on
the sides or at the ends. In the belief that they must have interior
chambers, we made a breach in the wall of the one on the east to the
depth of eight or ten feet, but we found only rough stones, hanging so
loosely together as to make it dangerous for the Indians to work in the
holes, and they were obliged to discontinue.

This excavation, however, carried us through nearly one third of the
structure, and satisfied us that these great parallel edifices did not
contain any interior apartments, but that each consisted merely of four
great walls, filled up with a solid mass of stones. It was our opinion
that they had been built expressly with reference to the two great
rings facing each other in the facades, and that the space between was
intended for the celebration of some public games, in which opinion we
were afterward confirmed.

Passing between these buildings, and continuing in the same direction,
we reach the front of the Casa de las Monjas, or House of the Nuns.

This building is quadrangular, with a courtyard in the centre. It
stands on the highest of three terraces. The lowest is three feet high
and twenty feet wide; the second, twelve feet high and forty-five feet
wide; and the third, four feet high and five feet wide, extending the
whole length of the front of the building.

The front is two hundred and seventy-nine feet long, and above the
cornice, from one end to the other, it is ornamented with sculpture. In
the centre is a gateway ten feet eight inches wide, spanned by the
triangular arch, and leading to the courtyard. On each side of this
gateway are four doorways with wooden lintels, opening to apartments
averaging twenty-four feet long, ten feet wide, and seventeen feet high
to the top of the arch, but having no communication with each other.

The building that forms the right or eastern side of the quadrangle is
one hundred and fifty-eight feet long; that on the left is one hundred
and seventy-three feet long, and the range opposite or at the end of
the quadrangle measures two hundred and sixty-four feet.

These three ranges of buildings have no doorways outside, but the
exterior of each is a dead wall, and above the cornice all are
ornamented with the same rich and elaborate sculpture. On the exterior
of the range last mentioned, the designs are simple, and among them are
two rude, naked figures, which have been considered as indicating the
existence of that same Eastern worship before ref