Читать книгу The City of the Sacred Well онлайн

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During their supreme period they built great pyramids and marvelous temples. They wrote books and set up intricately carved record-stones. They brought the whole of Yucatan into a federation of government that held the people together in a unity which has few parallels in the history of the human race. They evolved a calendar which is ingenious, complicated, and amazingly correct. They read the heavens and knew the planets and their seasons and changes. They displayed in all they did a genius to invent and an ability to execute which cause us to rate their culture very high; and this culture is all the more wonderful because it was purely original and cut off by an ocean on each side from any contact with the rest of the world.

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DON EDUARDO has described to me his first trip to Chi-chen Itza, and his impressions, which are somewhat as follows if my notes and memory do not err:

“I had traveled all of a hot and dusty day, on horseback, through the jungle and over animal trails. In many places my Indian guide, who went afoot, had to lead my horse over or around the huge stones that blocked our path. After the first few miles I was painfully aware that running blithely from my city into Mérida, for forgotten trifles or even for sorely needed supplies, was another of my pleasant fancies thoroughly punctured.