It is scarcely necessary for us to call the reader’s attention to the details of this picture, in which correctness of design and graceful outlines predominate to such an extent that we may safely pronounce the beautiful youth who sits enthroned on his elaborate and artistic throne, the American Apollo. In the original drawing the grace of the arms and wrists is truly matchless, and the chest muscles are displayed in the most perfect manner. The embroidered girdle and folded drapery of the figure, as well as the drapery around the leopards’ necks, are arranged with taste. The head-dress is not unlike a Roman helmet in form, with the addition of numerous plumes. The sandals of the feet are secured by a cord and rosette, while ornaments on the animals’ ankles seem secured by leather straps. The engraving does not do justice to the face-like ornament suspended by the string of pearls upon the youth’s breast. In the original drawing it is quite beautiful, and of a female cast.[560]

The next subject of interest to the student of sculpture is found in the Temple of the Cross, in the inmost sanctuary of all, and is known as the Tablet of the Cross. Three stones cover most of the surface of the rear wall of the sanctum sanctorum, and present an area six feet four inches high by ten feet eight inches wide. The central of the three stones bears the celebrated sculpture of the cross which has excited so much interest and comment, to say nothing of speculation as to its origin. The cut is a photographic reduction from Waldeck’s drawing. A priest and priestess appear to be offering an infant to an ugly bird which stands perched upon the cross. The infant’s face is completely hid by a fantastic mask or cap. The expression of pain on the faces of the officiating personages is very marked. The symmetry of proportion employed in the sculpture is conceded by all observers. The two lateral stones (the left-hand one being shown in our cut) are covered with hieroglyphics, which begin at the left-hand upper corner with a large capital letter. Some one had removed the central stone from its position prior to Waldeck’s visit, and conveyed it to a point in the forest not far distant. Stephens also found it in the same locality. By referring to the hieroglyphic tablet at the left of the cross it will be observed that just below the large initial letter or word is a threefold hieroglyphic, while seven others in the same column are double. This would indicate, we should think, that the characters were read from the top downwards, though it is possible that the lines were read horizontally, each line beginning with a capital as in poetry.[561]

On either side of the doorway opening to the inner sanctuary of the Cross, were originally two male figures sculptured in low-relief on stone; one of them, which appears to represent an aged royal person, is beautifully clad in a leopard’s skin, while the opposite figure, designed probably to represent youthful manhood, is arrayed in what may be an elaborate military dress and plumed crest of magnificent character. He wears what appears to be a cuirass about his shoulders and chest. These tablets were removed to the village of Santo Domingo years ago and set up in a modern house, where they were offered to M. Waldeck on the sole condition that he should marry one of the proprietresses, though he at the time was more than sixty-four years of age. Stephens could have obtained them by purchasing the house in which they had been placed, but did not.[562] On the slope of the pyramid of the Cross, M. Waldeck found two statues just alike, one of which was unfortunately broken; the other, subsequently sketched by Catherwood, is shown in the cut, a photographic reduction from Waldeck. These statues were ten and a half feet high, though two and a half feet of their length, not shown in the cut, formed a tenon by which they were embedded in the floor of the pyramidal surface, where Waldeck supposes they stood supporting a platform about twenty feet square, in front of the central doorway. These are the only statues ever found at Palenque; but it is doubted whether they can be technically called statues, since the back is of rough stone, and unsculptured. They probably rested against a wall and served as supports for an upper roof or floor, as indicated by Waldeck. The head-dress has been pronounced Egyptian by all who have seen it.[563]

