at the projecting end. On each side is a
succession of compartments, alternately plain, and presenting the form
of diamond lattice-work. In both there is an agreeable succession of
plain and ornamented, and, in fact, it would be difficult, in arranging
four sides facing a courtyard, to have more variety, and at the same
time more harmony of ornament. All these facades were painted; the
traces of the colour are still visible, and the reader may imagine what
the effect must have been when all this building was entire, and
according to its supposed design, in its now desolate doorways stood
noble Maya maidens, like the vestal virgins of the Romans, to cherish
and keep alive the sacred fire burning in the temples.

I omit a description of the apartments opening upon this courtyard. We
made plans of all of them, but they are generally much alike, except in
the dimensions. The number in all is eighty-eight.

[Engraving 25: Interior of an Apartment]
++++++++++
In the range last presented, however, there is one suite different from
all the rest The entrance to this suite is by the centre and principal
doorway, and the engraving opposite represents the interior. It
consists of two parallel chambers, each thirty-three feet long and
thirteen wide; and at each end of both chambers is a doorway
communicating with other chambers nine feet long and thirteen wide. The
doorways of all these are ornamented with sculpture, and they are the
only ornaments found in the interior of any buildings in Uxmal. The
whole suite consists of six rooms; and there is a convenience in the
arrangements not unsuited to the habits of what we call civilized life;
opening as they do upon this noble courtyard, in the dry season, with
nothing to apprehend from vegetation and damp; they would be by far the
most comfortable residence for any future explorer of the ruins of
Uxmal; and every time I went to them I regretted that we could not
avail ourselves of the facilities they offered.

With these few words I take leave of the Casa de las Monjas, remarking
only that in the centre is the fragment of a large stone like that on
the terrace of the Casa del Gobernador, called the Picote, and also
that, induced by the account of Waldeck that the whole was once paved
with sculptured turtles, I passed a morning digging all over the
courtyard below the slight accumulation of earth, and found nothing of
the kind. The substratum consisted of rude stones, no doubt once