[Illustration: LEFT WING OF THE NUNNERY OF CHICHEN-ITZA.]
As in Mexico, Palenque, and Tula, there were no doors properly so called at Chichen, and no traces of hinges are found; but a bamboo or wickerwork screen was suspended across the entrance, and secured at night with a bar. The inner rooms were divided off by hangings, which probably also served to cover the windows. We notice everywhere the small holes in the pillars into which the bars fitted.
Landa mentions the two serpents of the grand staircase, and that the corridor was probably used for burning perfumes: “Over the door is a kind of coat-of-arms sculptured in stone, which I could not read. Extending round this edifice is a series of solid constructions; the intervening distances are coated with cement in perfect condition, _which looks quite new_, so hard was the mortar in which it was laid.”[129] These stucco layers are facsimiles of those at Tula and Teotihuacan, and characteristic of the Toltecs. In the three centuries that have elapsed since the bishop visited these monuments, vegetation has completely overrun them, but it was not so in his time.
[Illustration: FAÇADE OF EL CASTILLO, CHICHEN-ITZA.]
[Illustration: TOLTEC COLUMN IN THE CASTILLO.]
It was in this temple that the striking analogy between the sculptures and the bas-reliefs of the plateaux with those at Chichen was first revealed to us; and since the dates of the Toltec emigrations are known, we can fix approximately the age of these monuments. We know, on the other hand, that the Aztec civilisation was but a reflex directly derived from the Toltecs, so that in some of their manifestations the two civilisations must resemble each other; from all which it may be seen that these monuments are both Toltec and recent. The balustrade on the grand staircase consists of a plumed serpent like those forming the outer wall of the temple in Mexico; an emblem of Quetzalcoatl, a deity common to the Toltecs, the Aztecs, and the Mayas. He is often found on Yucatec buildings. In Mexico, a serpent biting his tail was a favourite design with the Aztecs as a frieze to their houses, or over their entrances, and this we shall also observe at Uxmal. Further, the two columns of the temple façade furnish a still more striking example: the bases represent two serpents’ heads, whilst the shafts were ornamented with feathers, proving that the temple was dedicated to Cukulcan (Quetzalcoatl). These shafts are almost an exact reproduction of a Toltec column we unearthed at Tula, as seen in our cuts. The two columns are found three hundred leagues from each other, separated by an interval of several centuries; but if, as we firmly believe, the Tula column is Toltec, the other must be so too, for it could not be the result of mere accident. I have only compared the shafts, for the simple reason that the Tula column has no capital.