-with walls slightly receding inward as they rose, and wholly
destitute of ornamentation. For its majestic effect it depended upon its
great size and upon its admirable proportions; and being built of the
dark rock of which the mountain was formed, and having about it much of
the sombre feeling that characterizes Egyptian architecture, it had an
air of great solemnity and gloom.

In silence we ascended the short flight of steps that led to the broad,
doorless entrance--the only opening through the massive walls--and so
came into the vast shadowy hall that these great walls enclosed. From
front to back of this hall extended many rows of stone pillars--like the
single row found in the great chamber among the ruins of Mitla--and by
these were upheld the huge slabs of stone of which the roof was made.
Far away from where we stood, down at the end of a long vista of
pillars, was a stone altar on which was carved in stone a colossal
figure of the god Chac-Mool. Looking back through the open entrance, I
saw a break in the mountain peaks to the eastward; and so perceived that
the first rays of the rising sun must needs enter here and strike full
upon the disk that was poised in the figure's hands. As Pablo caught
sight of the great idol recumbent there, a momentary shudder went
through him and he made certain motions with his hand before his eyes
that were strange to me.

As we drew near to the altar we found that in front of it was a
sacrificial stone, still darkly stained where blood had flowed upon it;
and beneath the stone neck-yoke, still resting there, was a withered
remnant of human vertebrae. There was something very ghastly in
finding--preserved by the very stone that had held him down while life
was let out of him--this mere scrap of the last human victim who had
perished here. As in the desolate valley, so also on this desolate
mountain-top, the only proof that human life ever had been here was
found in proof of human death.

Save that our curiosity was gratified, and the blessing of the water
which we found, our ascent of the great pyramid and our examination of
the temple bore no fruit. Young, who still seemed to think that tilting
up and disclosing secret passages was an attribute of all statues of the
god Chac-Mool, was here again convinced that his generalization from a
single case was not a sound one. In a serious way--that in itself would
have been laughable but for the gloom of our surroundings--he climbed