Other interesting monuments at Chichen-Itza deserve a passing mention. Mr. Teobert Maler (Yukatekische Forschungen, Globus, 1895, p. 284) relates that there are two pyramid-temples in the terraces of which the remains of great stone tables have been found. He states that one of these tables was originally supported by two rows of seven sculptured caryatids and by a central row of plain columns with flat, square tops. Traces of paint showed that the figures had been painted, that a yellow-brown color had predominated, but that all ornaments or accessories were either blue or green. The caryatids exhibited a variety of costume and of size and each showed a marked individuality. The second table standing in a larger temple, was originally painted red and supported by twenty-four caryatid figures which resemble each other closely, show no individuality and which seem to have been disposed in two rows of twelve each. Mr. Maler infers from this that, being more highly conventionalized, they were of a later date than the previous examples. If it were not for the circumstance that both tables had the same number of supports their numeral 24 might pass unobserved. As it is, I shall recur to it on mentioning other monuments with figures yielding the same number and disposed, in one case, as 6×4. In connection with these stone tables I recall the fact that, in the Maya language, they were called Mayac-tun.
Mr. W. H. Holmes (_op. cit._, p. 134) tells us that in one case the continuous table had been formed by a series of limestone tablets averaging three feet square and five or six inches thick, each slab having been supported by two of the dwarfish figures which stand with both hands aloft, giving a broad surface of support. He ascertained that "these slabs were wonderfully resonant and when struck lightly with a hammer or stone, give out tones closely resembling those of a deeply resonant bell, and the echoes awakened in the silent forest are exceedingly impressive." Mr. Holmes' account of these resonant stone tables is of particular value to me because it throws an interesting light upon the following Maya words: I have already stated that the native name for table is Mayac, and that a stone table is Mayac-tun. The word _tun_, however, not only signifies stone, but also sound and noise. From this it would seem that stone tables such as Mr. Holmes describes were made expressly for the purpose of emitting sound and employed like the huehuetl or wooden drums of the ancient Mexicans to summon the people to the temple and to guide the sacred dances.