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ting divinity of the place. On three sides the structure is surrounded by a massive wall about five metres high and eight wide on the top. On that wall are to be seen the columns of the Katuns. The rank vegetation has invaded every part of the building, and thrown many of the columns to the ground. I began to clear the trees from the pyramid, but was unable to finish work because of the disarming of my workmen, owing to a revolution that a certain Teodosio Canto had initiated against the government of Yucatan. I counted as many as one hundred and twenty columns, but got tired of pushing my way through the nearly impenetrable thicket, where I could see many more among the shrubs. Those I counted would give an aggregate of 19,200 years,--quite a respectable old age, even for the life of a nation. This is plainly corroborated by the other means of reckoning the antiquity of the monuments,--such as the wear of the stones by meteorological influences, or the thickness of the stratum of the rich loam, the result of the decay of vegetable life, accumulated on the roofs and terraces of the buildings, not to speak of their position respecting the pole-star and the declination of the magnetic needle. The architecture of the Mayas is unlike that of any other people of what is called the Old World. It resembles only itself. And, notwithstanding that Mayapan, from the most remote times, was visited by travellers from Asia and Africa, by the wise and learned men who came from abroad to consult the _H-Menes_; notwithstanding, also, the invasion of the Nahuas and the visitation of the pilgrims, the Maya art of building remained peculiar and unchanged, and their language was adopted by their conquerors. The Nahuas, after destroying the city of the wise men, established themselves in Uxmal, on account of its strategic position, in the midst of a plain inclosed by hills easily defended. To embellish that city, where dwelt the foes of Chichen, they copied the complex ornamentation of the most ancient building of that metropolis,--the palace and museum,--disdaining the chastity, the simplicity, the beautiful and tasteful elegance of the monuments of the latter period. These, of graceful and airy proportions, are utterly devoid of the profusion and complexity of
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