OTHER RUINS. 285 



wall, is a row of deaths' heads — or perhaps monkeys' heads 

 — and underneath are two lines of human figures, greatly 

 mutilated. 



At Kewick, a short distance from Labra, are numerous 

 other ruins, mostly remarkable for the simplicity of their 

 architecture and the grandeur of their proportions. It is 

 still uncertain whether these cities were inhabited by the 

 unhappy people conquered by the Spaniards, or whether they 

 were built by a race which, from some unknown cause, had 

 already passed away. We see how completely the Mexicans 

 and Peruvians, after the conquest, sunk from their compara- 

 tively high state of civilization into barbarism ; and such 

 might have been the case with the inhabitants of these cities. 

 Their origin will probably for ever afford matter for specu- 

 lation. 



The different cities vary in their style of architecture al- 

 most as much as as they do from those of Assyria or Egypt ; 

 but when we come to examine the sculptures, we may be 

 able to trace a much stronger resemblance. The statues of 

 the woman and child, the cruciform ornaments, the serpents 

 and gigantic heads of apes, as well as those of the typical 

 heads of savage animals surmounting the heads of the statues, 

 are all to be found on the banks of the Nile, and were pro- 

 bably derived from the same central source. While the 

 tribes who proceeded westward peopled Egypt, others, among 

 whom a similar system of idolatry prevailed, may have mi- 

 grated towards the east, and finally made their way across 

 the Pacific to the shores of America. 



