sal
entwined serpents which run round it, and encompass nearly all the
ornaments throughout its whole length. These serpents are sculptured
out of small blocks of stone, which are arranged in the wall with great
skill and precision. One of the serpents has its monstrous jaws
distended; and within them is a human head, the face of which is
distinctly visible in the carving.

The most tastefully ornamented edifice is know as the "House of the
Dwarf." It stands on the summit of a lofty mound, faced with stone,
nearly ninety feet high, the building itself being seventeen feet high.
Its purpose it is difficult to divine.

Scattered throughout the ruins are a number of dome-shaped subterraneous
chambers, from eight to ten feet deep, and from twelve to twenty in
diameter. The floor is of hard matter, and the walls and ceilings of
plaster. A circular hole at the summit of each, barely large enough to
admit a man, is the only opening into them. It is not known whether
they were used as cisterns, or for granaries, like those of Egypt.

OTHER RUINS.

The whole country to the south of Uxmal is covered with ruins. At a
place called Labra, there is a tower richly ornamented, forty feet in
height, which stands on the summit of an artificial elevation. In
another place there is one forty-five feet high; along the top of which,
standing out from the wall, is a row of deaths' heads--or perhaps
monkeys' heads--and underneath are two lines of human figures, greatly
mutilated.

At Kewick, a short distance from Labra, are numerous other ruins, mostly
remarkable for the simplicity of their architecture and the grandeur of
their proportions. It is still uncertain whether these cities were
inhabited by the unhappy people conquered by the Spaniards, or whether
they were built by a race which, from some unknown cause, had already
passed away. We see how completely the Mexicans and Peruvians, after
the conquest, sunk from their comparatively high state of civilisation
into barbarism; and such might have been the case with the inhabitants
of these cities. Their origin will probably for ever afford matter for
speculation.

The different cities vary in their style of architecture almost as much
as as they do from those of Assyria or Egypt; but when we come to
examine the sculptures, we may be able to trace a much stronger
resemblance. The statues of the woman and child, the cruciform
ornaments, the serpents and gigantic heads of a