ly the remains of two columns covered
with sculptured figures; the fall of the front has laid bare the entire
wall of the chamber, covered from one end to the other with
elaborately-sculptured figures in bas-relief.

[Engraving 49: Figures in Bas-relief]

[Transcriber's Note:

Text at end of line of Bas-relief: _This part is covered with
sculpture of the same character._

Text below last line of Bas-relief: _This part is covered with
sculpture of the same character._

Text below Bas-relief: _Portion of a Painted Bas-relief on the Wall of a
Building at CHICHEN-ITZA._

Bottom line: _Scale of English feet._]

The plate opposite represents a portion of these figures. Exposed for
ages to a long succession of winds and rains, the characters were faded
and worn; under the glare of a tropical sun the lines were confused and
indistinct, and the reflection of the heat was so intense that it was
impossible to work before it except for an hour or two in the
afternoon, when the building was in the shade. The head-dress of the
figures is, as usual, a plume of feathers, and in the upper row each
figure carries a bundle of spears or a quiver of arrows. All these
figures were painted, and the reader may imagine what the effect must
have been when all was entire. The Indians call this chamber Stohl, and
say that it represents a dance of the antiguos; and these bas-reliefs,
too, have a distinct and independent value. In the large work of Nebel,
entitled "Voyage Pittoresque et Archeologique dans le Mexique," lately
published at Paris, is a drawing of the stone of sacrifice in the
Museum of Mexico, and now for the first time published. It is nine feet
in diameter and three feet thick, and contains a procession of figures
in bas-relief, which, though differing in detail, are of the same
general character with those sculptured on the wall of this building.
The stone was dug up in the plaza of Mexico, near the spot on which
stood, in the time of Montezuma, the great teocalis of that city. The
resemblance stands upon a different footing from any which may exist in
Mitla, or Xocichalco, or other places, the history of which is unknown,
and forms another connecting link with the very people who occupied the
city of Mexico at the time of the conquest. And the proofs go on
accumulating. In the upper building, the back of which appears in the
engraving, is presented a casket containing, though broken and
disfigured, perhaps the greatest g