doors opening to the cardinal points, like one which had been built by Kukulcan at Chichen-Itza. The walled circle also contained other sacred edifices and houses intended to be inhabited by the lords only, who divided up the entire land amongst themselves. Towns were a.s.signed to each according to the antiquity of his lineage and personal distinction.

Kukulcan lived in this town for some years with these lords and leaving them in amity and peace returned to Mexico by the same way as on his visit, lingering on the way in order to build a quadriform temple on an island off the coast."

I know of no more instructive account of aboriginal history than this simple native record preserved by Landa, which so clearly reveals amongst other details that the Mexican culture-hero was an actual personage, a Maya high-priest who had been a ruler at Chichen-Itza. In this connection it is interesting to collate another chapter of Landa's work in which he reports what the oldest Indians narrated to him about Chichen-Itza, of which I give the following somewhat abbreviated translation: Three brothers came there in olden times from the west and having a.s.sembled together a large number of people, ruled them for some years with much justice and peace.(54) They paid great honor to their G.o.d and built many beautiful edifices.... They lived without wives in purity and virtue and as long as they did this they were esteemed and obeyed by all. In course of time one of them possibly died, but is said by the Indians to have gone out of the country. Whatever may have been the cause of his absence the remaining rulers immediately began to show partiality and to inst.i.tute such licentious and abominable customs that they were finally execrated by the people who rebelled and killed them, and then disbanded and abandoned the capital, "although this was most beautiful and was surrounded by fertile provinces."(55)

The princ.i.p.al edifice at Chichen-Itza was a pyramid temple which had four stairways facing the cardinal points. It contained a circular temple which was named after the builder Kukulcan and had four doorways opening to the four quarters of heaven.

If I have dwelt again upon Kukulcan=Quetzalcoatl, it is because, between the writers who interpret the records concerning him as a sun or star-myth and those who identify him as the abstract deity whose name he bore as a t.i.tle only, or as St. Thomas or a mythical Norseman, ancient America is being deprived of its most remarkable historical personage.

Collated with the Maya traditional records, the Mexican accounts agree and supply missing evidence. Whilst the Mayas state that their ruler and legislator went to Mexico and even record his Mexican name, Montezuma informs Cortes that "his ancestors had been conducted to Mexico by a ruler, Quetzalcoatl, whose va.s.sals they were and who having established them in a colony returned to his native land. Later on he returned and wished them to leave with him but they chose to remain, having married women of the country, raised families and built towns. Nor would they inst.i.tute him again as their lord, so he went away again toward the east, whence he had come." It seems nearly proven that Kukulcan was one of the three rulers who came to Yucatan from the east. The Mexican tradition that he was driven into exile by his enemies, the followers of Tezcatlipoca, the lord of the Below, appears to be corroborated by the Maya record that, after his restraining presence had been removed, they committed such excesses that the indignant population arose and murdered their two rulers at Chichen-Itza. Quetzalcoatl's continued efforts to a.s.semble scattered tribes, to organize them peacefully under central governments, to found capitals and erect in the centre of these quadriform pyramids and circular temples, prove how completely he was possessed by the idea of spreading the well-known scheme of civilization. His very name in Maya signified "the divine Four" and this more profound signification was hidden under the image of the "feathered serpent" employed as a rebus to express the t.i.tle of the supreme Being and the high-priest, his earthly representative.

The Mexican records state that the culture-hero's white robes were covered with red crosses, and that he set up cross-emblems. Evidence showing how completely this builder and founder of cities carried out the idea of the Four Quarters, in the temples he erected in Mexico, is preserved by the record that for prayer, penitence and fasting, he prepared four rooms which he occupied in rotation. These were respectively decorated in blue, green, red and yellow, by means of precious stones, feather-work and gold.

As these were the colors a.s.signed to the Four Quarters their symbolism and meaning are obvious, and it may be inferred that the same method of decorating the sides of buildings or doorways, with these four colors, may have been carried out in square sacred edifices oriented to the cardinal points.

