THE RUINS. 



103 



guide, who, sometimes missing his way, with a constant 

 and vigorous use of his machete, conducted us through 

 the thick forest, among half-buried fragments, to four- 

 teen monuments of the same character and appearance, 

 some with more elegant designs, and some in workman- 

 ship equal to the finest monuments of the Egyptians ; 

 one displaced from its pedestal by enormous roots ; an- 

 other locked in the close embrace of branches of trees, 

 and almost lifted out of the earth ; another hurled to 

 the ground, and bound down by huge vines and creep- 

 ers ; and one standing, with its altar before it, in a 

 grove of trees which grew around it, seemingly to 

 shade and shroud it as a sacred thing ; in the solemn 

 stillness of the woods, it seemed a divinity mourning 

 over a fallen people. The only sounds that disturbed 

 the quiet of this buried city were the noise of monkeys 

 moving among the tops of the trees, and the cracking 

 of dry branches broken by their weight. They moved 

 over our heads in long and swift processions, forty or 

 fifty at a time, some with little ones wound in their 

 long arms, walking out to the end of boughs, and 

 holding on with their hind feet or a curl of the tail, 

 sprang to a branch of the next tree, and, with a noise 

 like a current of wind, passed on into the depths of the 

 forest. It was the first time we had seen these mock- 

 eries of humanity, and, with the strange monuments 

 around us, they seemed like wandering spirits of the 

 departed race guarding the ruins of their former habi- 

 tations. 



We returned to the base of the pyramidal structure, 

 and ascended by, regular stone steps, in some places 

 forced apart by bushes and saplings, and in others 

 thrown down by the growth of large trees, while some 

 remained entire. In parts they were ornamented -with 



