HEWERS OF STONE 



1011 



the softer material. No, he held in his 

 hand a stone hammer, axe, or chisel, 

 though harder than the particular rock 

 from which he obtained his building ma- 

 terial. 



THE QUARRIES AT MITLA 



We are enabled to reproduce the 

 scene as we look upon the thousands of 

 broken fragments and the many worn- 

 out, broken, and rejected tools that still 

 cover the native rocky floor of their 

 once busy workshop, when hundreds of 

 stone - cutters, speaking a strange lan- 

 guage and urged on to diligent work by 

 their masters, struck hard blows with 

 rude hammers and axes before the na- 

 tive rock yielded and conformed to the 

 necessary size and shape assigned for it 

 in the building. The place recalls the 

 quarry in the Lebanon Mountains, 

 whence the colossal stones were taken 

 for the temples at Baalbek. Of course, 

 the Baalbek stones were greater in mag- 

 nitude and the buildings were greater in 

 height and of vaster proportions than 

 those at Mitla, for in a wall 40 feet 

 above the ground are three stones about 

 65 feet each in length and 15 feet in 

 every other direction, whilst out in the 

 quarry, one-half mile or more away 

 from the temples of Baalbek, we saw a 

 fourth stone of the same size, and al- 

 most detached from the mountain with 

 the exception of the lower angle. These 

 enormous hewn stones were much larger 

 than the largest ones used in the ■ wall 

 around Jerusalem or in the great pyra- 

 mid of Egypt. But these were different 

 workmen who went into the Lebanon 

 Mountains, and they had very different 

 tools, that made the hardest granite and 

 porphyry yield to their stroke. 



While the workmen in the quarries 

 near Mitla were restricted to stone im- 

 plements, they were highly favored in 

 the quality of the rock from which they 

 quarried, for it was not hard granite, 

 which would have rendered such achieve- 

 ments impossible, but a comparatively soft 

 and easily cut stone of volcanic forma- 

 tion, and known as trachyte, but of sufli- 

 cient hardness for building purposes. 



To have rock that was easy of cleavage 

 and to cut into shape was of tremendous 

 advantage to these Stone Age builders 

 with their primitive tools, and no doubt 

 they discovered the material before de- 

 ciding upon the site of their capital. 

 One thing is certain, however compara- 

 tively soft the native rock may have 

 been, it has proved to be of superior 

 quality for building purposes, for it is 

 most durable, and even the many thou- 

 sands of thin pieces that were split off 

 have endured throughout the many cen- 

 turies, and apparently have in no way 

 suffered from the wear of time and the 

 elements. 



I would not leave the impression that 

 the trachyte was of the same character 

 as that singularly soft deposit found in 

 certain places and which exists in great 

 quantities near Palermo, and where huge 

 blocks are cut out of the earth accord- 

 ing to the required size for the building. 

 A great area had been excavated, for 

 many of the large buildings in the city 

 had been constructed of the soft ma- 

 terial taken from this place. It makes 

 very cheap building material, for no 

 time is required to hew and dress the 

 stone, which is cut from the native bed 

 at once into the size wanted, just as you 

 would cut a slice of cheese, although it 

 is much softer, more like clay. To make 

 the test for myself, with one stroke I 

 easily sank the axe six inches or up to 

 the handle. Yet the stone becomes very 

 hard when exposed to the air and is 

 most durable, for there are no signs of 

 crumbling or scaling off from the build- 

 ings after the centuries of wear. Such 

 a deposit is a gold mine for architects 

 today, and the early Mitlans would have 

 been most fortunate had they discovered 

 such material in their valley. 



But they had a very different prob- 

 lem to solve, for their material had to be 

 cut from the mountain, and this required 

 an enormous expenditure of time and 

 energy, for the substance was volcanic 

 rock, and after detaching huge blocks 

 there v/ere great difficulties involved in 

 getting them down to the valley, for the 

 quarry was 1,000 feet above the plain, 