It is curious to detect the quadruplicate idea in the t.i.tle Holcan given to certain war-chiefs. This name signifies, literally, "the head of four,"

but could be expressed by the rebus of a "serpent's head," which would obviously have been employed in pictography to express the t.i.tle and rank.

The existence of the t.i.tle "Four-head," or "the head of four," obviously relates to the rulers.h.i.+p of the Four Quarters, united in one person; and in this connection the Tiahuanaco swastika (fig. 48), terminating in four pumas' heads, seems to gain in significance as the expressive symbol of a central ruler. The recorded custom to cover the body of the Mexican ruler with the raiment of the "four princ.i.p.al G.o.ds," proves the prevalence of a.n.a.logous symbolism.

From the following data we gain an interesting view of the events which transpired in former times in the Yucatan peninsula. Resuming Landa's account we see that, after Kuculcan had departed for Mexico, the lords of Mayapan decided to confer supreme rulers.h.i.+p upon the Cocomes, this being the most ancient and the wealthiest lineage and its chief being distinguished for bravery. They then decided that the inner circle should hold only the temples and houses for the lords and high-priest. In connection with this it is well to insert here how Landa states, in another pa.s.sage, that there were "twelve priests or lords at Mayapan,"

which with the high-priest const.i.tuted the sacred 13. "Outside the wall they built houses where each lord kept some servitors and where his people or va.s.sals could resort when they came on business to the town. Each of these houses had its steward, ent.i.tled Caluac, who bore a staff of office and he kept an account with the towns and with their local rulers. The Caluac always went to his lord's house, saw what he required and obtained from the va.s.sals all he needed in the way of provisions, clothing, etc."

(_op. cit._, pp. 34-44).

The chronicle goes on to relate how the lords of the inner circle devoted their time to the affairs of government, the regulation of the calendar and the study of writing, medicine, and the sciences.(56)

It seems significant that, throughout Central America, two ruined cities of about equal size are usually found in comparatively close proximity to each other, and seemingly pertaining to the same culture. Thus we have Quirigua, in the valley of the Motagua river, and Copan its sister-city, situated at a distance of about twenty-five miles, but nearly 1,800 feet above it, in the wooded hills. Between Palenque and Menche (Lorillard City) there are about fifty miles, whilst Tikal and Ixkun are forty miles apart. In Yucatan, as we have learned from Bishop Landa's "Relacion,"

there were Mayapan and Zilan, and as the latter name also signified "embroidery" it looks as though it had been a noted centre of female industry.

Then, after a lapse of years, "a large number of tribes, with their lords, came to Yucatan from the south." Bishop Landa conjectures that, although his informants did not know this for certain, "these tribes must have come from Chiapas, many words and the conjugation of some verbs being the same in Yucatan as in Chiapas where there existed great signs showing that ancient capitals had been devastated and abandoned," possibly by earthquakes, famine, disease or warfare. It has been surmised that the venerable Bishop alluded, in this sentence, to the ruins of Palenque in Chiapas.

Although not mentioned by Cogolludo or Lizana it is accepted that the new-comers were the Tutul-xius. According to an ancient Maya chronicle, "at a date corresponding to 401 A.D., the four Tutul-xius had fled from the house of Nonoual, to the west of Zuiva and came from the land of Tulapan. Four eras pa.s.sed before they reached the peninsula of Yucatan named Chac-noui-tan under their chieftain, Holon-Chan-Tepeuh," a name which is equally intelligible in Maya, Tzendal and Nahuatl and means Head-Serpent and "lord of the mountain," according to Bra.s.seur de Bourbourg, who states that the latter was a sovereign t.i.tle amongst the Quiches.

