HENEQUEN— THE YUCATAN FIBER 



By E. H. Thompson, 

 U. S. Consul at Progreso, Mexico 



IN ancient times the agave, or hene- 

 quen,* was one of the most im- 

 portant plants of the peninsula. 



At a time when most of Europe was 

 in the pall of utter darkness, when the 

 ' ' Parisii ' ' lived in caves and the Gauls 

 in ' ' wattled huts, ' ' the priests and rulers 

 of Yucatan lived in stone temples and 

 palaces. Up the steep sides of the myriad 

 pyramids were carried great blocks and 

 sculptured columns. 



To move these mighty masses of lime- 

 .stone no powerful engines were at hand, 

 but the Batabs of Yucatan, like the rulers 

 of ancient Egypt, had little use for nie- 

 ■chanical devices. Human muscle and 

 ropes of agave (henequen) were all- 

 sufficient. If ten ropes and a hundred 

 slaves were not enough, a hundred ropes 

 and a thousand slaves were not lacking. 

 The ancient artists made use of the fiber 

 in their work. They were not content 

 to make the figure ; they made the 

 skeleton, and upon the bones and in the 

 flesh, like the cords and muscles of 

 the body, they placed cords and plaited 

 bands of fiber. Close examination in- 

 dicates that the fiber used was that of 

 the yaxci plant. Over the imbedded 

 muscles and flesh they placed a thin, 

 hard wash of stucco to represent the 

 skin and surface pigments. The writer 

 has examined many dozen specimens of 

 the broken figures of stucco wherein 

 are plainty shown the casts and the knots 

 and braid, even the very character of the 

 fiber. 



The primeval inhabitants probably did 

 not at first attempt to extract the fiber 



* The fiber is often called Sisal grass or Sisal 

 hemp, though it is neither a grass nor a hemp. 

 The name " Sisal " was applied to it because it 

 originally reached the outer world through the 

 ;port of that name. 



from the thick pulp, but took the leaf 

 and wilted it in the fire, then split it, 

 and used the splits as thongs. The leaves 

 so treated make thongs of great strength, 

 and as they dry they bind with wonder- 

 ful force. In the primitive forms of 

 habitation in the region, the mud and 

 wattle ' ' nas ' ' are bound together by 

 these shreds of fiber- wilted leaves. They 

 are shapely, water-tight, and durable, 

 and the native builder's only tool is a 

 heavy, sharp-edged knife. Not a spike 

 or nail or metal of any kind enters into 

 the building. 



Later the people found that if they 

 cleaned off the thick pulp and the green 

 corrosive juice they could get a firmer 

 hold and so bind tighter. Then they 

 learned to twist the shreds, and this idea 

 led to the making of ropes and cords. 



Toward the end of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, when there happened to be a 

 scarcity of hemp for the cordage of the 

 Royal Spanish Navy, search was made 

 for a new material to eke out the supply 

 from Manila. Some one told of the fiber 

 used by the Campache people in Yuca- 

 tan. A royal commission was ordered 

 to investigate, and its report, made in 

 1783, gave unstinted praise to the fiber. 



For a few years quite a little henequen 

 was sent to Europe. Then with the 

 collapse of Spanish commerce the de- 

 mand for it ceased and for half a centur}' 

 its existence seems to have been forgot- 

 ten by the world. 



Meanwhile the people of Yucatan 

 grew poorer and poorer until, in their 

 desperation as to how to get money 

 to buy the necessities of life, some 

 bright merchants thought of the fibrous 

 plant which fifty years before had had 

 commercial value. An association was 

 formed and they began to experiment 



