re is a seemingly double,
unfortunately indistinguishable object, or building, which marks the exact
middle of the entire dual enclosure. It is particularly interesting that
the East City is divided into two portions by a wall running from the
southeast angle of the wall of the Temple courtyard to the outer wall of
the city. The southern half, in which the "Tribunal or hill of justice is
to be seen, is designated as containing the houses of the Ahauas or heads
of the Calpuls." The northern half, containing many houses, lacks
designation. The West city is likewise divided into two distinct portions
by a broad street, enclosed by a hill wall and conducting from the western
and only entrance to the city directly to the Place of the Temple. A deep
trench or ditch encloses the entire city, whilst nine watch-towers, on
small hills, are placed at equal distances around it.

If this precious document clearly reveals the ground plan on which the
native capitals were built, in accordance with the dominant idea, the
following native map shows that the ancient dominion of Yucatan, for
instance, was figured as an integral whole with form of a flat disc
divided into four quarters, Ho, the modern Merida, in its centre. This
map, copied from the native Codex Chumazel, has been published by Senor
Crescencio Carillo of Ancona in the Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico,
vol. II, p. 43, as showing the territorial division of Yucatan before the
Conquest (fig. 27). According to Herrera and Diego de Landa, the unity of
the dominion was destroyed about two centuries before the Conquest by the
destruction of the capital, Mayapan. The land then remained divided
amongst many independent chiefs or Bacabs. Senor Carillo renders the Maya
descriptive text written under the map, as follows: "Here is Mani. The
beginning of the land, or its entrance, is Campeche. The extremity of the
wing of the land is Calkini; the (chun) place where the wing grows or
begins, is Izamal. The half of the wing is Zaci; the tip of the wing is
Cumkal. The head of the land is the city, the capital Ho."

[Illustration.]

Figure 27.

The foregoing text shows that, notwithstanding the circular shape in which
it is figured, the dominion was evidently thought of as in the form of a
bird, the head of which was the capital.

[Illustration.]

Figure 28.