Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/545

Rh so complicated in their nature that only the accompanying engravings can properly represent them. This mosaic, all the figures of which are rectangular or diagonal, gives the distinctive character to Mitla that distinguishes it from all other ruins. The façades of the Yucatan ruins are carved, while Palenque is noted for its sculptures and stucco in bas-relief, and Copan for its idols and altars. We are overwhelmed with the magnificence of this great work as a whole, and impressed by the careful execution of the details of this stupendous undertaking.

Beneath a wall of the northern building is an underground chamber, known as the subterraneo, in the shape of a cross, each arm about twelve feet long, five and one half feet wide and six and one half feet high. The immense block of stone that covers the junction of the two galleries is supported by a monolith, called the "Pillar of Death," from a tradition that whoever embraces it will die before the sun goes down. To the horror of our Indian guides, each of our party took particular pains to embrace that pillar most affectionately, and we still live. Traditions are rife about these ruins. One relates that from this subterraneo leads a long, underground passage, across the court, to another subterranean chamber, which one account represents as full of treasure, and another as full of mummies. The soil of the court has been dug over at various times by treasure-hunters, and it is confidently believed that two old Indians residing here are cognizant of an immense amount of buried gold and silver; but they will not reveal it, and merely extract sufficient to keep them comfortable.

We crawled into the subterraneo, which was about three feet square, and, as it seemed to extend farther, our archaeologist was fired with the desire of opening it. Accordingly, having secured permission from the jefe of the village, he set a dozen Indians at work, some with long steel ox-goads, to sound the cavities, and others with wooden shovels. The result of a whole day's labor was to show that there was formerly a tomb there, but that the passage, if any existed, had been filled up hundreds of years ago. The interior of this chamber was of faced stone, with panels of that wonderful mosaic, which was repeated in adobe bricks.