In the temple of the Sun, in a position precisely corresponding to that occupied by the tablet of the cross, stands a somewhat similar tablet cut in low-relief on three slabs covering an area of eight by nine feet. The figure of the cross in this instance is displaced by a hideous face or mask supposed to represent the sun, supported by a framework resting on the shoulders of crouching men. The priest and priestess occupy the same positions as occupied by them in the tablet of the cross. Each is in the act of presenting a child with masked face to the sun, and each is standing upon the back of a kneeling slave. The lateral tablets are covered with columns or rows of hieroglyphics, as in the tablet of the cross.[564] The stuccoed roofs and piers of both the temples—Cross and Sun—may be truly pronounced works of art of a high order. On the former, Stephens observed busts and heads approaching the Greek models in symmetry of contour and perfectness of proportion. M. Waldeck has preserved in his magnificent drawings some of these figures, which are certainly sufficient to prove beyond controversy, that the ancient Palenqueans were a cultivated and artistic people. In passing to Uxmal the transition is from delineations of the human figure to the elegant and superabundant exterior ornamentation of edifices, and from stucco to stone as the material employed. The human figure, however, when it is represented, is in statuary of a high order. The artists of Uxmal did not improve upon the Palenque models so much in the design as in the execution of their subjects. Uxmal statuary approximates more closely to what properly may be called statuary, being cut more nearly “in the round” and having less unfinished back surface than the Palenque statue. The elegant square panels of grecques and frets which compose the cornice of the Casa del Gobernador, delineated in the works of Stephens, Baldwin and Bancroft, are a marvel of beauty, which must excite the admiration of the most indifferent student of this subject. The ornamentation of this great cornice, equal to one-third the height of the building, is cut on blocks of stone and inserted in the wall with the utmost precision, so that every line matches, and the graceful arabesques and bas-reliefs, which sometimes cover several blocks with a single figure, are unbroken by apparent joints. The grandest specimens of American ornamental sculpture are, however, to be seen on the inner fronts of the four buildings of the Casa de Monjas, a plan of which is given on page 351 of this work. It will be remembered that these fronts face the court around which the buildings were constructed. The court front of the eastern building is probably one of the most tasteful and interesting specimens of sculpture to be met with in America.[565] M. Waldeck considers that it presents an appearance of grandeur of which it would be difficult to give an idea, while Stephens considers its chasteness of design a great relief from the gorgeous masses of other façades. The cornice over the central doorway and the corners of the eastern court façade are ornamented with ugly masks and “elephant trunks” protruding from them, as in the Governor’s home.[566] If the preceding façade is the most generally admired of those at Uxmal, “the most magnificent and beautiful front in America” is that of the Serpent Temple, or western court façade of the Nunnery, as is shown in the accompanying engraving, which is a photographic reduction of Waldeck’s drawing employed in Mr. Bancroft’s work.

The marked feature of the sculpture is the formation of square panels by the intertwined bodies of two huge stone serpents with monster heads, surmounted by plumes and enclosing between the jaws of each a human face. A head and tail as shown above occupy opposite extremes of the front. This may be a representation of the plumed serpent of the Central American mythology. The stone lattice-work (a feature of Uxmal sculpture) underlying the serpents and covering the panels formed by their folds, is more complicated and beautiful than any other in America. At regular intervals large grecques or arabesques, with their connecting bars lengthened to the width of the entire sculptured portion of the façade, are distributed. Several panels are ornamented with life-sized human figures, while each panel contains a human face, some of which are as beautiful as the Greek models. The upper cornice is ornamented, as are all the other cornices of the Nunnery, with what are supposed to be Sun symbols, one of which is shown in the cut, reduced photographically from Waldeck’s drawing. The appended “feathers” are almost Assyrian in their type, while the double triangle within the circle is certainly an ancient symbol in the old world.

The “elephant trunks” and rude masks employed as ornaments above the doorways of the other fronts, are also numerous here. Since M. Waldeck’s visit portions of this wonderful example of ancient decorative art have fallen.[567] The northern building of the court offers no sculptured contrasts with the other buildings, except that above the upper cornice, thirteen turrets, each seventeen feet high and ten feet wide, are distributed at regular intervals, and are also covered with sculpture resembling the grecques of the Serpent temple. Most of the sculptures at Uxmal were probably painted, as traces of various colors were observed in sheltered localities. The rich sculptures of the prophet’s house were painted blue, red, yellow and white, according to M. Waldeck. The Mayas no doubt employed the brush freely, and in some instances with skill. In the gymnasium at Chichen-Itza, Stephens grew enthusiastic over the exceedingly fine series of paintings in bright colors, which cover the walls of one of the chambers. Many of the pictures have been destroyed by the falling of the plaster upon which they were painted. In this series of pictures, battles, processions, houses, trees and a variety of objects are represented—blue, red, yellow and green are the colors employed, though the human figures are painted reddish brown.[568] At Chichen, as elsewhere, the favorite subject for the Maya sculpture was the serpent. A colossal serpent balustrade is one of the wonders of this interesting place.

