312 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



ed in the plate opposite, the first building which we 

 saw, and from every point of view the grandest and 

 most conspicuous object that towers above the plain. 

 Every Sunday the ruins are resorted to as a prom- 

 enade by the villagers of Piste, and nothing can sur- 

 pass the picturesque appearance of this lofty build- 

 ing while women, dressed in white, with red shawls, 

 are moving on the platform, and passing in and out 

 at the doors. The mound measures at the base on 

 the north and south sides one hundred and ninety- 

 six feet ten inches, and on the east and west sides 

 two hundred and two feet. It does not face the 

 cardinal points exactly, though probably so intend- 

 ed ; and in all the buildings, from some cause not 

 easily accounted for, while one varies ten degrees 

 one way, that immediately adjoining varies twelve 

 or thirteen degrees in another. It is built up appa- 

 rently solid from the plain to the height of seventy- 

 five feet. On the west side is a staircase thirty- 

 seven feet wide ; on the north, being that presented 

 in the engraving, the staircase is forty-four feet wide, 

 and contains ninety steps. On the ground at the 

 foot of the staircase, forming a bold, striking, and 

 well- conceived commencement to this lofty range, 

 are two colossal serpents' heads, ten feet in length, 

 with mouths wide open and tongues protruding, as 

 represented in the following engraving. No doubt 

 they were emblematic of so^e religious belief, and 

 in the mi ds of an imaginative people, passing be- 



