APPENDIX. 67 



sum of seventy-four dollars, upon which the latter formally relinquished his 

 rights to the land. These details are mentioned in a document dated December 

 3rd, 1687. .Finally, the regidor took formal possession of the tract, as shoAvn by 

 the following writ, beginning : " In the place called the edifices of Uxmal and its 

 lands, the third day of the month of January, 1(388," etc., and closing with these 

 words : " In virtue of the power and authority which by the same title is given 

 to me by the said governor, complying with its terms, I took by the hand the 

 said Lorenzo de Evia, and he walked with me all over Uxmal and its buildings, 

 opened and shut some doors that had several rooms,'-' cut within the space some 

 trees, picked up fallen stones and threw them down, drew water from one of the 

 aguadasf of the said place of Uxmal, and performed other acts of possession."! 



From the above extracts it may be concluded that less than two hundred 

 years ago the Indians still performed their religious rites in the buildings of 

 Uxmal, and that the latter were provided with doors which could be opened and 

 shut, a fact in itself indicative of late occupancy. Indeed, Mr. Stephens, who 

 was a lawyer before he became an explorer, thinks these proofs would be good 

 evidence in a court of law. 



;Mr. Stephens mentions another curious circumstance in support of his view. 

 The cura of Chemax (near Valladolid, Yucatan) showed him a collection of 

 aboriginal relics taken from one of the stone mounds situated on his hacienda 

 at Kantunile. In excavating the mound for obtaining stone to be used in 

 building, the Indian laborers discovered a sepulchre containing three skeletons 

 in a far advanced state of decay, and belonging, as it appeared, to a man, a 

 woman and a child. Two large clay vessels with covers were found in the 

 sepulchre, one of them enclosing Indian ornaments, consisting of beads, stones, 

 and two shells skillfully carved in bas-relief; the other vessel was filled with' 

 obsidian arrow-heads, on top of which lay a rusty penknife with a rotten horn 

 handle. This penknife, undoubtedly of European manufacture, must have been 

 obtained from the Spaniards, and, being considered an object of high value by 

 the owner, it was placed in his tomb, in accordance with aboriginal custom. 

 Mr. Stephens was anxious to procure these memorials, but failed in the attempt.§ 



In 1861, while on a visit in Yucatan, Mr. Stephen Salisbury, Jr., saw at the 

 hacienda of Don Manuel Casares, called Xuyum, fifteen miles northeast of 

 Merida, a number of cerros, or mounds, and the ruins of several small stone 

 structures built on artificial elevations ; and " his attention was called to two 

 sculptured heads of horses which lay upon the ground in the neighborhood of 

 some ruined buildings. They were of the size of life, and represented, cut from 



* Probably meaning " that led to several rooms.' 



■j- Artificial water-reservoirs. 



% Stephens : Yucatan ; vol. i, p. 322. 



§ Ibid., vol. ii, p. 341. 



