e learned
Archaeologist, Mr. Le Plongeon, to be preserved in the National
Museum of Mexico, for which place it is destined.

MERIDA, 1877.

There exist, in the deserts of Yucatan, at about 36 leagues--108
miles--from Merida, some very notable monumental ruins, known by
the name of Chichen-Itza, whose origin is lost in the night of
time. Their situation, in the hostile section of revolutionary
Indians (_Sublivados_), caused them to be very little visited
until, to the general astonishment, an American traveller, the wise
archaeologist and Doctor, Mr. Augustus Le Plongeon, in company with
his young and most intelligent wife, fixed his residence among them
for some months towards the end of 1874. They both gave themselves
up with eagerness to making excellent photographic views of what
was there worthy of notice, to be sent to the ministry of
protection, the depository which the law provides in order to
obtain the rights of ownership. They did not limit themselves to
this work. The illustrious Doctor and his wife, worthy of
admiration on many accounts, supported with patient heroism the
sufferings and risks of that very forlorn neighborhood, and passed
their days in producing exact plans, and transferring to paper the
wall paintings that are still preserved upon some of the edifices,
such as _Akabsib_--(dark writings).

There came a day on which one, endowed like the visitor, had by
abstruse archaeological reasoning, and by his meditation, determined
the place, and, striking the spot with his foot, he said, "Here it
is, here it will be found." The language of this man--better said,
of this genius--will appear exaggerated. It can be decided when he
has succeeded in bringing to light the interesting work which he is
writing about his scientific investigations in the ruins of
Yucatan. Let us finish this short preamble, and occupy ourselves
with the excavation of the statue.

Chac-Mool is a Maya word which means tiger. So the discoverer
desired to name it, who reserved to himself the reasons for which
he gave it this name. He discovered a stone base, oblong, somewhat
imperfect, that measured 9 Spanish inches in thickness, by 5 feet
3-1/2 inches in length, and 2 feet 10 inches in width. Above it
reposed in a single piece of stone the colossal