Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/168

160 which the buildings are erected, high and of vast dimensions. The "Palace" is the grandest structure, and is 238 feet in length by 180 feet deep, while its height is but 25 feet. It stands on an artificial elevation of oblong shape, 40 feet high, 310 feet front, and 260 feet at each end. It was constructed of stone, with a mortar of lime and sand, and the whole front was covered with stucco, and painted in red, blue, yellow, black, and white. Another building, the Casa de Piedras, is situated in a

similar position to the Casa del Adivino in Uxmal, on a pyramidal structure, 110 feet high on the slope; and is "remarkably rich in stucco, bas-reliefs, and tablets of hieroglyphics."

These hieroglyphics, says Stephens, "are the same (?) as were found at Copan and Quirigua. The intermediate country is now occupied by races of Indians speaking many different languages, and entirely unintelligible to each other; but there is room for the belief that the whole of this country was once occupied by the same race, speaking the same language, or at least having the same written characters."

It would not be out of place here to introduce the