a shrine where the conjugal love of the queen
alone worshipped the memory of her departed lover. She adorned the
outer walls with his effigies, his totem-tiger, and his shield and
coat of arms between tiger and tiger. Whilst on an admirably
polished stucco that covers the stones in the interior of the rooms
she had his deeds, his and her own life in fact, with the customs
of the time, painted in beautiful life-like designs, superbly drawn
and sweetly colored. The history of the twin brothers is there
faithfully portrayed. There is also a life-like likeness, painted
in brilliant colors, of Chaacmol. Unhappily such precious works of
art have been much defaced, more than by time, by the impious hands
of ignorant and vain fools, who have thought their names of greater
interest to the world than the most remarkable drawings on which
they have inscribed them.

Chaacmol is there represented full of wrath, the hand clinched in
an altercation with his younger brother, _Aac_. This latter, after
cowardly murdering the friend of his infancy with thrusts of his
lance--one under his right shoulder blade, another in his left
lung, near the region of the heart, and the third in the lumbar
region--fled to Uxmal in order to escape the vengeance of the
queen, who cherished their young chieftain who had led them so many
times to victory. At their head he had conquered all the
surrounding nations. Their kings and rulers had come from afar to
lay their sceptres and their hearts at the feet of their pretty and
charming queen. Even white and long bearded men had made her
presents and offered her their tributes and homage. He had raised
the fame of their beautiful capital far above that of any other
cities in Mayapan and Xibalba. He had opened the country to the
commerce of the whole world, and merchants of Asia and Africa would
bring their wares and receive in exchange the produce of their
factories and of their lands. In a word, he had made Chichen a
great metropolis in whose temples pilgrims from all parts came to
worship and even offer their own persons as a sacrifice to the
Almighty. There also came the wise men of the world to consult the
_H-Menes_, whose convent, together with their astronomical
observatory, may be seen at a short distance from the government
p