Dr. Augustus Le Plongeon, during the last quarter of the year 1875, made an extensive exploration of Chichen-Itza. The reports of his discoveries seem at first well-nigh fabulous, though their authenticity is so well attested as to leave no room for doubt. Mr. Stephen Salisbury, Jr., of Worcester, Massachusetts, has in several memoirs of intense interest and unusual scientific value, communicated the progress and results of Dr. Le Plongeon’s exploration in Yucatan to the American Antiquarian Society. Mr. Salisbury has also presented the explorer’s original memoirs, accompanied by photographs made at Chichen-Itza and on the Islands of Cozumel and Mugeres. These valuable documents have reached the public in Mr. Salisbury’s publications entitled, (1.) The Mayas, the Sources of their History (Worcester, 1877, with heliotype reproductions of the photos); (2.) Maya Archæology (Worcester, 1879, with heliotype reproductions of photos and drawings).[569] In these pages we are impressed with the fact that the darkness which has so long enveloped the antiquity of Yucatan is soon to be displaced by the noon-day of scientific investigation. Still we cannot refrain from expressing the regret that Dr. Le Plongeon’s enthusiasm is so apparent in his reports. A judicial frame of mind, as well as the calmness which accompanies it, are requisites both for scientific work and the inspiration of confidence in the reader. Notwithstanding this, our views have been most happily expressed by the committee of the American Antiquarian Society, to whom was entrusted the publication of Dr. Le Plongeon’s memoirs. Their statement is as follows: “The successes of Du Chaillu, Schliemann, and of Stanley, are remarkable instances of triumphant results in cases where enthusiasm had been supposed to lack the guidance of wisdom. If earnest men are willing to take the risks of personal research in hazardous regions, or exercise their ingenuity and their scholarship in attempting to solve historical or archæological problems, we may accept thankfully the information they give, without first demanding in all cases unquestionable evidence or absolute demonstration.”

Dr. Le Plongeon says of the columns at Chichen, “the base is formed by the head of Cukulcan, the shaft by the body of the serpent, with its feathers beautifully carved to the very chapter. On the chapters of the columns that support the portico, at the entrance of the castle in Chichen-Itza, may be seen the carved figures of long bearded men, with upraised hands, in the act of worshipping sacred trees. They forcibly recall to mind the same worship in Assyria.” In consequence of the successful interpretation of certain hieroglyphic inscriptions at Chichen, the explorer and his wife (who accompanied him in his perilous enterprise), learned that the statue of Chaac Mol, or Balam, (the tiger king), the greatest of the Itza monarchs, had been buried below the surface of the ground at a certain point, distant four hundred yards from the palace. The first result of excavation in the locality indicated was the discovery of a sculptured tiger of colossal size, having a human head, which, unfortunately, was broken off. Several slabs bearing sculptures of tigers and birds of prey in relief were unearthed. A pedestal supporting the sculptured tiger apparently had once occupied the spot, and its destruction had left a mound of débris. Seven metres below the surface of this mound a rough stone urn containing a little dust was secured, and upon it an earthen cover. This was near the head of the statue of Chaac Mol, which was next disclosed. The statue is of a white calcareous stone, one metre fifty-five centimetres long, one metre fifteen centimetres in height, and eighty centimetres wide, and weighed fifty kilos. The statue represents the reclining figure of a man, who is naked except that he is adorned with a head-dress, with bracelets, garters of feathers, and sandals similar to those found upon the mummies of the ancient Guanchies of the Canary Islands.

The statue of Chaac Mol was seized by Mexican officials and sent to the capital. Our friend, the Rev. John W. Butler, of the city of Mexico, writes to us (letter received October 10, 1878) concerning the statue: “It is just as represented. It may be seen in the National Museum, just opposite its exact duplicate, which was found under the Plaza of the city of Mexico, some years ago. What is the meaning of this? The tribe whose king (or god) it was, must have migrated southward, for the one excavated in Mexico shows greater age than the one from Yucatan.” In reply we would say that the evidences are sufficient that the Maya civilization once extended farther north than the city of Mexico, but the conquests of the Nahuas drove that ancient people no doubt to abandon their northern territory and to confine themselves to their lands farther south.