Landa relates that, after wandering about Yucatan for forty years (possibly in search of the stable centre) these tribes settled near Mayapan, subjected themselves to its laws and lived in peaceful friends.h.i.+p with the Cocomes. The new-comers brought with them the atlatl or spear-thrower which is minutely described but is evidently regarded as a weapon of the chase.(57) The chronicle goes on to narrate that the Cocom governor, having become ambitious for riches, entered into a treaty with Mexican warriors who were garrisoned at Tabasco and Xicalango by the Mexican ruler and induced them to come to Mayapan and to aid him in oppressing the native lords. The latter and the Tutul-xius rebelled against this action and, having observed the Mexicans and become experts in the art of using their bow and arrow, lance, hatchet, s.h.i.+eld and other defensive armor, they "ceased to admire and fear the Mexicans and began to make little of them, and in this condition they remained for some years."

A lapse of years pa.s.sed and another Cocom chief formed a fresh league with the Tabasco people. More Mexican warriors came to Mayapan and supported him in tyrannizing and making slaves of the lower cla.s.s. Then the Tutulxiu lords a.s.sembled and decided to murder the Cocom ruler. Having done so they also killed all his sons with the exception of one who was absent; burnt their houses and seized their plantations of cocoa and other fruits, saying that these compensated for what had been stolen from them. The differences which subsequently arose between the Cocome and the Xius people resulted in the final destruction and abandonment of Mayapan after an occupation of more than five hundred years, both tribes returning to their countries.

"The lords who destroyed Mayapan (about 120 years before the Conquest) carried away with them their books of science.... The son of the Cocom lord, who being absent had escaped death, returned and gathered his relations and va.s.sals together and founded a capital.... Many towns were built by them in the hills and many families descended from these Cocomes.

These lords of Mayapan did not revenge themselves upon the Mexican warriors but generously exonerated them from blame because they were strangers and had been persuaded to come into the land by its former ruler. They allowed them to remain unmolested in the country and to found a city on condition that they kept to themselves and married in their own tribe only. These Mexicans decided to settle in Yucatan and peopled the province of Can-ul which was a.s.signed to them and they continued to live there until the second invasion of the Spaniards."

At Chichen-Itza, situated at about twenty-three leagues from the ancient site of Mayapan, there exists substantial evidence of the existence of these Aztec warriors, with indications that they pertained to the Mexican warrior-caste of the ocelots or tigers. It is a recognized fact that the remarkable bas-reliefs, which still cover the walls of the "temple of the tigers" at Chichen-Itza, are strikingly Aztec in every detail. The exact counterparts of the Atlatls, they hold, are visible on the so-called "Stone of Tizoc" in the city of Mexico. Sculptured on the wall opposite the entrance of the temple there are about thirty-six war-chiefs grouped in three parallel rows of twelve each, the majority of whom are apparently rendering some form of homage to a seated personage surrounded by rays, while others are having an encounter with a monstrous serpent. On the side walls and slanting roofs more warriors are figured, many accompanied by a rebus or hieroglyph which evidently records, in Mexican style, individual names. The total number of sculptured warriors seems to have been about one hundred. If each of these represented, as may be supposed, a "count of men," it is evident that a large force of Aztec soldiers must have lived in Yucatan at one time.

Other interesting monuments at Chichen-Itza deserve a pa.s.sing mention. Mr.

Teobert Maler (Yukatekische Forschungen, Globus, 1895, p. 284) relates that there are two pyramid-temples in the terraces of which the remains of great stone tables have been found. He states that one of these tables was originally supported by two rows of seven sculptured caryatids and by a central row of plain columns with flat, square tops. Traces of paint showed that the figures had been painted, that a yellow-brown color had predominated, but that all ornaments or accessories were either blue or green. The caryatids exhibited a variety of costume and of size and each showed a marked individuality. The second table standing in a larger temple, was originally painted red and supported by twenty-four caryatid figures which resemble each other closely, show no individuality and which seem to have been disposed in two rows of twelve each. Mr. Maler infers from this that, being more highly conventionalized, they were of a later date than the previous examples. If it were not for the circ.u.mstance that both tables had the same number of supports their numeral 24 might pa.s.s un.o.bserved. As it is, I shall recur to it on mentioning other monuments with figures yielding the same number and disposed, in one case, as 64.

