Identifier: ancientcitiesofn00char (find matches)
Title: The ancient cities of the New World : being travels and explorations in Mexico and Central America from 1857-1882
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Charnay, Désiré, 1828-1915
Subjects: Indians of Mexico Indians of Central America
Publisher: London : Chapman and Hall
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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y do at the present day. The other, or sacred cenote, liesin a tangle of wood on the confines of the city, to which a pathhad to be opened. We find midway a large broken statue ofTlaloc, similar to the two we reproduce further on ; the upperportion of the body and the head are wanting. Near it areruinous heaps, remains of two temples, their base occupied byimmense heads of Ouetzalcoatl, who seems to have been thetutelary deity of Chichen. On fragments of walls still standing,I notice bas-reliefs in excellent preservation, one representing alarge fish with a human head,* and the other a figure of a manafter death. Landas description of these temples would lead us to inferthat they were entire in his time, for he says : Some distancenorth of the Castillo were two small theatres built with squareblocks; four filghts of steps led to the top, paved with fine * By a curious coincidence, a sculptured fish having a human head is found ona Romance capital in the Church of St. Germain-des-Pies.
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Ciiiciien-Itza. 35. slabs, and on which low comedies were performed.* Not-withstanding Landa and Cogolludos testimony, we think theywere temples on whose summits the Christianised Indians per-formed their religious ceremonies, which from fear of anathemasthey represented to the good bishop as comedies. The sacred cenote lies 150 yards beyond; it is oblong inshape, and the two diameters measure from 130 to 165 feet.The surface of the water cannot be reached, for the wall, some65 feet high, is entire and perpendicular throughout. The deso-lation of this aguado, its walls shrouded with brambles, shrubs,and lianas, the sombre forest beyond, but above all the lugubriousassociations attaching to it, fill the imagination with indescribablemelancholy. Hither pilgrims repaired, and here offerings were made; forChichen was a holy city, and among her shrines the cenoteheld a conspicuous place, as the following passage from Landawill show: From the courtyard of the theatre, a good wideroad led to

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