CURIOUS SCULPTURED REMAINS. 133 



The summit was a plain stone platform, fifteen 

 feet square. It had no structure upon it, nor were 

 there vestiges of any. Probably it was the great 

 mound of sacrifice, on which the priests, in the sight 

 of the assembled people, cut out the hearts of hu- 

 man victims. The view commanded from the top 

 was a great desolate plain, with here and there 

 another ruined mound rising above the trees, and 

 far in the distance could be discerned the towers 

 of the church at Tekoh. 



Around the base of this mound, and throughout 

 the woods, wherever we moved, were strewed sculp- 

 tured stones. Most of them were square, carved on 

 the face, and having a long stone tenon or stem at 

 the back ; doubtless they had been fixed in the wall, 

 so as to form part of some ornament, or combina- 

 tion of ornaments, in the facade, in all respects the 

 same as at Uxmal. 



Besides these, there were other and more curious 

 remains. These were representations of human fig- 

 ures, or of animals, with hideous features and expres- 

 sions, in producing which the skill of the artist seems 

 to have been expended. The sculpture of these 

 figures was rude, the stones were timeworn, and 

 many were half buried in the earth. The following 

 engraving represents two of them. One is four, and 

 the other three feet high. The full length seems 

 intended to represent a warrior with a shield. The 

 arms are broken off, and to my mind they conveyed 

 a lively idea of the figures or idols which Bernal 



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