In connection with these stone tables I recall the fact that, in the Maya language, they were called Mayac-tun.

Mr. W. H. Holmes (_op. cit._, p. 134) tells us that in one case the continuous table had been formed by a series of limestone tablets averaging three feet square and five or six inches thick, each slab having been supported by two of the dwarfish figures which stand with both hands aloft, giving a broad surface of support. He ascertained that "these slabs were wonderfully resonant and when struck lightly with a hammer or stone, give out tones closely resembling those of a deeply resonant bell, and the echoes awakened in the silent forest are exceedingly impressive." Mr.

Holmes' account of these resonant stone tables is of particular value to me because it throws an interesting light upon the following Maya words: I have already stated that the native name for table is Mayac, and that a stone table is Mayac-tun. The word _tun_, however, not only signifies stone, but also sound and noise. From this it would seem that stone tables such as Mr. Holmes describes were made expressly for the purpose of emitting sound and employed like the huehuetl or wooden drums of the ancient Mexicans to summon the people to the temple and to guide the sacred dances.

The existence of the word tun-kul, which is either "stone-bowl" or "sound-bowl," seems likewise to indicate that hollow stone vessels were used at one time as gongs. At the present day the Mayas name the small wooden drum of the Mexicans a "tunkul," whereas its Nahuatl name is "te-ponaxtli," the prefix of which, curiously enough, seems also to be connected with tetl=stone. A curious light is shed upon the possible use of some of the many stone vessels found in Mexico and Yucatan by the above linguistic evidence.

In conclusion I quote Mr. Maler's authority for two points concerning Chichen-Itza which are not generally known. First, that its name should be p.r.o.nounced "Tsitsen-itsa," and, second, that he saw there no less than five rec.u.mbent statues, holding circular vessels. Each of these figures exhibits the same form of breast-plate as the Le Plongeon example now at the National Museum of Mexico (pl. IV, fig. 1). Mr. Maler states that it seems to have been the tribal mark of the Cocomes, the whilom rulers at Chichen-Itza; but it is interesting to note the general resemblance of this ornament to the blue plaque worn by the Mexican "Blue Lord," the Lord of the Year and of Fire, "Xiuhtecuhtli," who is also usually represented with a Xiuh-tototl or "blue-bird" on the front of his head-dress.

These facts seem to indicate that the characteristic breast-plate, instead of being a mark of the Cocomes, may have been that of the Tutul-Xius, and that this t.i.tle has some connection with that of Xiuh-tecuhtli, the Mexican "Lord of Fire." It has been already set forth in the preceding pages that the sacred fire was kindled in the stone vase held by the rec.u.mbent figures, a fact indicating that the identical form of cult was practised in Mexico and at Chichen-Itza. This ident.i.ty is satisfactorily accounted for and explained if we accept the simple native records of the invitation extended to Mexican warriors by a Maya chieftain and their subsequent permanent residence in Yucatan.

The limitations of my subject do not allow me to do more than mention two other important ruined cities of Yucatan, Izamal and Uxmal. I will however note that, judging from the ill.u.s.trations I have seen, Uxmal seems to be the "Serpent-city" of America, par excellence, its buildings exhibiting the most elaborate and profuse employment of the serpent for symbolical decoration. One inference from this might be that the serpent was the totemic animal of the ancient builders of this city. The foregoing rapid review of the native chronicles of Yucatan shows that even the foundation of Mayapan was comparatively recent; that the peninsula had, in turn, harbored powerful tribes who had drifted thence from the southwest and Mexican warriors whose aid had been sought by consecutive rulers of Chichen-Itza. We see that Yucatan was the meeting ground for Maya- and Nahuatl-speaking people and that the tendency was to leave the peninsula in search of a more favorable soil and climate as soon as opportunity was afforded.

