Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/99

Rh queries, whether "they may have served as symbolical history, set up as memorials of past antiquity," they are the work of giants,—remains Cyclopean. Immense rocks, that it would take many men to lift, ranged pile on pile, by some deluded yet painstaking people; yet all this work, this mighty labor, has gone for naught!

By climbing to the top of one of the columns, one can look over the extensive plain for twenty miles; the little towns in the distance betokened by trees of darker green and white walls, mounds dotting the landscape in every direction, and the nearer pastures overgrown with prickly shrubs. Close by the house, built out of the ruins of a former one, are two mounds, one with immense flat stones as steps, known as the "House of the Priest." The ground is cleared immediately about the house, and a flower garden blossoms among dismantled walls, while a hemp machine performs its duty close under the shadow of the great katunes. Within the circle of older ruins are the remains of a Spanish battery, built, probably, after the bloody fight of Aké. As this place is used only as a rancho, or cattle farm, no improvements are going on, and it is inhabited only by a few Indians and the mayor-domo.

West of the great platform are other mounds, one of which contains a stone structure called Akabná, or dark house. The mound was evidently terraced, like the others, many a great block remaining in situ. It is now an undistinguishable mass of rocks, the central portion having fallen in, and is covered with cactus, agave, and wild wood. We descended into one of the rooms and started up a vulture, which crawled into one of the many holes and hissed at us, at the same time emitting a fetid odor. This apartment evidently led into another, and the Consul bravely explored the various dark retreats, but without succeeding in finding anything of value. Here was also the peculiar Maya arch, of ruder form than that of Uxmal, more nearly approaching the arch of Palenque,—the inner and overlapping stones not being dressed or bevelled; besides, there was a further departure, in alternate layers of stone and mortar, but with a cap, as in Uxmal, instead of a keystone.