with those at Labphak.

[Engraving 61: An isolated Edifice]

On the north side, at the distance of about forty feet from the
Castillo, stands a small isolated building, a side view of which is
represented in the engraving opposite. It stands on a terrace, and has
a staircase eight feet wide with ten or twelve broken steps. The
platform is twenty-four feet front and eighteen deep. The building
contains a single room, having, like the Castillo, a triangular-arched
roof. Over the doorway is the same curious figure we saw at Sayi, with
the head down and the legs and arms spread out; and along the cornice
were other curious and peculiar ornaments. The doorway is very low.
Throughout the country at times we had heard the building of these
cities ascribed to corcubados, or hunchbacks, and the unusual lowness
of all the doorways, with the strangeness and desolation of all around,
almost gave colour to the most fanciful belief.

The interior of this building consisted of a single chamber, twelve
feet by seven, having the triangular-arched ceiling, and at each end a
raised step or divan. The wall and ceiling were stuccoed and covered
with paintings, the subjects of which were almost entirely effaced.

The day ended without our making any advances beyond this immediate
neighbourhood, but the next was made memorable by the unexpected
discovery that this forest-buried city was encompassed by a wall, which
had resisted all the elements of destruction at work upon it, and was
still erect and in good preservation. Since the beginning of our
exploration we had heard of city walls, but all vestiges of them
elsewhere had been uncertain, and our attempts to trace them
unsatisfactory. Young Molas had told us of these, and was on the ground
early to guide us to them. We set out without much expectation of any
decided result, and, following him through the woods, all at once found
ourselves confronted by a massive stone structure running at right
angles to the sea; and, following its direction, we soon came to a
gateway and watch-tower. We passed through the gateway, and followed
the wall outside, keeping as close to it as the trees and bushes would
permit, down to the sea. The character of this structure could not be
mistaken. It was, in the strictest sense, a city wall, the first we had
seen that could be identified as such beyond all question, and gave
colour to the many stories we had heard of walls, inducing us to
believe that many