Since the cradle of the Maya civilization is evidently not to be looked for in Yucatan, let us follow the clue afforded by the native traditions, transport ourselves to some of the most important ruined cities of Central America and endeavor to wrest from their monuments some knowledge of the social organization of their ancient inhabitants. In order to inst.i.tute this search under the most favorable circ.u.mstances, I ventured to apply for guidance to Mr. A. P. Maudslay who has made a more thorough, prolonged and extensive study and exploration of these ruined cities than any other person. Upon my request to formulate his opinion as to the respective antiquity and chief characteristics of the most noted sites, this distinguished explorer has most kindly authorized me to publish the following note.

"But for a brief note in Nature (28th April, 1892), I have never cla.s.sified the ruins or attempted to give proofs of differences in age of the monuments, but roughly you may safely cla.s.s them as follows: I am inclined to look on the Motagua river group as the oldest. The Yucatan group is certainly the youngest. Of course there are many other smaller differences between the groups and much overlapping. Whichever group may be the oldest the art is there already advanced and the decoration has taken forms which must have occupied many kinds of workers to conventionalize from natural objects."

1. On Motagua River, Quirigua, Copan. Large monolithic stelae and altars with figures and inscriptions carved on all four sides in rather high relief, some groups pictographic. No weapons of war portrayed in the sculpture.

2. On Usumacinto River, Menche, Tinamit, Palenque, Ixkun. Stelae are usually flat slabs carved with figures and inscriptions in low relief on one side only. External ornament of the buildings usually moulded in stucco. War-like weapons but very scarce.

3. Tikal. Intermediate between Nos. 2 and 4, but somewhat different and distinct from either.

4. Yucatan. Chichen-Itza, Uxmal, etc. Stelae very few in number and poorly carved. Inscriptions carved in stone are very scarce. Inscriptions were probably _painted_ on the walls of the temples. External ornament of buildings formed by a mosaic of cut stones somewhat resembling Zapotec or Aztec style. Every man portrayed as a warrior [on the bas-reliefs].

By means of the magnificent set of casts which Mr. A. P. Maudslay has generously presented to the South Kensington Museum, London, and with the aid of his monumental and splendidly ill.u.s.trated work on the Archaeology of Central America, which has been appearing as a part of the Biologia Centrali-Americana, edited by Messrs. G.o.dman and Salvin, I have been able to verify the following facts which will be found to throw light on the purpose and meaning of some of the ancient monuments.

Before examining the great, elaborately carved stelae which are characteristic of Quirigua and Copan, let us search the native chronicles for some clue explanatory of the purpose for which they were erected.

Bishop Landa has transmitted to us some details about the destroyed metropolis of Mayapan given to him by Yucatec informants who stated that "in the central square of that city there still were 7 or 8 stones, about ten feet high, rounded on one side and well sculptured, which exhibit several rows of the native characters, but were so worn that they had become illegible. It is supposed, however, that they are the record of the foundation and destruction of that capital. Similar, but higher monuments, are at Zilan, a town on the coast. Interrogated as to the meaning of these monoliths the natives answered: It had been or was customary to erect similar stones at intervals of 20 years which was the number by which they counted their eras." Bishop Landa subsequently remarks that "this statement is not consistent," for, according to this "there should be many more such stones in existence, and none exist in any other pueblo but Mayapan and Zilan."(58)

Disagreeing with the venerable Bishop, I find in the above statements the most valuable indications of the former existence of two centres of culture in Yucatan. There is a curious affinity between the name Zilan (p.r.o.nounced Dzilan) and Chilan given as "the t.i.tle of a priestly office which consisted of a juridistic astrology and divination," by Landa. There may even be a connection between zilan and zian=origin, commencement; zihnal=original and primitive, which may be worthy of consideration in a.s.sociation with the well-known statement, quoted by Dr. Brinton, that "the most venerable traditions of the Maya race claimed for them a migration from Tollan in Zu-iva-thence we all came forth together, there was the common parent of our race; thence came we from amongst the Yagui men, whose G.o.d is Yolcuatl Quetzalcoatl." Dr. Brinton adds that "this Tollan is certainly none other than the abode of Quetzalcoatl named in an Aztec ma.n.u.script as 'Zivena Uitzcatl.' " Vague as any conjecture must necessarily be, I cannot but deem it of utmost importance that systematic excavations be made, some day, at Zilan, for the purpose of bringing to light the stelae referred to by the native informants of Bishop Landa.

