FIGURES IN BAS-RELIEF. 



309 



The plate opposite represents a portion of these 

 figures. Exposed for ages to a long succession of 

 winds and rains, the characters were faded and 

 worn ; under the glare of a tropical sun the lines 

 were confused and indistinct, and the reflection of 

 the heat was so intense that it was impossible to 

 work before it except for an hour or two in the af- 

 ternoon, when the building was in the shade. The 

 head-dress of the figures is, as usual, a plume of feath- 

 ers, and in the upper row each figure carries a bun- 

 dle of spears or a quiver of arrows. All these figures 

 were painted, and the reader may imagine what the 

 effect must have been when all was entire. The 

 Indians call this chamber Stohl, and say that it 

 represents a dance of the antiguos ; and these bas- 

 reliefs, too, have a distinct and independent value. 

 In the large work of Nebel, entitled " Voyage Pit- 

 toresque et Archeologique dans le Mexique," lately 

 published at Paris, is a drawing of the stone of sac- 

 rifice in the Museum of Mexico, and now for the 

 first time published. It is nine feet in diameter and 

 three feet thick, and contains a procession of figures 

 in bas-relief, which, though differing in detail, are of 

 the same general character with those sculptured on 

 the wall of this building. The stone w as dug up in 

 the plaza of Mexico, near the spot on which stood, 

 in the time of Montezuma, the great teocalis of that 

 city. The resemblance stands upon a different foot- 

 ing from any which may exist in Mitla, or Xocichal- 

 co, or other places, the history of which is unknown, 



