forming the head-piece to them all extends one long and narrow panel of carving, a high relief of the natural stone on a crimson ground. The whole façade is composed of a series of these panels, from the straight line of the foundation-stone to the straight line of the summit, nine panels being on each side of the entrance, arranged in three tiers, divided by horizontal bands of the natural stone. In some of the panels, the ground retains still a faint tint of its former rich vermillion, in others, all color has subsided into the soft neutral shade of the freestone. The designs are wonderfully rich and varied, thirteen different patterns being represented on this façade alone; all these designs are remarkable for the straight lines in which they are executed and the absence of all curves. Throughout all the ruins, upon the walls of which appear twenty-three different models of carving, only two of these represent any curve in their design. In one of these two there is visible the form of the Arabic letter 'L' placed horizontally, and in the other a double curve 'S,' possibly intended to represent or suggest the snake. With these exceptions the designs are of the Greek key pattern, variations on this, or parallelograms. corner. "Behind this façade is a narrow court, roofless as all the courts are, and empty, save for six colossal pillars standing at even distances down the centre, and giving to this chamber the name of Hall of the Monoliths. Each pillar is one solid stone, eleven feet high and eleven feet in circumference. A low stone passage leads from this chamber northward to the smallest and richest court of all, entering it at the southeast There is comparatively little trace of the destructiveness of the elements or the iconoclasm of man here. The court and all the four chambers opening from it are perfect and singularly rich in carving. The court is perfectly square and the chambers are entered from it, each through one square doorway, the roof of which is formed by a huge monolith, thirteen feet long and with a richly carved face. Of these four lintels each has a separate design. Each of the four walls has six panels, the uppermost extending the whole length of the wall, two smaller panels being on either side of the entrance, and one long narrow one above it. Between the panels stand out in high relief the horizontal and vertical edges of the freestone, forming a symmetrical frame to each panel. "Within the four chambers the walls are designed differently, the carving running simply and evenly round the entire room in three straight horizontal bands, each band possessing a separate pattern and being about three feet in width. Beneath these bands of carving was originally, evidently, a dado of vermillion stucco, of such fine and delicate quality that the smooth and polished surface resembles marble. Portions of this delicate stucco still adhere to the crumbling walls in places and are of various colors, scarlet, black and white. In some instances this stucco seems to have been plain, simply bearing a brilliant polish, in others, there remains distinctly traced in white upon a crimson ground, a wierd, fantastic, yet handsome design, the head; half horse, half dragon, repeated in four inch squares. This latter ornamented stucco, however, does not appear except in the fourth palace, containing the Spanish church, where it is visible on the walls of one of the courts, now used as a stable for the padre's horse. Leaving the richest of the centre palaces, passing through a gap in the ruined wall on the south side, descending the elevation on which it is placed and ascending the opposite eminence, the patio of the second palace is reached. This is almost wholly in ruins; three of the façades that face the court remain indeed, but the great smooth slabs with which the walls were faced have been torn away at the base, and most of the beautiful panels of carving stripped from the front. Yet it is in this ruined palace that one lingers longest and to which one's feet return, drawn by an irrisistible fascination; for this palace contains the tomb and the pillar of death. "This subterranean vault is called by general consent a sepulchre, but there is no line of history, no record, no tradition even, left to explain to us its origin and use. It may have been a torture-chamber, sacrificial hall, or tomb. The excavation is but a little below the surface of the court, now carried down so deeply that the light is wholly excluded. From the entrance there is enough to fill the interior with a sad, gray twilight. The vault is in the form of a simple cross lying north and south; its walls are massive and heavily decorated with panels of carving let into their sides, while it is roofed by enormous monolithic slabs that reach from wall to wall. In the centre of the cross, just where by descending a few steps one enters the tomb, stands the pillar of death, round which, the Indians