The Aké cenoté is thirty feet below the surface, and belongs to the early series of these natural phenomena. It forms a gigantic vault slightly curved, to which the accidents of the rock give a picturesque and grand aspect. The bottom is occupied by an extensive piece of clear fresh water, peopled by a multitude of small fish some three inches long, while thousands of swallows flit about, filling the whole place with their joyous twitter.
We left the cenoté to come back through the woods, spying out if peradventure we could perceive any ruins from under their deep, green shroud, brushing unwittingly past the trailing branches of the trees, suffocating literally in our well-closed garments; no unusual sensation, no unseemly irritation had as yet alarmed us. Shuty was the first to show that all was not well with her. We had already noticed some signs of uneasiness as we emerged from the cenoté; she would suddenly stop, to nibble her paws, or perform some extraordinary gymnastic feat; gyrating, running, and barking joyously at the empty space.
We came presently to some very intricate parts of the wood, when the somewhat fictitious gaiety of Shuty turned into groans of acute agony, rolling madly on the grass, biting herself, and howling lamentably until her mistress took her into her arms, to find her alive with garrapatas, as indeed we all were; there was nothing for it but to return to the hacienda as quickly as possible, and institute a minute and conscientious investigation. A complete change of clothes became necessary, ere we could sit down to the very excellent breakfast prepared for us by Don Peon’s cook; as for Mrs. Aymé and Shuty, they did not venture on the perils of another exploration in the fated woods.
Here I again noticed the same curious phenomenon I had observed at Palenque with regard to concentric circles in the trees; on the great pyramid which Don Peon had caused to be cleared only six months before, and which was now thickly covered with young shoots our men were fast demolishing, I counted no less than seven or eight circles on the twigs.
The ruins of Aké are hardly known; Stephens, their only visitor besides myself, calls the gallery “colossal, the ruins of the palace ruder, older, and more cyclopean in aspect than any he had previously seen.” Quoting Cogolludo, apparently from memory, he adds that the Spaniards halted at a place called Aké, where a great battle was fought; had he read Cogolludo properly, he would have seen that the place meant could not be Aké, which lay out of the line of march of the conquerors. We have had occasion to observe before that Montejo landed on the eastern coast of Yucatan at a place now opposite to Valladolid, where he took possession of the country; various other points are also given, but it is certain that he made his way to Coni in Chiapas, halted at Coba, and continued his march to Ce-Aké, where he had to fight the Indians for two days; hence he directed his course to Chichen-Itza, which he wished to colonise, because “its great buildings made it easy of defence.”[112] This was in 1527; but Ce-Aké was thirty-five leagues east of the ruins of another Aké, once a populous centre, as shown by fifteen or twenty pyramids of all dimensions, crowned with ruinous palaces, scattered over a space of about half a square mile. The largest are grouped so as to form a rectangle, encircling a vast courtyard, the centre of which is occupied by a large stone of punishment called _picoté_, of universal use before and after the Conquest, and still found at Uxmal and various other places. An old Indian of Tenosiqué assured me that such a stone was standing some thirty years ago in the plaza. The culprit was stripped and tied to the _picoté_ previous to receiving the bastinado. This custom still prevails at Tumbala, an Indian village lying between Palenque and S. Christobal. According to the Indian moral code, punishment makes a man clean, and I have seen natives who, to have a clear conscience, requested a punishment no one dreamt of inflicting.