250 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



the Egyptians or among the Greeks ; for they begin at the base with a narrow 

 outline and, as the structure rises in height, spread out in wide copings at 

 the top, so that the upper part exceeds the base in breadth and looks as if it 

 would fall over. The inner side of the walls consists of a mortar or stucco of 

 such hardness that no one knows with what kind of liquid it could have been 

 mixed. The outside is of such extraordinary workmanship that on a masonry 

 wall about an ell in height there are placed stone slabs with a projecting edge, 

 which form the support for an endless number of small white stones, the small- 

 est of which are a sixth of an ell long, half as broad, and a quarter as thick, 

 and which are as smooth and regular as if they had all come from one mold. 

 They had so many of these stones that, setting them in, one beside the other, 

 they formed with them a large number of different beautiful geometric designs, 

 each an ell broad and running the whole length of the wall, each varying in 

 pattern up to the crowning piece, which was the finest of all. And what has 

 always seemed inexplicable to the greatest architects is the adjustment of 

 these little stones without a single handful of mortar, and the fact that without 

 tools, with nothing but hard stones and sand, they could achieve such solid work 

 that, though the whole structure is very old and no one knows who made it, 

 it has been preserved until the present, day. 



I carefully examined these monmnents some thirty years ago in the chambers 

 above ground, which are constructed of the same size and in the same way as 

 those below ground and, though single pieces were in ruins because some stones 

 had become loosened, there was still much to admire. The doorways were very 

 large, the sides of each being of single stones of the same thickness as the wall, 

 and the lintel was made out of another stone which held the two lower ones 

 together at the top. Thei'e were lour chambers above ground and four below. 

 The latter were arranged according to their purpose in such a way that one 

 front chamber served as chapel and sanctuary for the idols, which were placed 

 on a great stone which served as an altar. And for the more important feasts 

 which they celebrated with sacrifices, or at the burial of a king or great lord, 

 the high priest instructed the lesser priests or the subordinate temple oflicials 

 who served him to prepare the chapel and his vestments and a large quantity 

 of the incense used by them. And then he descended with a great retinue, 

 while none of the common people saw him or dared to look in his face, convinced 

 that if they did so they would fall dead to the earth as a punishment for their 

 boldness. And when he entered the chapel they put on him a long white cot- 

 ton garment made like an alb, and over that a garment shaped like a dalmatic, 

 which was embroidered with pictures of wild beasts and birds ; and they put a 

 cap on his head, and on his feet a kind of shoe woven of many colored feathers. 

 And when he had put on these garments he walked with solemn mien and 

 measured step to the altar, bowed low before the idols, renewed the incense, 

 alid then in quite unintelligible murmurs (muy entre dientes) he began to con- 

 verse with these images, these depositories of infernal spirits, and continued 

 in this sort of prayer with hideous grimaces and writhings, uttering inarticu- 

 late sounds, which filled all present with fear and terror, till he came out of 

 that diabolical trance and told those standing around the lies and fabrications 

 which the spirit had imparted to him or which he had invented himself. When 

 human beings were sacrificed the ceremonies were multiplied, and the assist- 

 ants of the high priest stretched the victim out upon a large stone, baring his 

 breast, which they tore open with a great stone knife, while the body writhed in 

 fearful convulsions and they laid the heart bare, ripping it out, and with it the 

 soul, which the devil took, while they carried the heart to the high priest that 

 he might offer it to the idols by holding it to their mouths, among other cere- 

 monies ; and the body was thrown into the burial place of their " blessed ", as 