Dr. Le Plongeon, in speaking of the historical value of the statue, says Chaac Mol was one of the three brothers whom tradition declares were the co-rulers of Yucatan at a very ancient period. Chaac Mol and his beautiful queen Kinich-Kakmó were the powerful sovereigns of the kingdom of Chichen-Itza. Aac, one of the brothers, becoming enamored of his sister-in-law Kinich-Kakmó, slew Chaac Mol that he might make her his wife. The funeral-chamber, the mural paintings, the statues, and the monument of the murdered king found by the explorer, were memorials of the sad event which the faithful queen caused to be executed by the artisans and artists of the royal city. Dr. Le Plongeon remarks: “In the funeral-chamber, the terrible altercation between Aac and Chaac Mol, which had its termination in the murder of the latter by his brother, is represented by large figures, three-fourths life size. There Aac is painted holding three spears in his hands, typical of the three wounds he inflicted on the back of his brother. These wounds are indicated on the statue of the dying tiger (symbol of Chaac Mol) by two holes near the lumbar region, and one under the left scapula, proving that the blow was aimed at the heart from behind. The two wounds are also marked by two holes near each other in the lumbar region, on the bas-relief of the tiger eating a human heart that adorned the Chaac Mol mausoleum (see sculptured slab on page 398).”[570]

Mr. Stephen Salisbury, Jr., in his Maya Archæology, has reproduced one of Dr. and Mrs. Le Plongeon’s tracings of a mural painting in the funeral-chamber of the Chaac Mol monument at Chichen-Itza. Through the courtesy of Mr. Salisbury we have been permitted to copy it for this work. The Doctor interprets it as representing the queen Kinich-Kakmó when a child consulting an H-Men, one of the Maya wise men or astrologers, in order to know her destiny. The prediction is based upon the lines produced by fire on the shell of an armadillo or turtle, and is expressed in the colors of the elaborate scroll proceeding from the throat of the H-Men. Referring to his tracings of mural paintings at Chichen-Itza, Dr. Le Plongeon says “they represent war scenes with javelins flying in all directions, warriors fighting, shouting, assuming all sorts of athletic positions, scenes from domestic life, marriage ceremonies, temples with complete domes, proving that the Itza architects were acquainted with the circular arch, but made use of the triangular probably because it was the custom and style of architecture of the time and country.”[571] Besides the sculptures of long-bearded men seen by the explorer at Chichen-Itza mentioned on a preceding page, were tall figures of people with small heads, thick lips, and curly short hair or wool, regarded as negroes. “We always see them as standard or parasol bearers, but never engaged in actual warfare.”[572] He pronounces the features of the long-bearded men pictured on the walls of the queen’s chambers to be Assyrian in their type. On the Isla Mugeres (in the latter part of the year 1876), Dr. Le Plongeon exhumed portions of a female figure in terra-cotta, which indicate an advanced state of art among the ancient Mayas. The fragments of the statue, consisting of the head and feet, were probably attached to the front of a brasero or incense-burner used at the shrine of the Maya Venus, located on the southern extremity of the island. It was immediately in front of this shrine, visited by Cordova in 1516,[573] that the remains of the statue were found buried in the sand. The expression of the face is cruel and savage, the nostrils are perforated and also the pupils of the eyes. The teeth are filed as those of the statue Chaac Mol are said to be. The head is surmounted by a head-dress eight inches high. The fragments of this statue are now in the possession of Mr. Salisbury.[574]

Through the courtesy of the owner we are enabled to present a photographic reduction of the relics in the preceding cut.

At Izamel, the burial-place of the culture-hero Zamna, a remarkable example of aboriginal sculpture is found upon the side of a mound now enclosed in a private court-yard. This specimen of art, known as the Cara gigantesca, or gigantic face, measures seven feet in width and seven feet eight inches in height. “The features were first rudely formed by small rough stones, fixed in the side of the mound by means of mortar, and afterwards perfected with a stucco so hard that it has successfully resisted for centuries the action of air and water.” The accompanying cut from Mr. Bancroft’s work will show the type of features.

The subject of Maya sculpture is almost a limitless one, but we trust that the above-cited examples may give the reader a comprehensive acquaintance with the existing types. The sculpture of Copan is no less remarkable than its architecture. In fact, every object bore the skillful marks of the graver’s chisel. The great number of sculptured obelisks, pillars and idols have been the wonder of every reader of Mr. Stephens’ description. Since his work is so generally known, we refrain from presenting more than one example of Copan art. In the accompanying cut employed in Mr. Bancroft’s work the elaborateness of the sculpture will be observed, and may well be pronounced a marvel of aboriginal art.

