f stone, or
terra cotta or wood in the semblance of the deceased, whose ashes were
placed in a hollow made on the back of the head for the purpose. Feeling
sorry for having thus disturbed the remains of _Chaacmol_, so carefully
concealed by his friends and relatives many centuries ago; in order to
save them from further desecration, I burned the greater part reserving
only a small quantity for future analysis. This finding of the heart and
brains of that chieftain, afforded an explanation, if any was needed, of
one of the scenes more artistically portrayed in the mural paintings of
his funeral chamber. In this scene which is painted immediately over the
entrance of the chamber, where is also a life-size representation of his
corpse prepared for cremation, the dead warrior is pictured stretched on
the ground, his back resting on a large stone placed for the purpose of
raising the body and keeping open the cut made across it, under the
ribs, for the extraction of the heart and other parts it was customary
to preserve. These are seen in the hands of his children. At the feet of
the statue were found a number of beautiful arrowheads of flint and
chalcedony; also beads that formed part of his necklace. These, to-day
petrified, seemed to have been originally of bone or ivory. They were
wrought to figure shells of periwinkles. Surrounding the slab on which
the figure rests was a large quantity of dried blood. This fact might
lead us to suppose that slaves were sacrificed at his funeral, as
Herodotus tells us it was customary with the Scythians, and we know it
was with the Romans and other nations of the old world, and the Incas in
Peru. Yet not a bone or any other human remains were found in the
mausoleum.

The statue forms a single piece with the slab on which it reclines, as
if about to rise on his elbows, the legs being drawn up so that the feet
rest flat on the slab. I consider this attitude given to the statues of
dead personages that I have discovered in Chichen, where they are still,
to be symbolical of their belief in reincarnation. They, in common with
the Egyptians, the Hindoos, and other nations of antiquity, held that
the spirit of man after being made to suffer for its shortcomings during
its mundane life, would enjoy happiness for a time proportionate to its
good deeds, then return to earth, animate the body and live again a
material existence. The Mayas, however, destroying the body by fire,
made statues in the