204 Atlantis. 



their heads, sandals on their feet, with garments reaching half way 

 down the thigh. On the tablets of an altar were sculptured sixteen 

 human figures in low relief, sitting cross-legged upon cushions with fans 

 in their hands. At the same place were colossal stone figures with 

 heads of animals and bodies of men. All of these, it must be ad- 

 mitted, strongly suggest the Egyptian style, not only in the mode of 

 presentation, but in the selection of subjects. Crouching figures of 

 animals in the similitude of the Sphinx ; human heads showing the 

 Egyptian mode of head-dress with singular fidelity; serpents in con- 

 ventional form, and numerous other works of minor importance, are 

 cited as exhibiting such resemblances to Egyptian art. 



But, before passing from the art remains to other features of the 

 early American culture, one noble monument is worthy of remark, 

 no less from the varied and graceful forms delineated in its exterior 

 ornamentation — which are said to strongly resemble, and indeed, far 

 surpass, many specimens of Etruscan art — than that in its elevation the 

 pyramidal form is reversed. 



The edifice at Mitla rests upon a solid pyramidal base or pedestal of 

 brick, five feet in height, encased ^^ ith slabs of dressed stone. From 

 this base, the walls of the main structure incline otitward and attain 

 a height of twenty-five feet. The ground plan of these ruins resem- 

 bles the Greek cross, and seems to have once included three other 

 structures like the one which now remains, enclosing a square interior 

 court paved with cement. Three of the interior walls of the existing 

 edifice, covered with a hard and highly polished cement, contain 

 horizontal recesses of sufl[icient size for the reception of a human body. 

 Each wall contains nine of these compartments, arranged in three 

 tiers. . The exterior finish of the walls is also in three tiers or courses 

 of stone, divided into rectangular panels, corresponding with the 

 interior recesses, making, however, sixty-three panels in all in the 

 exterior faces — the ground plan of the building being in the form of 

 the letter T. The exterior stonework is of the most accurate char- 

 acter. Each of the sixty-three divisions or panels is a recess cut into 

 the solid stone, and contains geometric figures in a mosaic of small 

 blocks of stone, set in high relief in a mass of enduring cement, forming 

 numerous designs of great beauty and regularity. 



"The spectator," says Brantz Mayer, "who looks at one end of 

 this singular building, * * might almost fancy that he stood in 

 front of a gigantic sarcophagus, designed and sculptured in advanced 

 periods of Grecian and Roman art." 



Beneath the paved central area once enchised by these edifices, 

 are said to exist subterranean apartments, similarly ornamented by 



