292 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



chamber, round which hangs a greater and more 

 impenetrable mystery. This chamber is nineteen 

 feet wide by eight feet six inches deep, and in the 

 back wall a low, narrow doorway communicates 

 with another chamber in the rear, of the same di- 

 mensions, but having its floor one step higher. The 

 lintel of this doorway is of stone, and on the soffite, 

 or under part, is sculptured the subject represented 

 in the engraving opposite. This tablet, and the 

 position in which it exists, have given the name to 

 the building, which the Indians call Akatzeeb, sig- 

 nifying the writing in the dark ; for, as no light en- 

 ters except from the single doorway, the chamber 

 was so dark that the drawing could with difficulty 

 be copied. It was the first time in Yucatan that 

 we had found hieroglyphics sculptured on stone, 

 which, beyond all question, bore the same type with 

 those at Copan and Palenque. The sitting figure 

 seems performing some act of incantation, or some 

 religious or idolatrous rite, which the " writing in 

 the dark" undoubtedly explains, if one could but 

 read it. Physical force may raze these buildings to 

 the ground, and lay bare all the secrets they con- 

 tain, but physical force can never unravel the mys- 

 tery that involves this sculptured tablet. 



Leaving this building, and following the path in- 

 dicated in the map, at the distance of one hundred 

 and fifty yards westward we reach a modern stone 

 fence, dividing the cattle-field of the hacienda, on 