But for the perfectly horizontal position of the eyes, the aspect of some of the faces represented by Stephens would strike us as having a Mongolian cast. The magnificently sculptured hieroglyphics which cover the sides and backs of these huge idols, no doubt could tell the sealed story of Copan’s greatness and the attributes of its many gods, were the key once discovered. Everything is covered with these significant symbols, differing slightly from those at Palenque; but who will read them? In the court of the temple, a solid block of stone six feet square and four feet high, resting on four globular stones was sketched by Catherwood, and pronounced an altar by Stephens. Sixteen figures in profile, with turbaned heads, breast-plates, and each seated cross-legged on hieroglyphic-like cushions, are sculptured in low-relief, four figures being on each side of the block. The top of the altar is covered with thirty-six squares of hieroglyphics, shown in a cut on a future page. Besides numbers of masks, effigies and rows of death’s heads at Copan, there are sculptures of the face which we may believe to have been portraits. The Copan sculpture is generally admitted to be of a high order, and Stephens thinks it unsurpassed in Egypt. The receding forehead of most of the portraits have excited general interest, and are believed to be delineations of the priestly or aristocratic type. No weapons are sculptured at Copan, but on the contrary altars abound in considerable numbers, especially in front of the sculptured obelisks or idols. The presumption is therefore strong that this was a religious centre, unmolested by any enemy, and undisturbed by the alarm of war.[575]

Nahua Sculpture.—The Nahua sculpture is not of as high an order nor of as frequent occurrence as that of the Mayas. At Monte Alban in Oajaca, in a gallery within a mound, Castañeda sketched the sculptured profile shown in the accompanying cut, employed in Mr. Bancroft’s work. It is cut upon the face of a granite block about three feet square, and is interesting because of the Chinese-like queue which hangs from the figure’s head. At Mitla the grecques and arabesques which cover the façades of the several edifices are not sculptured, except in cases where large stones serve as lintels over doorways. On them the running borders are sculptured in low-relief, while the remainder of the profuse ornamentation is of the nature of mosaic work, being built into the wall.

Several minor objects of sculpture found in the States of Oajaca and Vera Cruz might be cited, but their interest for the reader would be too insignificant to justify a description.[576] One of the principal objects of this class and much superior to any of the others is a grotesque fountain cut in the living rock at Tusapan. The statue is that of a woman in a kneeling posture, and measures nineteen feet in height. The waters of a neighboring spring formerly ran into a basin formed among the plumes of the female’s head-dress, from which it found its way through the entire length of the figure, and flowed forth from beneath her skirts.[577] At Panuco the traditional point of the arrival of the Nahuas, several rude limestone statues were found, some of which have been figured in the Journal of the London Geographical Society, by Mr. Vetch, one of which is copied by Mr. Bancroft.[578] The marked features of these statues is the elaborateness of the style of head-dress worn. We cannot see that they are far removed in their style from similar statues dug from mounds in the Mississippi Valley. In the State of Puebla, at various points, especially at Tepexe el Viejo, at Tepeaca, and at Quanhquelchula, minor sculptures of animals, birds, reptiles, monsters, etc., were observed by Dupaix.[579] Rattlesnakes were found plentiful both in sculptures and in a state of nature. At Cuernavaca, in the State of Mexico, numerous boulder-sculptures, finely executed in low-relief, exist. Dupaix has figured and Bancroft copied one in particular, showing a beautiful coat-of-arms, sculptured on the smooth face of a huge boulder. A circle of arrows and Maltese cross which compose them, are all symbolical of power.[580] Similar coats-of-arms were observed in the State of Puebla. Probably the most remarkable sculpture found in the country occupied by the Nahuas, is that upon the walls of the pyramid of Xochicalco, illustrated on a preceding page.[581] Most of the sculptures are of colossal dragons’ heads, which occur at each of the corners. Human figures, seated cross-legged and holding something like the Assyrian sun symbol in the left are found on the frieze, though some observers have considered this figure to be that of a curved cross-hilted sword, a weapon never employed by the Nahuas. The elaborate head-dresses and strings of enormous pearls worn by the seated figures bear a striking resemblance to the stuccoes of Palenque. At Xochimilco on the western shore of Lake Chalco, Dupaix found several interesting specimens of ancient sculpture.[582] The most celebrated article of Aztec sculpture, unquestionably, is the calendar-stone, which, together with the so-called sacrificial stone and the idol Teoyaomiqui, was in December, 1790, dug up in the Plaza Mayor, in the city of Mexico, on the supposed site of the great teocalli, destroyed by the conquerors. The calendar-stone, now built into the wall of the cathedral, where it can be seen by all passers-by, is a rectangular block of porphyry, thirteen feet one inch square and three feet three inches thick, and of the enormous estimated weight of twenty-four tons. The sculptured portion of the block, on the exposed face, is contained in a circle, eleven feet one inch and four-fifths of an inch in diameter. The regularity and geometrical precision with which the figures are executed called forth enthusiastic admiration from Humboldt, and has been the source of equal wonderment to many later observers. Our cut is a reproduction of Charnay’s photograph, by means of the photo-engraving process, and may be relied upon as absolutely correct. Prescott considers that the original weight of the block before it was mutilated must have been nearly fifty tons; and as no similar stone is found within a radius of twenty-five miles of Mexico, that it must have been brought from the mountains beyond Lake Chalco.[583] Some remarks upon the Aztec calendar will be found in the following chapter. The sacrificial stone is a cylindrical block of porphyry, nine feet ten inches in diameter and three feet seven inches thick, and is now lying in the courtyard of the University of Mexico. If the reader will imagine the border of the calendar-stone outside of the eight triangular points removed entirely, will substitute a concave basin in the place of the central face or sun, also instead of all the calendar signs intervening between the face and the circle, upon which the base of the four principal triangular figures rest, will imagine the existence of several concentric circles not unlike strings of beads, he will have a general idea of the top of the stone. We should not omit to state that a groove or channel leads from the central basin to the outer circumference. The use of the stone is a matter of controversy, Humboldt considering it the gladiatorial stone, Gama a calendar-stone, and Tylor that it was an altar on which animals were sacrificed. Fifteen groups of two human figures, each dressed in the insignia of royalty, are sculptured around its circumference. Bancroft, as well as several others, give cuts of the stone and sculptures. The horrid monster Teoyaomiqui—goddess of death—is sculptured in high-relief on a block of porphyry ten feet high and six feet wide and thick. Probably no mythology nor all the mythologies of the world besides could produce so hideous and unsightly a combination of reptile, human and infernal forms, as make up the three sides of this idol.[584] Mr. Bancroft first figured the beautiful earthen burial vase dug up in the Plaza Tlatelulco and sketched by Col. Mayer. It is twenty-two inches high and fifteen and a half inches in diameter; a closely fitting lid most chastely sculptured covered it, as will be seen in the accompanying cut.

