water-these and many other things we have the desire to depict and describe, but time and space forbid.

WHEN WAS THIS CITY FOUNDED?

How old is this great city of stonebuilt temples and myriad carvings? For years we have sought among its fallen columns and toppled walls for that which would tell us clearly of its age.

To a certain extent the search has not been in vain. We have found a tablet of stone covered with hieroglyphs, and among them are signs that fix a date, an epoch. Keen minds and trained are now at work on the tablet, and the time may not be far distant when we shall know whether it be 2,000 years old or less, as some students claim, or over I1,500 years, as claimed by Le Plongeon.

The margin between the two "guesses" is certainly wide enough.

Meanwhile, like the Sphynx in the East, the gray, old human faces carved high on the massive walls gaze down unchangingly, unmindful of modern man and his futile guesses.

We have perhaps more information on the early history of this ancient group than we have of any other center of the Maya civilization.

But as that keen scholar, the lamented Dr. Thompson, was fond of impressing upon his pupils, "Gentlemen, information may or may not be facts, and unless it be of proven facts is not knowledge." Even "information" concerning these ancient builders and their buildings is only too scanty, and actual proven facts still more so.

THE LEGEND OF CHICHEN ITZA

The earliest information concerning Chichen Itza is given in a curious document found by Don Juan Pio Perez, a Yucatan scholar and antiquarian, among the dusty old records and archives in the Town Hall of Mani.

The document commences thus: "Lai u tzolan katun lukci ti cab ti yotoch Nonoual"-I might continue on in this way for some time, but all might not understand the text as clearly as could be wished. In fact, the fear of a sudden rupture of relations between writer and

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reader induces me to forego, and in place give a broad interpretation of the ancient writings in those parts where allusion is made to Chichen Itza.

Translated, the document commences thus, the brackets being my interpolations:

"This is the series of epochs that elapsed from the time of their departure from the house of Nonoual in the land of Tulapan.

"Then took place the discovery of Bacalar. Sixty years they ruled in Bacalar, when they came here.

"During these years of their government of this province of Bacalar_occurred the discovery of Chichen Itza. 120 years they ruled in Chichen Itza. when they left it and went to Champutun, where the Itzaes, holy men, had houses.

"260 years reigned the Itzaes in Champutun, when they abandoned it and returned in search of their homes.

"For several epochs they lived in the woods and the caves, under the uninhabited hills.

"After forty years they returned to their homes (Chichen Itza) once more, and Champutun knew them no more.

"Two hundred years they reigned in Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Mayapan. The governor of Chichen Itza (Chac xib chac) was deposed because he murmured disrespectfully against Tunac-eel, the governor of Mayapan. Ninety years. had elapsed, but the tenth of the 8th Ahau was the year in which he was overthrown."

The unknown native writer keeps on; but I will stop, as he mentions Chichen Itza no more.

Neither the name nor the history of its writer is known; but from the perfect command of both the native vernacular and the Spanish letters it would seem to have been the work of an educated native and written within a few decades after the conquest. This would not be strange, for many bright young natives, sons of the nobles and of the reigning families, were taken by the church or by high lay officials and educated in Spanish learning.

Thus Caspar Antonio Xiu, the lineal

descendant of the last king of Mayapan, was taken, baptized, and educated by Montejo, the conqueror of Yucatan and its first governor.

THE ANCIENT MAYAS HAD THEIR BARDS AND STORY-TELLERS

The ancient Mayas, like most other races, had their bards and story-tellers, who interwove into their songs and tales the history of their people.

Thus, I repeat, it is not strange if some educated native filled, like the gifted Tescucan Ixtlilxochitl, prince and writer, with the desire to perpetuate the fading history of his people, had recourse to the device of writing out, as his memory served, their early wanderings and ancient history, and then, with native subtlety, to hide the documents under those

longest filed away and in archives likely to be safe and undisturbed until times far later.

