At some epoch it is evident that the whole island was under
cultivation, which is proved by the stone fences that divide it
into small parcels or farms like a checker-board. The island, like
the whole of the Yucatan peninsula, has evidently been upraised
from the bottom of the sea by the action of volcanic fires, and the
thin coating of arable loam of surprising fertility which covers a
substratum of calcareous stones, is the result of the accumulation
of detriti, mixed with the residuum of animal and vegetable life of
thousands of years. The greater part of this island is as yet
archæologically unexplored. I have no doubt that thorough
explorations in the depths of its forests and of the caves would
bring to light very interesting relics, which would repay the
trouble and expense. Rough and rude as is the construction of the
monuments of the island, the architecture possesses the same
character as that of the more elaborate edifices on the main land.
The same design of entablature, with some little difference in the
cornice, the same triangular arch, the same shaped rooms--long and
narrow, but all on a miniature scale. They seem more like dolls’
houses than dwellings for man. One of the best preserved of these
singular buildings was visited, and two other constructions,
consisting of independent and separate arches, the only ones we
ever met with in our rambles in Yucatan. The edifice formed at one
time, with the two triumphal arches, part of a series of
constructions now completely ruined. It was a temple composed, as
are all structures of the kind, of two apartments, a front or
ante-chamber, and the sanctuary or holy of holies. In this case the
ante-chamber measures 59 inches in width by 2 yards and 33 inches
in length, its height being 2 yards and 30 inches from the floor to
the apex of the triangular arch that serves as ceiling. The
sanctuary is entered through a doorway 1 yard high and 18 inches
wide, and is narrower than the front apartments, measuring only 34
inches across. The whole edifice is externally 3 yards high, 4
yards 29 inches long and 4 yards wide. If we judge of the stature
of the builders by the size of the building, we may really imagine
this to have been the kingdom of Liliput, visited by Gulliver. The
triumphal arches present the same proportions as the temple I have
just described, which is by no means the earliest archaic
structure. Old people are not wanting who pretend to have seen
these _Alux-ob_, whom they describe as reaching the extraordinary
stature of 2 feet. They tell us of their habits and
mischievousness, tales which forcibly recall to our minds the
legends of “the little people” so credited among all classes of
society in Ireland. There can be no reasonable doubt but that a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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