The American Egypt : a record of travel in Yucatan . the moon rose. We had been riding forty minutes or so, when of a suddenthe trees parted. Looming up, momentarily blotting outmoon and sky, rose a mighty pyramid, rearing its vast massof ink-black shadow into the silver sky. As we rode towardsits western shoulder, the moon touched with a glinting lightthe flat stones of its southern slope and struck on the hugeplinths and door-lintels of the temple which crowned us, as our eyes became used to the light, we saw,rising gaunt above the tree-tops, the crumbling walls andfacades of palac
The American Egypt : a record of travel in Yucatan . the moon rose. We had been riding forty minutes or so, when of a suddenthe trees parted. Looming up, momentarily blotting outmoon and sky, rose a mighty pyramid, rearing its vast massof ink-black shadow into the silver sky. As we rode towardsits western shoulder, the moon touched with a glinting lightthe flat stones of its southern slope and struck on the hugeplinths and door-lintels of the temple which crowned us, as our eyes became used to the light, we saw,rising gaunt above the tree-tops, the crumbling walls andfacades of palaces and temples. It was Chichen ! Chichenthe magnificent ! and this the Taj Mahal of CentralAmerica, down the steep steps of which the solemn processionof priests and victims had passed in their journey to thescene of the sacrifice ! Reining in our horses, we sat theregazing up at this grand relic of a dead people. Instinctively,one almost held ones breath ; there was something so sublime,so awe-inspiring in this imperishable monument to perishable. EL CASTILLO, CHICHEN ITZA. P. 84] AMID THE PALACES OF THE ITZAS 85 gods. What did it all mean ? The tyrant priests, majesticin their bejewelled and befeathered robes, standing at thehead of those now crumbling steps, with supplicatory handsuplifted to the starlit heavens ; the mighty lord of theItzas, at whose command tens of thousands had toiled at thebuilding for years in the blistering sunlight ; the gods, toappease whom the blood of human victims had perchanceflowed in rivers before their grotesque idols; all dead,unutterably dead, impotent, discredited ! As we sat there,from the dark woods echoed the weird long-drawn cry of theMayan night-jar—the puhuy—like a spirit-wail over thefallen race. The history of Chichen Itza before the arrival of theSpaniards is as vague and as untrustworthy as all else con-cerning the ancient Mayans. In a later chapter we shallreview the evidence available as to the date of its Desire
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