[Illustration]

The monument represents a mastodon head, with various ornaments above and below it, the whole measuring 3.50 m. (11 feet 41/2 inches) in height, and in width 1.25 m. (4 feet 1 inch).  Above the mastodon head there is a chain, nearly 10 inches deep; the stones forming the links are sculptured and fitted into each other just like the rattles of a rattlesnake; and yet higher another row of stones resembling knots.  The uppermost part is composed of stones that incline outward from above; they are flat, measuring 0.55 by 0.45 centimeters (21 inches by 17 inches), and are covered with various signs pertaining to certain mysteries.

On the sides of the mastodon’s trunk are these signs

[Illustration:  (an “x” and a “circle with a dot in the middle")]

which read Tza, and means that which is necessary.  Beneath the trunk and the upper jaw is what is meant to represent the distended jaws of a serpent; on it is inscribed the family name, | | | |, Can, the mouth (chi) of the serpent giving the second part of the name. Canchi means “serpent’s mouth,” and was the name of the royal family that ruled over the Mayas when their civilization was at its height.

Within the serpent’s jaws is the greatest gem of American sculpture yet discovered.  It is a head and throat, sculptured in the round, of Cay Canchi, the high priest and elder brother of the warrior Chaacmol, whose statue we exhumed from 8 meters below the soil in Chichen Itza, during the year 1876; which statue was afterward robbed from us by the Mexican government, and is now in the museum at Mexico city.  The stone out of which the beautiful head is cut is not polished, but wrought so finely as to almost imitate the texture of the skin.  It is decidedly a good looking face.  The nostrils are most delicately chiseled, and the cartilage pierced; the eyes are open, and clearly marked.  On the right cheek is his totem, a fish traced in exceedingly small cross bars.  The forehead is well formed, not retreating, and incircled by a diadem composed of small disks, from the front of which projects a perfect fish’s head.  The hair is short in front, and hangs like a fringe on the upper part of the forehead, but is longer at the sides, hanging in straight locks.

On the wall against which this monument is built, feathers are sculptured, forming a canopy.  Such a superb chef d’oeuvre proves beyond doubt that the Maya artists were in no way inferior to those of Assyria and Egypt.

Having been so unjustly deprived of Chaacmol without any remuneration for our time, labor, and expenditure, we decided to save the Cay monument from destruction at any cost, for should any ignorant persons attempt to move it, they would break it in so doing; so, after making a mould of it, we guarded it most securely, as we considered best, afterward inclosing it with planks, then built it up and left it as we had found it.