Among the elegant sculptures upon one of its sides is a comely face surmounted by a crown, from each side of which project wings of the same character as were employed to symbolize the sun among the Assyrians.[585] The original is pronounced one of the finest relics preserved in the Mexican Museum. M. Waldeck has figured many beautiful examples of Mexican ceramic art preserved in the above collection as well as in others. The finest specimens of ancient terra-cotta work of which we have any knowledge are shown in the cut, photographically reduced from Waldeck’s plate.[586]

No description can convey any idea of their beauty. The upper left-hand vase, it will be observed, is supported on three feet, each perforated by a perfect Maltese Cross. The central lower vase, of remarkable symmetry, is distinguished by the perfect crux ansata which adorns its side. The lower right and left hand figures are different views of a swinging lamp. These vases cannot but command the admiration of all who see them. M. Waldeck has delineated with remarkable artistic skill three specimens of Mexican mosaic work now in the Christy collection in London. One of these beautiful relics is shown in the cut, reduced from Waldeck’s colored plate for Mr. Bancroft’s work.

However, the cut conveys but a faint idea of its beauty, especially of the handle. The blade is of semi-translucent chalcedony from the volcanic regions of Mexico, while the handle is a most artistic mosaic of bright green turquoise, malachite, and white and red shells. The blade is of a light straw-colored tint, and is mortised in the handle, which is wrapped nearest to the blade with what appears to be a golden braid. Mr. Bancroft remarks “it is certainly most extraordinary to find a people still in the stone age, as is proved by the blade, able to execute so perfect a piece of work as the handle exhibits.”[587] Among the few relics recovered at Tula, the ancient Toltec capital Tollan, the column shown in the cut (from Mr. Bancroft’s work) is very interesting, both for its sculpture and for the exhibition it affords of the manner in which the Toltecs formed their columns, namely, by fastening the sections together by means of circular tenons. The largest block measures four feet long by two and a half in diameter.

