r I arrived at Chichen. The revelation of the old
man recurred vividly to my mind. I immediately went in quest of the
building he had mentioned--the _Akab-sib_. [This name literally
means--_Akab_, dark, mysterious; _sib_, to write. But we believe
that anciently it was called _Alcab-sib_; that is, _Alcab_, to run
in a hurry; _sib_, to write.] We had some trouble in finding it,
concealed and confounded as it was among the tall trees of the
forest, its roof supporting a dense thicket. We visited its
eighteen rooms in search of the precious inscription, and at length
discovered it on the lintel of an inner doorway in the room
situated at the south end of the edifice. The dust of ages was
thick upon it and so concealed the characters as to make them
well-nigh invisible. With care I washed the slab, then with black
crayon darkened its surface until the intaglio letters appeared in
white on a dark background. (The photographs of this inscription
can be seen at Mr. H. Dixon's.)

While thus employed Mrs. Le Plongeon stood by my side, studying the
characters as they gradually appeared more and more distinct. To
our astonishment we soon discovered the cord mentioned by Chable.
It started from the mouth of a face (which represents the people of
Saci), situated near the right-hand upper corner of the slab, then
runs through its whole length in a slanting direction and
terminates at the ear of another head (the inhabitants of Ho). The
inclined direction of the cord or line indicates the topographical
position of the respective cities--Saci (Valladolid)--being more
elevated above the level of the sea than Ho (Merida). But imagine
now our amazement at noticing the strange fact that the mode of
communication that Chable ignored was ... by means of electric
currents! Yes, of electricity! This fact is plainly indicated by
the four zigzag lines, representing the lightning, coming from the
four cardinal points and converging toward a centre near the upper
or starting station, and also by the solitary zigzag seen about
the middle of the cord--following its direction--indicating a
half-way station. Then the electric telegraph, that we consider
_the discovery par excellence_ of the nineteenth century, was known
of the ancient Itza sages 5000 or 10,000 years ago. Ah, _Nihil