68 APPENDIX. 



solid limestone, the heads and necks of horses with the mane clipped, so that it 

 stood up from the ridge of their necks like the mane of the zebra. The Avork- 

 manship of the figures was artistic, and the inference made at the ti;iic was, that 

 these figures had served as bas-reliefs on ruins in that vicinity. On mentioning 

 the fact of the existence of these figures to Dr. Carl Hermann Berendt, who was 

 about to revisit Yucatan, in 1869, he manifested much interest in regard to them, 

 and expressed his intention to visit this plantation when he should be in Merida. 

 But later inquiries have failed to discover any further trace of these figures. 

 Dr. Berendt had never seen any representation of horses upon ruins in Central 

 America, and considered the existence of the sculptures the more noteworthy 

 from the fact that horses were unknown to the natives till the time of the 

 Spanish discovery. The writer supposes that these figures were sculptured by 

 Indians after the conquest, and that they were used as decorations upon build- 

 ings erected at the same time and by the same hands."* 



I may allude here to the curious account of an equine statue, made of stone 

 and mortar, which the Itzas of Lake Peten, in Gruatemala, had placed in a 

 temple, worshiping it under the name of Tzhnin-chak as a deity presiding over 

 thunder and lightning, in memory of a disabled horse left behind by Cortes 

 during his march to Honduras. The details are given by Prescott, Stephens, 

 Morelet, Bancroft, and other modern authors.f These Itzas had left their homes 

 in Yucatan at some time during the fifteenth century, consequently not long 

 before the conquest, and, moving slowlysouthward through uninhabited districts, 

 they finally came to the lake, Avhere they remained and built a city on an island 

 surrounded by its waters. The city was called Tayasal, and contained many 

 whitewashed houses and temples, which the Spaniards, on their approach, could 

 distinguish at a distance of more than two leagues.^ " These edifices," says Mr. 



* Salisbury: The Mayas, etc.; "Worcester, 1877, p. 25. 



t After the narrations contained in Cogolludo's " Historia de Yucathan," Madrid, 1688, lib. i, cap. xvi, p. 54 

 etc.; and in a work by Villagutierre, entitled " Historia do la Conquista de la Prorincia do el Itza," Madrid, 1701, 

 lib. ii, cap. iv, p. 100 etc. — Concerning the word Tzimin-chak M. Morelet observes: " Historians are silent touch- 

 ing the etymology of this glorious designation ; they only inform us that the new divinity, by some strange attri- 

 bution, presided over storms and directed the thunder." (Travels, p. 197). To this remark the following note 

 (by E. G. Squier) is added in the translation : " The name Tzimin-chak is derived from tzimin, the tapir or danta, 

 and chak, white; i. e., the white tapir. The tapir is the largest indigenous animal of Yucatan, and the only one 

 with which the Itzas could compare the horses of the conquerors. The tapir was, moreover, a sacred animal 

 among all the Central American niitions. Cortes's horse was probably white ; and as he was brought among the 

 Indians by people who had fire-arms, it is not surprising that the new god was in some way connected in their 

 minds with the phenomena of thunder and lightning, themselves the concomitants of storm." According to 

 Brasseur chaac or chdc means lightning, thunder, storm and rain, being also the generic name of the divinities 

 governing waters and harvests (Landa's Ptelation, p. 485). Villagutierre translates Tzimin-chak by Cavallo del 

 Trueno, 6 Rayo. 



The Indians of Peten, I was informed by Dr. Berendt, have preserved the recollection of the statue, and even 

 show it, or its remains, at the bottom of the lake. He was rowed to the spot, but could not discover anything 

 resembling the effigy of a horse. 



X Bernal Diaz : Historia Verdadera etc. ; cap. clxxviii, fol. 201. 



