that a glimmer of light began to dawn upon us. In tracing the
figure of Chaacmol in battle, I remarked that the shield worn by him
had painted on it round green spots, and was exactly like the ornaments
placed between tiger and tiger on the entablature of the same monument.
I naturally concluded that the monument had been raised to the memory of
the warrior bearing the shield; that the tigers represented his totem,
and that _Chaacmol_ or _Balam_ maya[TN-2] words for spotted tiger or
leopard, was his name. I then remembered that at about one hundred yards
in the thicket from the edifice, in an easterly direction, a few days
before, I had noticed the ruins of a remarkable mound of rather small
dimensions. It was ornamented with slabs engraved with the images of
spotted tigers, eating human hearts, forming magnificent bas-reliefs,
conserving yet traces of the colors in which it was formerly painted. I
repaired to the place. Doubts were no longer possible. The same round
dots, forming the spots of their skins, were present here as on the
shield of the warrior in battle, and that on the entablature of the
building. On examining carefully the ground around the mound, I soon
stumbled upon what seemed to be a half buried statue. On clearing the
_debris_ we found a statue in the round, representing a wounded tiger
reclining on his right side. Three holes in the back indicated the
places where he received his wounds. It was headless. A few feet
further, I found a human head with the eyes half closed, as those of a
dying person. When placed on the neck of the tiger it fitted exactly. I
propped it with sticks to keep it in place. So arranged, it recalled
vividly the Chaldean and Egyptian deities having heads of human beings
and bodies of animals. The next object that called my attention was
another slab on which was represented in bas-relief a dying warrior,
reclining on his back, the head was thrown entirely backwards. His left
arm was placed across his chest, the left hand resting on the right
shoulder, exactly in the same position which the Egyptians were wont, at
times, to give to the mummies of some of their eminent men. From his
mouth was seen escaping two thin, narrow flames--the spirit of the
dying man abandoning the body with the last warm breath.

These and many other sculptures caused me to suspect that this monument
had been the mausoleum raised to the memory of the warrior with the
shield covered with the round dots. N