tasteful and even elegant, and when perfect it must have presented a
fine appearance. It has a single doorway, opening into a chamber
twenty-five feet long by ten wide. Above the door is a portion of plain
masonry, and over this a cornice supporting twelve small pilasters,
having between them the diamond ornament, then a massive cornice, with
pilasters and diamond work, surmounted by another cornice, making in
all four cornices; an arrangement we had not previously met with.

While Mr. Catherwood was making his drawing, the Indians stood around
under the shade of the trees, looking at him quietly and respectfully,
and making observations to each other. They were a fine-looking race.
Some of them, one tall old man particularly, had noble Roman faces, and
they seemed to have more respectability of appearance and character
than was consistent with the condition of men not wearing pantaloons.
AH at once an enormous iguana, or lizard, doubled the corner of the
building, ran along the front, and plunged into a crevice over the
door, burying his whole body, but leaving the long tail out. Among
these unsophisticated people this reptile is a table delicacy, and here
was a supper provided for some of them. Machetes flew out, and, cutting
down a sapling with a crotch in it, they rested it against the wall,
and, standing in the crotch, pulled upon the tail; but the animal held
on with his feet as if a part of the building. All the Indians, one
after the other, had a pull at the tail, but could not make him budge.
At length two of them contrived to get hold together, and, while
pulling with all their strength, the tail came off by the roots, a foot
and a half long in their hands. The animal was now more out of their
reach than before, his whole body being hidden in the wall; but he
could not escape. The Indians picked away the mortar with their
machetes, and enlarged the hole until they got his hind legs clear,
when, griping the body above the legs, they again hauled; but, though
he had only the fore legs to hold on with, they could not tear him out.
They then untied the ropes of their sandals, and, fastening them above
the hind legs, and pulling till the long body seemed parting like the
tail, they at length dragged him out. They secured him by a gripe under
the fore part of the body, cracked his spine, and broke the bones of
his fore legs so that he could not run; pried his jaws open, fastened
them apart with a sharp stick so tha