Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/97

Rh States; every hut we passed had one stretched upon a frame, with a woman engaged upon it with deft fingers. Aké, which we were then approaching, was the last place visited by Stephens, in 1842, in his famous exploration, during which he found forty-four ruined cities to describe. As he did not always subordinate present comfort to archaeological requirements, he left it with a casual glance, and a remark upon the vastness of the remains. It remained for a later explorer to describe them accurately, and inquire into their meaning.

After we had despatched a substantial breakfast, in a small building used for the entertainment of visitors, Don Alvaro conducted us to the great mound, the wonder of all who have beheld it. It measures, according to Stephens, 225 by 50 feet, upon the platform, which supports thirty-six shafts, or columns, from fourteen to sixteen feet high. These are approached by an immense range of steps, 137 feet long, each step being four feet five inches wide by one foot five inches high. Pitching my camera in a prickly field of hemp, I took a general view of the entire platform with all its pillars, and then, approaching nearer, a single view of the immense columns, showing their structure.

Now, this great platform and these Titanic columns, what is their meaning? Aké, say the historians, was inhabited by Indians at the time of its discovery. A great battle was fought here, between the Spaniards under Don Francisco Montejo and the Mayas, equally sanguinary with that decisive one on the site of Merida, a little later. The early chroniclers also throw light upon these columns; they were intended, not as supports for the roof of a temple, not as altars for sacred fires, but to serve as a record of the age of the race! They were called katunes (epochs), says Cogolludo, and each stone represents a period of twenty years. Every five years, a small stone was placed on each corner of the uppermost rock, beginning at the eastern side and ending at the southern. When the final capping-stone was added, there was great festivity and rejoicing. By referring to the photographs here reproduced, the reader will note the system of construction, exactly as described by the