determined to make
a breach through the wall and to do this in the centre apartment.

1 must confess that I felt some repugnance to this work of demolition,
but one stone had already been picked out by an Indian to serve for
mashing maize upon; and as this was likely to be done at any time; when
another might be wanted, I got over my scruples.

Over the cavity left in the mortar by the removal of the stone were two
conspicuous marks, which afterward stared us in the face in all the
ruined buildings of the country. They were the prints of a red hand
with the thumb and fingers extended, not drawn or painted, but stamped
by the living hand, the pressure of the palm upon the stone. He who
made it had stood before it alive as we did, and pressed his hand,
moistened with red paint, hard against the stone. The seams and creases
of the palm were clear and distinct in the impression. There was
something lifelike about it that waked exciting thoughts, and almost
presented the images of the departed inhabitants hovering about the
building. And there was one striking feature about these hands; they
were exceedingly small. Either of our own spread over and completely
hid them; and this was interesting from the fact that we had ourselves
remarked, and heard remarked by others, the smallness of the hands and
feet as a striking feature in the physical conformation of the Indians
at the present day.

The stones with this red hand upon them were the first that fell as we
commenced our breach into the wall. There were two crowbars on the
hacienda, and working nearly two days, the Indians made a hole between
six and seven feet deep, but throughout the wall was solid, and
consisted of large stones imbedded in mortar, almost as hard as rock.
The reason of this immense back wall, where everything else had a
certain degree of fitness and conformity, we did not discover, and we
had this huge hole staring us reproachfully in the face during all the
remainder of our residence.

A few words more, and I have done with this building. In the south end
apartment, the facade of which has been presented, we found the
sculptured beam of hieroglyphics which had so much interested us on our
former visit. In some of the inner apartments the lintels were still in
their places over the doorways, and some were lying on the floor sound
and solid, which better condition was no doubt owing to their being
more sheltered than those over the outer doorway. This