Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/80

72, the same feathered or plumed serpent, and cannot help recalling the Aztec tradition regarding it. In another decade of years it is possible that this grand conception embodied in stone by the Indian sculptors will be mutilated beyond repair, as a great portion of the wall has already been torn away for building purposes. Yuccas and other semi-tropical plants adorn the roof of this building, and also the ground in front, rendering approach to it somewhat difficult. At the southern end of the court the folds of the serpents surround a standing human figure, now much mutilated, a subject rarely used in the ornamentation of these buildings. If the drawing by Catherwood, made forty years ago, is correct, all the faced stone below the figure has been torn away since he was there. The northern and eastern façades have been greatly injured since Stephens's visit, and most of the grotesque ornaments, the rosettes and heads, broken or wrenched entirely away. The hand of man proves more ruthless than the hand of time; and, since the exportation of antiquities has been forbidden by the Mexican government, it is evident that these stones have been removed by the proprietors of Uxmal, or the laborers, for use in their dwellings.

These three structures comprise the principal buildings at present in a state of preservation that makes them of interest to the general traveller. There are others, even in this group, as mentioned in the view from the high mound, but they are in such a state of ruin that their original form is obliterated.

South from Uxmal are the extensive ruins of Kabah, where are buildings with fronts of one hundred and fifty feet, and lavishly ornamented. Unlike the façades of the buildings of Uxmal, which were only decorated above the doorways, those of Kabah were "ornamented from their very foundation." Stephens also adds: "The cornice running over the doorways, tried by the severest rules of art recognized among us, would embellish the art of any known era; and, amid a mass of barbarism, of rude and uncouth conceptions, it stands as an offering by American builders worthy of the acceptance of a polished people." At Labná the sculpture is profuse, grotesque, and