276 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



facade. The motive of the feathered serpent becomes therefore a highly 

 important factor in the analysis of their work and the development of their 

 ideas. 



The twin columns that formed the central supports of this facade to be 

 reproduced are the largest and most typical of all the serpent columns yet 

 found among the ancient structures on the peninsula. The serpents' heads 

 are over three feet six inches measured between the crotalid plates, four 

 feet three inches high from base of lower jaw to crown of crotalid plate, and 

 seven feet long from front of jaw to outer angle of the neck. The column 

 proper from base plane to capital is eight feet two inches, the thickness of 

 the capital is two feet, two inches, while the upper flare of the tail is fully 

 four feet. The whole column is well carved, artistically covered in front 

 with the flowing plumes of the quetzal bird. The crotalid head with its 

 pronounced crotalid plates above the eyes, has all the distinctive marks of 

 the crotalus or rattlesnake, but conventionalized through centuries of reli- 

 gious idealism. The inner back of the column corresponding to the belly 

 of the serpent is marked with segments, like the serpent scales, but even 

 these are sparingly overlaid with the smoothly flowing plumes of the sacred 

 bird. The tail conventionalized into the capital has its front thickly cov- 

 ered with the plumes of the bird, while the surface underneath is carved 

 into the conventionalized segments of the rattlesnake. Fragments of both 

 tails lie scattered among the debris at the foot of the mole, beneath the 

 temple for a distance of thirty feet or more. Portions of the rattles were 

 found over three feet long, but large parts of both tails are so crushed and 

 broken as to be unrecognizable. Enough has been secured however to 

 make restoration possible. 



The huge beams of Zapote wood that passed from end walls to the 

 serpent columns and so helped to sustain the front facade, have entirely 

 disappeared, and any hopes that I may have had of finding them among the 

 fallen material were doomed to disappointment. It may be that they too 

 were carried off to fill another purpose, either by Valladolid aesthetics or 

 by even earlier vandals, for their dimensions would not have escaped notice. 



The work of making the paper molds of the carved stone sections still in 

 place on the temple platform and those still in place on the north facade was 

 attended with some danger and much difficulty but great interest. The 

 highest line of carved stones still in position was fully fifty sheer feet above 

 the level of the general terrace. From the temple base on the level of the 

 mole platform, large and heavy poles were bound together, as the natives 

 well know how to do, while strong ropes held them upright and fast, and so 

 permitted the framework of the scaffolding made of smaller poles to be 

 erected. On this moving, shaking, yet perfectly safe scaffolding of poles, 

 with not a nail or spike in the whole structure, we worked and made the 

 molds. 