Our National Museum at Washington contains numerous fine specimens of Mexican terra-cotta ware, some of which have been figured recently in Dr. Charles Rau’s “Archæological Collection of the U. S. National Museum.”[588] Two large vases in particular demand attention. These were brought to the United States by General Alfred Gibbs at the close of the Mexican war, and are shown in the cut.

The upper vase, which is thirteen and a half inches high, is very elaborately wrought, being surrounded with ten female figures in relief, each alternate figure bearing a child on the left arm. It is noticeable that the head-dresses of the figures holding the children are more elaborate than those of the remaining figures. The second or lower vase, Dr. Rau considers equal to many Etruscan or Greek vases in gracefulness of outline. “The vessel may be compared to a pitcher with two handles, standing opposite each other, and with two mouths projecting between them.” Among the terra-cotta images of Mexican origin in the National Museum the two shown in the cut are of interest. The left-hand figure is that of a woman pressing her hands upon her ears. The face represents an aged individual. The Museum possesses almost an exact duplicate of this image. The right-hand figure is much smaller and is hollow, enclosing a clay ball, and was probably used as a rattle. It is scarcely necessary for us to remark that the seeming analogies between the Maya (Central American) sculpture and that of Egypt have often been noted. Juarros, in speaking of Palenque art, says: “The hieroglyphics, symbols and emblems which have been discovered in the temples, bear so strong a resemblance to those of the Egyptians, as to encourage the supposition that a colony of that nation may have founded the city of Palenque or Culhuacan.”[589] Giordan found, as he thought, the most striking analogies between the Central American remains, as well as those of Mexico, and those of the Egyptians. The idols and monuments he considers of the same form in both countries, while the hieroglyphics of Palenque do not differ from those of ancient Thebes.[590] Señor Melgar, in a communication to the Mexican Geographical Society, has called attention to the frequent occurrence of the (Τ) tau at Palenque, and has more studiously advocated the early relationship of the Palenqueans to Egypt than any other reliable writer.[591] He cites Dupaix’s Third Expedition, page 77 and plates 26 and 27, where in the first figure is a goddess with a necklace supporting a tau like medallion to which the explorer adds the remark that such is “the symbol in Egypt of reproduction or abundance.” In the second plate he finds an altar dedicated expressly to the tau. He considers that the cultus of this, the symbol of the active principle in nature, prevailed in Mexico in many places. Señor Melgar also refers to two idols found south of the city of Mexico, “in one of which two symbols were united, namely, the Cosmogonic egg, symbolical of creation, and two faces, symbols of the generative principle. The other symbolized creation in the bursting forth of an egg. These symbols are not found in the Aztec mythology, but belong to the Indian, Egyptian, Greek, Persian, Japanese and other cosmogonies.” This, the Señor considers proof that these peoples were the primitive colonists of that region, and seeks to sustain his views by references to the Dharma Sastra of Manou and the Zend Avesta. The reader has no doubt been surprised at the frequent occurrence of the [Τ]-shaped niches in the Palenque palace, and has observed the same symbol employed on some of the hieroglyphics of the Tablet of the Cross. The Egyptian tau, one of the members of the Crux ansata, is certainly present at Palenque, but whether it was derived from any one of the Mediterranean peoples who employed it, cannot be ascertained. Among the Egyptians it signified “life,” as is shown by the best Egyptologists.[592] The tau was usually surmounted by a roundlet, though such was not always the case. On a stele from Korasabad, an eagle-headed man is depicted as holding the oval in one hand and the cross in the other.[593] M. Mariette recently, while exploring the ancient temple of Denderah, discovered the sacred symbol in a niche of the holy of holies. It is probable that this emblem was the central object of interest in these inner precincts of the temple, as it was preserved with scrupulous care as the hidden wisdom.[594] Macrobius tells us that the crux ansata was the hieroglyphic sign of Osiris or the Sun,[595] but other writers inform us that it was an ancient symbol of majesty and divinity, and so employed in a modified form in the hands of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva.[596] The associations of the tau in Central America are such as to lead us to believe that it may have had a significance analogous to that which it possessed on the shores of the Mediterranean, the Nile, and the Ganges. The Palenque Cross tablet is a most singular work of American antiquity, and though Mr. Stephens attempted to prove that no analogy exists between it and Egyptian sculptures, still Mr. Bancroft has shown that the former was unfortunate in his selection of Egyptian specimens for the purpose of comparison, since marked analogies between the sculpture of the Vocal Memnon of Thebes and the top of the fallen obelisk at Carnac and the Palenque Tablets exist.[597]