say, should a man clasp his arms he must shortly afterwards die. Does not this very tradition, handed down perhaps through the long file of countless years, seem to indicate that this pillar was some ancient stone of sacrifice to which human victims were bound or chained, and from which death alone released them? As one gazes at the massive column, that one man's arms alone could not entirely encircle, the eye notices an indentation round the base where the column sinks into the floor. The stone is corroded and worn away as by the long friction of ropes or chains. "Most of the panels do not consist of actual carving, though they produce that effect at a few yards' distance; they are formed in reality by small slabs of the freestone cut perfectly square and inserted edgeways into the wall, the remaining edges standing out at various distances from it and thus forming the different designs. This, although a work of infinite patience, does not necessarily presuppose a high stage of civilization, no instrument sharper than hard stone being required to cut the slabs of soft freestone; and that only a stone instrument was employed by the workers seems indicated by the fact that, in the large panels where the stone is actually carved, the edges are not sharp, but rounded, as if made with a blunt tool. The effect of the panels of inserted squares of stone, however simply produced, is that of the most finished and clear-cut carving and the designs themselves are rich and elaborate. There is no crudity, no harshness in them, no suggestion of the primitive savage's scratching on his native rock; but rather that of Greek work on some Athenian temple. The patterns have a complicated elegance and distinction of line that can only be produced by a people of cultivated mind and eye. 66 'Evidence, too, of what high grade of civilization in some ways at least they must have arrived at, lies in the gigantic stones that they have placed as lintels over their doorways and which in their immense weight and bulk have defied the greed or rage of all the succeeding races to remove or destroy. The mystery here is the Egyptian mystery of the Pyramids; that these enormous blocks of stone are resting here in positions and elevations where it would require all the modern knowledge of mechanics, engineering skill, and mechanical appliances to place them; and, as in Egypt, so here the mystery will never be solved, as the builders have passed hence and left no clue. The solid stone rests there upon its supporting pillars before the eye as it has rested for a thousand years, but how the perished hands lifted and placed it there remains its own inviolable secret. "Leaving the palace court by the south side and following the road to the dry and stony bed of a wide river, if one turns aside here a little to the eastward he finds himself facing a Zapotecan mound, a solid base composed of earth and stones, in which are visible at intervals large slabs of cement, portions of terraces and tiers that originally formed its sides. Ascending this, from the summit one can overlook the whole valley." LANGUAGES. About one hundred and fifty different Indian languages are known to have been spoken by the Mexican Indians. The Spanish monks accompanying the conquerors and who went to the country soon after wards compiled grammars and even dictionaries of some of these languages; but the Indians falling into a semi-barbarous state after the conquest, having lost their civilization and literature, their languages have either disappeared completely or become very primitive. and it is ascertained that some of them have become entirely extinct. The Spanish is, of course, the language of the country and most of the Indians speak it, although very imperfectly and incorrectly; only a small portion of them speaking no language but their own. The chief languages spoken in Mexico proper, excluding Chiapas and Yucatan, are as follows: Nahuatl or Mexican (Aztec) with Acaxee, Sabaibo, Xixime, Cochimi, Concho and other members of the same family. Seri, Upanguaima, and Guaima. Papago, Opata, Yaqui, Mayo, Tarahumara, Tepehuan, Cora, etc. Apache or Yavipai, Navajo, Mescalero, Llanero Lipan, etc. Otomi or Hia-hiu, Pame, Mazahua, etc. Huaxtec, Totonac. Tarascan, Matlaltzincan. Mixtec, Zopotec, Mixé, Zoqué, Chinantec. Señor Don Manuel Orosco y Berra wrote a treatise on the language of the Indian tribes in Mexico entitled "Geography of Languages," which describes the languages of the races who inhabited Mexico, and Señor Don Francisco Pimentel enlarged upon that work, making philological comparisons, and from the data collected by both authors Señor Don Antonio Garcia Cubas a distinguished Mexican geographer made the following synopsis of the Indian languages spoken in Mexico. SYNOPSIS OF THE INDIAN LANGUAGES OF MEXICO, FORMED ACCORDING TO THE CLASSIFICATION OF DON FRANCISCO PIMENTEL. NOTE.-The sign * indicates that the classification is doubtful. |