eful proportions of the nude
figure. They stand perpendicularly, carved from solid blocks of stone,
and are from 10 to 15 feet in height. The figures upon them are
bas-reliefs, occupying generally only 2/3 of the length of the front,
while the back of the block is a straight surface and is covered with
emblems and hieroglyphics. The sculptures of Palenque[89-[+]] have many
of them much artistic beauty, but they are all of them attached figures,
as it is believed are also the beautiful statues of Nineveh.[89-[++]]
Even the slightest touching makes a figure "in relief." This statue from
Chichen-Itza has all the appearance of being intended as the likeness of
a man, and much skill is shown in the delineation of the proportions. It
is entirely detached, and reposes upon a base carved from the same block
of stone as the figure, which gives it a higher rank in sculpture than
any other in America, of which we have ocular proof at this day. It is a
noteworthy circumstance in the controversy regarding the seizure of the
statue by the Yucatan Government, and afterwards by that of Mexico,
that no doubt in regard to its authenticity, so far as is known to the
writer, has been expressed on the part of those who would naturally be
the best judges of objects found in their own country. Among the Le
Plongeon photographs of sculptures from Uxmal is a head in demi-relief,
which resembles in the lineaments of the face those of this statue so
much as to offer a striking likeness, and this agrees with the theory of
the intimate connection of Chichen-Itza and Uxmal, adopted in the
communication to Hon. J. W. Foster.

Diego de Landa, second Bishop of Yucatan, in his account of that country
written in 1566, speaks of two similar statues observed by him at the
same locality, Chichen-Itza, which place he speaks of as famous for its
ruins.[90-*] His description is: "I found there sculptured lions, vases,
and other objects, fashioned with so much skill that no one would be
tempted to declare that that people made them without instruments of
metal. There I found also two men sculptured, each made of a single
stone, and girded according to the usage of the Indians. They held their
heads in a peculiar manner, and had ear-rings in their ears, as the
Indians wear them, and a point formed a projection behind the neck,
which entered a deep hole in the neck, and thus adorned the statue was
complete." He also speaks of the practice of burying articles used