MEXICAN HISTORY AND ARCHEOLOGY. 29 



as to make all researches useless. But the group which at present interests us, 

 seems, from Mr. Sawkins's observations, to have consisted originally of four con- 

 nected, or nearly connected, buildings, each one fronting a cardinal point, the whole 

 inclosing a square court. The original erections may, in all likelihood, have resem- 

 bled the following sketch, in their ground plan : — 



Of the southernmost of these edifices, Mr. Sawkins found five upright columns 

 still standing — four supporting portions of a wall, while the fifth, which was taller 

 than the rest, stood alone. These fragments are seen in Plate No. 1, immediately 

 in front of the spectator. On the west of the square, there are the remains of 

 crumbling and indistinct walls ; on the north, everything seems to be obliterated ; 

 while, on the east of the quadrangle, is the edifice forming the main feature of 

 Plate No. 1, and which is represented, at large, from the rear, in Plate No. 2. 



Passing over the court-yard, or quadrangle — still floored with a hard cement and 

 slabs of sandstone — we approach the entrance of this building, which consists of four 

 apertures between three low, square columns, or door jambs, through which the 

 interior can only be reached in a crouching posture. These four apertures admit 

 the passage, through each, of but one person at a time. On either side of this 

 portal, as seen in No. 1, there are niches or recesses, on the front, which were pro- 

 bably filled by images. This portion of the exterior wall, or fagade, is said by 

 Mr. Sawkins to be, at present, without any adornments; but whether such was 

 its original state, or whether it has been stripped of its coverings by the neighbor- 

 ing Mexicans, we are not distinctly informed. The large stones forming the cornice 

 over the entrance, were especially remarked by our traveller, as indicating — both 

 by size and neatness of workmanship — the ingenuity and power of the builders. 1 



Upon entering through one of the low and narrow adits, just described, Mr. 

 Sawkins found himself in an oblong court or apartment, of very considerable size. 

 Its walls were covered with a rich, highly polished, red plaster, so hard as to resist 

 the knife. At the two ends of this court there were niches, as well as one directly 

 in front of the entrance ; but the images or utensils they were intended for by 

 the aborigines, had long disappeared. It was in a line along the centre of this 



1 Mr. Grlennie, a British traveller, states the dimensions of some of the stones above the entrances 

 of these buildings to be : eighteen feet long, four feet ten inches broad, three feet six inches thick ; 

 another is nineteen feet four inches long, four feet ten and a half inches broad, and three feet nine 

 inches thick ; a third is nineteen feet six inches long, four feet ten inches broad, and three feet four 

 inches thick ! 



