CHICHEN ITZA. 9 



" Eight leagues from this town stand some buildings called Chichenica, amongst 

 them there is a Cu made by the hand (of man) of hewn stone and masonry, and this 

 is the principal building. 



" It has over ninety steps, and the steps go all round, so as to reach to the top of it, 

 the height of each step a little over a third of a vara high. On the summit stands a 

 sort of tower with rooms in it. 



" This Cu stands between two 'cenotes of deep water — one of them is called the 

 'Cenote of Sacrifice. They call the place Chichenica after an Indian, named Alquin 

 Itza, who was living at the foot of the 'Cenote of Sacrifice. 



" At this 'Cenote the Lords and Chiefs of all the provinces of Valladolid observed 

 this custom. After having fasted for sixty days without raising their eyes during that 

 time even to look at their wives, nor at those who brought them food, they came to 

 the mouth of this 'Cenote and, at the break of day, they threw into it some Indian 

 women, some belonging to each of the Lords, and they told the women that they 

 should beg for a good year in all those things which they thought fit, and thus 

 they cast them in unbound, but as they were thrown headlong they fell into the 

 water, giving a great blow on it ; and exactly at midday she who was able to come out, 

 cried out loud that they should throw her a rope to drag her out with, and she arrived 

 at the top half dead, and they made great fires round her and incensed her with Copal, 

 and when she came to herself she said that below there were many of her nation, both 

 men and women, who received her, and that raising her head to look at some of them, 

 they gave her heavy blows on the neck, making her put her head down which was all 

 under water, in which she fancied were many hollows and deeps ; and in answer to the 

 questions which the Indian girl put to them, they replied to her whether it should be 

 a good or bad year, and whether the devil was angry with any of the Lords who had 

 cast in the Indian girls, but these Lords already knew that if a girl did not beg to be 

 taken out at midday it was because the devil was angry with them, and she never came 

 out again. Then. seeing that she did not come out, all the followers of that Lord and 

 the Lord himself threw great stones into the water and with loud cries fled from the 

 place." 



Plate I. Map of Yucatan and the Country sooth of it. 



This Map is compiled from the one in Petermann's ' Mittheilungen,' 1879, by Dr. C. H. Berendt, from 

 Dr. Carl Sapper's map in the same journal for 1894, and from my own observations. 



The country south of Peto, Chichen Itza, and Valladolid is occupied by independent 

 Indian tribes hostile to Mexico. 



biol. centr.-amer., Archscol., Vol. III., July 1895. c 



