36 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
minutive stature of the inhabitants is shown by the buildings, the doorways of 
which, Dr. and Mrs. Le Plongeon assured us, are thirty-six inches high by eight- 
een inches in width. One of the largest temples in these dwarf cities is twelve 
feet long by nine feet wide, everything else about them being in the same ratio of 
dimensions. The names of some of these cities are Meka, Nicte, and Cankun. 
These are situated on the east coast of Yucatan, opposite the islands of Mugeres 
and Cozumel. They are at present very difficult of exploration, owing to the 
frequent visits made by parties of hostile Indians, who are well armed, and in 
skirmishes with whom no quarter is either expected or given. 
In Uxmal there are several ruins in a state of excellent preservation. These 
prove in an incontestible manner that in early ages a high degree of civilization 
existed. The date of the erection of several of these edifices is believed to be not 
less than six thousand years ago, although Dr. Le Plongeon is of opinion that 
there is much that points to an antiquity of ten thousand years. It being of 
the greatest importance that the antiquity of these remains of a former civiliza- 
tion should be determined, we here present a few of the reasons given by which 
this is sought to be established. 
In one temple, which is richly decorated both with marble and other stone,, 
portions are profusely covered over with inscriptions and writings in the Maya 
language, in writing of an ancient nature hitherto unknown, but the key to which, 
has been discovered by Dr. and Mrs. Le Plongeon, by dint of much perseverance. 
With this new alphabet they have been enabled to decipher many of these records^ 
of ages of the long ago. The age of these erections is discoverable, first from 
the Katuns found in the city of Ake, mentioned by the chroniclers, who tell us^ 
that at the time of the Spanish Conquest such Katuns were still being used. 
These consist of columns of stone, eight in a column. One is placed every 
twenty years. On the top of the seventh, and at each corner, is placed another 
stone, these corner stones being laid at intervals of four years, and on the com- 
pletion of the twenty years represented by them a large stone is placed over all, 
thus completing the column, or Ahau-Katun, which thus marks a period of one 
hundred and sixty years. Now, in one building were found thirty-six of these 
columns, which represents at least six thousand years as the time that had elapsed 
from the erection of that temple to that at which the last stone was laid on these 
time columns; and the time that intervened between the completing of these 
records and the Conquest is not known in this case. 
Another guide to the discovery of the antiquity of these erections is the wor- 
ship of Deity in the form of the mastodon's head. Now, as this aaimal has been 
extinct for ten thousand years, it follows that either the builders of these temples 
or their fathers were familiar with it, for had they not known the mastodon they 
could not have made an image or picture of it, and all of the buildings throughout 
the peninsula are ornamented with the mastodon's head, and some of the sculp- 
tures represent human figures in the act of worshiping it. 
The buildings in most cases are formed of a white limestone, the stones be- 
ing all cut to nearly one size and very closely fitted together. The outsides are 
