INTRODUCTION. 
The group of ruins called Xkichmook by the natives was dis- 
covered by me in 1886, and early in February, 1888, a paper was 
read before the American Antiquarian Society recording the dis- 
covery, and briefly describing the journey and such features of the 
monumental remains as had most strongly impressed themselves upon 
my mind afterwards. The observations made during this first visit 
were necessarily imperfect and superficial, and it was not until early 
in 1891 that I was enabled to commence an exhaustive study of these 
interesting ruins. The result of my investigations, extending over a 
period of seven years, have been, by the kind liberality of Mr. Allison 
V. Armour, placed at the disposal of the Field Columbian Museum. 
The specimens obtained are now preserved in that institution, and 
the various plans and drawings, as wellas copies in color of the mural 
paintings, have been submitted with this report. 
The name Xkichmook signifies, in the Maya language, ‘the buried 
éeauty. 1 think, however, it was not the intention of the native name- 
giver to call it thus, but rather X4zchmu/, a word formed from Jchi/ 
(between) and mw/ (hill)—a very suggestive and appropriate name, for 
the place is surrounded by ranges of highhills. Zchmu/ is by the rules 
of the Maya language feminine, and must have the feminine prefix X. 
The same linguistic custom also requires, for the sake of euphony, 
that between the X and the initial vowel the consonant & shall be inter- 
posed, and thus is formed the word Xichmu/. Notwithstanding this 
inference, I shall continue, as heretofore, to call the group Xkichmook. 
This name was probably the bequest of some wandering native, who, 
after the manner of his kind, chose to call it by a tersely descriptive 
term. In like manner Xlabna (old houses) and Xlapac (old walls) are 
rechristenings. Some ancient groups, as Uxmal, Chichen Itza and 
Mayapan, may have had their original names brought down through 
the centuries to the present, but this would be difficult to prove. 
The ruin group of Xkichmook lies six leagues south of Xul (about 
140 miles south of Merida and forty or fifty miles east of Campeche), 
in a narrow valley between a series of rocky hills, and has to be 
approached by precipitous paths over the hill-sides and thence down 
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