Show chichen itza home of forgotten race described former U S consul say within thesel mysterious american ruins are books with pages of stone washington J C edward H thompson former united states consul at merlda yucatan in a communication muni cation to the national geographic society at washington D C describing chichen itza the home of a tor gotten race on the peninsula of yuca tan declares that the american people should awaken to the tact that they have right at home architecture essentially american and ruined tures every whit as interesting and massive and possibly as old as those of other lands who boast that amerl cans must come to them within these mysterious american ruins are great books with pages 0 stone written in characters that no man may yet read he declares are the mys they hold the wonderful facts that certainly lie sealed and mute within them hidden from us less in to americans than are the tales of egyptian dynasties the rites of druies druids roman cam pings or saxon I 1 think not mr thompson describes what was probably the first tennis or basket ball court on this hemisphere and pos in the world the ruined group of itza covers a space 0 fully three square miles be says over all this wide territory are scattered carved and squared stones in countless thousands fallen by the hundreds while the formless remains and outlined walls of huge structures fallen into ruin are seen on every side seven massive structures of carved stone and adamantine mortar still tower erect and almost inhabitable several hundred feet to the west of the castle temple rest two great parallel moles of solid masonry each feet long 34 feet wide and 25 feet high between these moles Is the ceremonial court this level cemented space was probably the theater tor the performance of certain rites and games of a ceremonial char acter this belief Is borne out by the tact that at a distance of six feet from specimen of bulna that are spread all over yucatan the level upper surface 0 the mole two great rings ot atone were fixed into the perpendicular w all surface dt opposite each other mr thompson declares estimates as to the age of the city vary from less than 2000 years to more than years an idea of the intricacies ot the language of the people of the city Is given by the following quotation from a document found there lal u tholan katun lukal tl cab tl kotoch Non oual which Is translated to mean this Is a series of epochs that elapsed from the time of their departure from the house of in the land of Tu lapan the writer tells a legend concerning canek the impetuous ruler of chichen itza who loved the daughter of the ruler of a distant province one day a runner brought him the news that the bacab of a neighboring and tar more powerful province had married the maiden canek and his warriors went to his city under cover of darkness while all was revelry there in celebration of the wedding after venting their fury on the drunk en celebrants they stole the bride of an hour and disappeared never again did chichen itza know its lord canek nor any of his band of fighters years afterward a bunting band from hachen itza made a long journey to the couth they finally reached a ake and in its center an island city the city was and its ruler he now aged lord canek he also tells of the arrival recep ion and subsequent flight bi night if montejo one of the early spanish conquerors in 1525 the spaniards and almost without pro ris lons tied a dog to a rope of a bell ind placed food just beyond his reach his efforts to get the food kept the ical ringing and deceived the natives nto believing their captives were still here when the ruse was discovered the little band of spanish soldiery war learly out of th binemy s reach |