There is a legend of Chichen Itza that has seemingly more of the material of true history in its making than legends. are usually thought to have. At all events, it is genuinely romantic and worth repeating.

THE LEGEND OF CANEK

Canek, the impetuous young ruler of Chichen Itza, was deeply in love with a beautiful maiden, daughter of the ruler of a distant province. No longer were his thoughts on the coming hunt of the jaguar; the wild boar passed grunting and unharmed, even unnoticed, as the young ruler sat musing on a fallen log. A fawn, chased by the hunters, became.

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entangled in a snare close beside him as he sat motionless, happily musing. Seeing that its big, soft eyes were like those of the maiden he loved, he loosed its bonds and set it free.

In the midst of his amorous musings, as he sat in his chamber one day, a dustcovered runner came up to the palace entrance and rattled the sounding shells before the curtains for instant entrance on the ruler's service.

The news he brought drove the young ruler to desperation.

The Batab of a neighboring province. and one far more powerful than he of Chichen Itza, had married the maiden that Canck was to take to wife.

For a while no raging jaguar robbed of his mate was more furious than young Canek; then of a sudden he grew quiet, cool, and seemingly calm.

So his warriors remembered to have seen him when they fought an old-time enemy, killed his fighting men, and defaced his temple, and they patiently waited.

The night came and with it a brooding norther. Darkness as black as the hate in the heart of Canek was all around the silent ranks of the swiftly moving warriors.

The lightning flashes, as sharp and hot as the anger that flamed in the Canek's breast, played over the glinting points of crystal on the moving forest of lances as they neared the enemy's city.

The ever-burning flames on the top of the distant temple gleamed redly, and black smoke went heavenward in increasing volume as the priests burnt great baskets of copal in honor of their ruler's marriage.

Canek and his silent warriors came swiftly onward, melting into the darkness of the shadows, hiding from the lightning flash, leaping ahead like deer when chance offered. Revelry had taken the city with all that was in it and held it hard and fast. Even the watchers were drunkenly grumbling over the fate that kept them out of the carousals and in the darkness. As the black and moving shadows reached them swiftly they soon were quiet and out of the darkness for evermore.

THE INTERRUPTED MARRIAGE

And the deer-eyed woman-a wife, yet still a maiden-was she happy? Oh, who knows! It may be that her eyes were not pain shadowed; that it was but the dim light of the wild wax tapers in the narrow vaulted chamber, and it may be that which glistened on her drooping lashes was but the flashing of stray light beams from between the entrance curtains. Who knows?

Merry were the wedding guests and well drunken most of them. More than merry was the bridegroom, who drank the deepest of them all. His brain was sodden, his limbs rebellious, but his tongue, though thick and clumsy, still responded to his call.

Sodden brain and clumsy tongue worked together as he mumbled loudly:

"As for the Lord of Chichen Itzapoor lean dog-let him take his pleasure howling at the moon tonight! Before I seek my wife's caresses in her many-curtained chamber, I must hear a lively song. Ehen! Holcanes! Tupiles! lift your voices and rattle out the battle song.

Drunkenly mumbling, stupidly fumbling, he rolled on his side and fell asleep.

At the holcanes' call the tupiles started the great war song of the Mayas-“Conex, Conex Paleche" ("Come on, come on, ye warriors").

The voices that commenced it were well known, though drunken and quavering: the voices that joined in it and ended it were strong, full, and shrilly menacing. Abruptly the drunken voices ceased and some ended with a groan.

The deer-eyed woman, alone in her curtained chamber, heard the voices and the singing, and then the strangeness of the tumult drove her to the carved stone entrance. Before she reached it the shells were rattled and the curtains

parted swiftly. "Star of the night! Star of my life!" said Canek.

"My Lord Canek," said the maiden. with startled eyes, but star lit.

Dead men, live men, and the live men dead in drunken stupor, what could the few with senses unbenumbed do against