es carved in the similitude of serpents'
heads, with mouths wide open, that instantly recalled to my mind the
like enclosure that the Spaniards found surrounding the principal temple
in the city of Tenochtitlan--and I had a sudden strong longing that my
friend Bandelier might be with me at that moment to see how precisely
his very ingenious speculations concerning the snake-wall about the
great Teocalli were here confirmed.

Through a portal formed of two huge blocks of stone carved to represent
two serpents coiled upon themselves, the heads meeting above in a sort
of arch (not a true arch, for each of these serpents was a monolith, and
was supported wholly on its own base), we entered the large enclosure
before the temple. I was surprised to find--for of such a thing among
the ancient Aztecs there is no record--that in the centre of the
enclosure the rock had been hewn away in such a fashion as to create a
vast amphitheatre; and that this was the place where sacrifice was
offered by the priests was shown by the blood-stained altar in the
centre of it, to which fragments of flesh also adhered, whence was
wafted up to us a dreadful stench that instantly racked us with queasy
qualms. Save directly in front of the entrance to the temple, where was
a great stone balcony with a smaller balcony below it, all the sides of
the amphitheatre were cut in steps, which made, also, benches where the
multitude could sit at their ease and behold the bloody work going on in
the pit below them; and so enormous was this rock-hewn cavity that fully
forty thousand people could at once be seated there. Under the balcony
there was visible the entrance to a dark tunnel-like passage, that
evidently communicated with the temple, and a smaller passage, not large
enough for a man to pass through, slanted downward to where it opened on
the terrace below; which last was to drain the blood away, and also to
free the amphitheatre from water in the season of rains.

We held our noses as we skirted this shocking place, and we were glad
enough when we got beyond it and came to the entrance to the temple--a
very noble portal, severely simple, and because of its simplicity the
more majestic, in which, as in the whole of the facade, was manifest the
grave and sombre Egyptian feeling that I had before observed. Through
this we passed into the shadowy interior, lighted by only a few narrow
slits cut in the enormously thick walls, where the lofty roof was
uph