vex surface, by raising the breast, enabled the priest to perform his diabolical task more easily, of removing the heart. At the other end of the area were two towers or sanctuaries, consisting of three stories, the lower one of stone and stucco, the two upper of wood elaborately carved. In the lower division stood the images of their gods. Before each sanctuary stood an altar with that undying fire upon it, the extinction of which boded as much evil to the empire, as that of the Vestal flame would have done in ancient Rome. Here also was the huge cylindrical drum made of ser

adieu to the companions of his revelries. One of the royal barges transported him across the lake to a temple which rose on its margin, about a league from the city. Hither the inhabitants of the capital flocked to witness the consummation of the ceremony. As the sad procession wound up the sides of the pyramid, the unhappy victim threw away his gay chaplets of flowers, and broke in pieces the instruments of music with which he had solaced the hours of captivity. On the summit he was received by six priests, whose long and matted locks flowed disorderly over their sable robes, covered with hierogly. phic scrolls of mystic import. They led him to the sacrificial stone, a huge block of jasper, with its upper surface somewhat convex. On this the victim was stretched. Five priests secured his head and his limbs, while the sixth, clad in a scarlet mantle, emblematic of his bloody office, dexterously opened the breast of the wretched victim with a sharp razor of itzli, a volcanic substance hard as flint, and inserting his hand in the wound, tore out the palpitating heart. The minister of death, first holding this up towards the sun, cast it at the feet of the deity to whom the temple was devoted, and then expounded the tragedy as the type of human destiny, which, brilliant at its commencement, too often closes in sorrow and disaster."

pents' skins, and struck only on extraordinary occasions, when it sent forth a melancholy sound that might be heard for miles. "The temple rising high above all other edifices in the capital, afforded the most elevated as well as central point of view. From this position could be distinctly traced the symmetrical plan of the city, with its principal avenues issuing from the four gates and connecting themselves with the causeways which formed the grand entrances to the capital. This regular and beautiful arrangement was imitated in many of the inferior towns, where the great roads converged towards the chief teocallis as to a common focus."

The structures of Yucatan and Central America possess the same general characteristics as those of Mexico. The ruins of Uxmal, in Yucatan, are the most remarkable for their extent and variety of any which have been yet explored.

They impressed my mind," says Catherwood,* “at the first glance, with the same feelings of wonder and admiration, with which I first caught sight of the ruins of Thebes."

The grand teocallis so nearly resemble the Mexican one already mentioned, that it is needless to give a particular description of it. It is called the "House of the Dwarf," and the "House of the Diviner."

Next in importance is the "Casa del Gobernador,"

* "Catherwood's Views, in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan."

or House of the Governor. (Plate V.) This immense building is constructed entirely of hewn stone, and measures three hundred and twenty feet in front, by forty feet in depth; the height is about twenty-six feet. It has eleven doorways in front, and one at each end. The apartments are narrow, seldom exceeding twelve feet. The peculiar arch of the country has been employed in every room.

The Casa del Gobernador stands on three terraces; the lowest is three feet high, fifteen feet wide, and five hundred and seventy-five feet long; the second is twenty feet high; the third, nineteen feet high, and three hundred and sixty feet long; it is in a remarkably good state of preservation.

As this building is one of the finest that has been explored, and gives a complete idea of the manner in which these edifices were ornamented, we would commend the reader to Mr. Stephens's full and accurate description.*

It would seem as if this immense edifice had been first built and the stones afterwards carved; for each stone by itself is an unmeaning fractional portion, but by the side of others it forms part of a whole, without which it would be incomplete. All these ornaments may have a symbolical meaning, and each stone be a part of a history, allegory, or fable.

Up to the cornice, which runs round the whole length and the four sides of the "Casa," the façade

*"Incidents of Travel in Yucatan."

presents a smooth surface; above, is one solid mass of rich, complicated, and elaborately sculptured ornaments, forming a sort of arabesque.

The finest ornament is over the centre doorway. It seems to have been a sitting figure with an enormous head-dress of bunches of feathers symmetrically arranged.

A peculiar ornament, called by Waldeck an elephant's trunk, appears all over the façade and at the

FIG. 10.

corners; and throughout all the buildings it is met with oftener than any other design in Uxmal. How astonishing, that all these carvings should have been executed without the use of iron!

The rear elevation of the "Casa" is a solid wall, nine feet thick. Like the front, it was ornamented with sculpture, but less gorgeous and elaborate. The

roof is flat, and had been covered with cement, but is now overgrown with grass and bushes.

The long narrow apartments within, more resemble corridors or galleries, than rooms, some of them being twenty-three feet high, and only eleven or thirteen wide; some of them have but one door of entrance, and none of them windows.

The walls are constructed of square smooth blocks of stone. The floors are of cement.

The prints of a red hand were found upon all this, and all the ruined buildings of the country. They had been painted upon the stone by the living hand, with the thumb and fingers extended, moistened with red paint. The seams and creases of the palm were clear and distinct in the impression. What Champollion shall decipher the mysterious hieroglyphics which are everywhere sculptured upon these buildings?

Other buildings, that were once attached to the "Casa," still rear their solemn ruins in its vicinity.

Although these buildings afford no useful designs for the modern architect, and the sculptured ornaments are fantastic and grotesque, yet as specimens of art among a semi-barbarous people, they are exceedingly interesting. They have a picturesque appearance in the beautifully coloured "Views" of Catherwood, and the splendid engravings of the magnificent work of Lord Kingsborough. Some of the sculptures, as represented in