CHAPTER VIII. 
ESQTJIPULAS AND QUIRIGUA. 
I HA YE grouped in this chapter two most interesting 
monuments of the past, — a Christian temple whose 
mission seems to have been fulfilled, and a pagan grave¬ 
yard where stand the monuments of unknown kings or 
heroes. They are not inaptly joined ; for in this busy, 
matter-of-fact, commercial age, it is well that the less per¬ 
ishable records of our brothers who have preceded us in 
the unending march of life upon this globe should detain 
us, if but for a moment, with the lessons they may teach 
to thoughtful minds, — the temple raised by pious labor to 
signify that there is more than the present to live for, 
the monuments of the dead to carry on the personalities 
so soon lost in earthly life. 
We gazed from the precipice at the white building, 
large even on so vast a plain, and began the steep de¬ 
scent. The little village was almost dead in appearance. 
There were many houses and rooms to let, but no 
posada; and as our mozos had not arrived, we rode 
to the Santuario down the single street of the tow r n. It 
was wide, paved with cobbles, and bordered on either side 
by the booths and lodging-sheds for the merchants and 
devotees who still crowd the town at the festival season. 
Two streams, one the headwaters of the Rio Lempa, 
flowed across the road beneath solid masonry bridges. 