According to Bra.s.seur de Bourbourg "Zilan, situated at about 20- leagues from Merida belonged to the Cheles people.(59) It is the seaport of Izamal and contains the ruins of one of the greatest pyramids or artificial mounds (omul) in Yucatan," a fact which corroborates the view that it was an ancient important capital. The northern coast of Yucatan is extremely remarkable for it is divided from the Gulf of Mexico by a continuous strip of land between which and the mainland there is a narrow channel of water.

There are two openings only in this zone of land which afford a pa.s.sage into the navigable channel. One of these openings is situated almost opposite to Zilan and is known as the Boca de Zilan. At a short distance to the east there is a second such "boca" opposite to the mouth of the Rio Lagartos, which is a large estuary and the only river on the northern coast of Yucatan.(60)

Let us now transport ourselves, mentally, south of the peninsula to Honduras and, leaving the coast, ascend the Motagua valley to the ruins of Quirigua and Copan,(61) which have impressed Mr. Maudslay as being of great antiquity. Before examining such of these monuments as seem to yield the testimony we are seeking, let us again recall Landa's record that the Mayas erected stelae as memorials of each 20-year period. To this statement should be added, at full length, Cogolludo's record that "the Mayas employed eras of 20 years and lesser periods of 4 years.(62) The first of these four years was a.s.signed to the east and was named Cuch-haab; the second, Hiix, to the west; the third, Cavac, to the south and the fourth Muluc, to the north, and this served as a 'Dominical letter.' When five of these four-year periods had pa.s.sed, which form twenty years, they called it a Katun and placed one sculptured stone over another sculptured stone and fixed them with lime and sand [mortar] to the walls of their temples and houses of the priests."(63)

The term katun is closely linked to the said employment of memorial stones, for tun is the Maya for stone and ka seems to stand for kal or kaal=20. The word hun-kaal=20, means literally, "one complete count," or "a count which is closed," since the verb kaal means to close, shut, or fasten something. According to the above a katun literally means "the 20 (year) stone;" but we know that, by extension, it designated the era itself as well as war and battle. Thus we find the verb katun-tal=to fight.

Cogolludo continues: "In a town named Tixuala-tun, which signifies 'the place where they place one stone above another,' they say that they kept their archive, containing records of all events.... In current speech katun signified era and when a person wished to say he was sixty years of age, he used the expression to have three eras of years or three stones.

For seventy they said three and a half stones or four less one-half stone.

From this it may be seen that they were not too barbarous, for it is said that [by this system] they were able to keep such exact records that they not only certified an event but also the month and day on which it took place."

By referring to Maya and Spanish dictionaries we gain supplementary valuable information about native memorial stones. We find the name amaytun given as that of "a square stone on which the ancient Indians used to carve the 20 years of the period ahau-katun, because the four remaining years which completed the epoch, were placed underneath, so as to form a sort of pedestal which was called, for this reason, lath oc katun or chek oc katun. By extension, painted representations [of the epoch] were also named amaytun." The dictionary further informs us that amayte was the name for the first twenty years of the ahau katun, which were carved on the square stone and we see that amayte also means "something square or with corners" and is formed of amay=corner.

Equipped with the foregoing knowledge of the sort of memorial it was customary for the Mayas to erect, let us now see whether the ruins of Copan furnish any monuments which would answer to the description and purpose of "amay-tes" and "ka-tuns." Referring the reader to parts I-III of Mr. A. P. Maudslay's work already cited, I draw special attention to the following stelae and altars which are so admirably figured therein.