GRANITE WORKS OF THE ANCIENTS. ties

designed and executed. One of these scenes represents “a | through. The remaining sixty-six arches, situated on

| large number of captives in the hands of executioners,
who are inflicting on them every variety of the most ex-
cruciating torture. In some parts, men are figured driving
nails into the bodies of unfortunates impaled on a kind
of gallows; some are dashing young children against rocks
and stone; some are cutting to pieces men and women
confined in fetters, or pounding them in mortars; and
others are hanging up prisoners to trees by their legs to
allow the vultures to attack them.” Truly, as the psalmist
exclaimed, the dark places of the earth are full of the
habitations of cruelty !

A curious gong chamber, at one of the angles of the
lower corridor or gallery in this mostinteresting structure
of a bygone age, reveals the too probable fact of the
practice of priestcraft on the superstitious feelings of
the people. It was constructed in such a way as to
cause a heavy sound, like that emitted by a gong, to
reverberate around, when a person standing in the midst
of the apartment strikes his breast with his hand, or
stamps upon the floor. A gong or bell apparently was for-
merly placed here, and considerable ingenuity must have
been exercised to construct the walls and roof so as to
produce the above effect, which would necessarily give
increased power to the instrument. A small perforation
in the wall, and a channel scooped out in the pavement
of the adjoining passage, manifestly intended for a wire,
show that the instrument contained in the gong chamber
could have been struck through the agency of a person
secreted in one of the more distant apartments.

We remarked at the outset, that the western hemisphere
could boast of ancient stone monuments, which manifested
the same stupendous labour and manifold skill in their
construction and embellishment as those in the eastern.
On these, however, we can bestow but a passing notice,
The magnificent table-land of Anahuae, or ancient Mexico,
and the several intermediate states between it and the
isthmus of Panama, are richer in the vestiges of antiquity
than any other portions of the northern continent of
America. Here the structural genius of the Egyptians
and Hindus is oftentimes rivalled, and that of the
Greeks and Romans as frequently surpassed. Mexico is
a land of pyramids, in earth, brick, and stone; and many
of them, for magnitude and splendour, are hardly inferior
to those dominating the valley of the Nile. In the for-
mation of canals, and in the ingenuity exhibited in over-
coming natural obstacles, the ancient inhabitants of this
country, whether Aztecs or Toltecs cannot now be deter-
mined, rank first among their equals. Of these works
of utility, the aqueduct of Chipultepee counts 904 arches,
or 10,826 feet of solid masonry, within a space of two
miles. That of Santa Fé, similarly formed, is six miles
in extent. But these are far transcended by the aqueduct
of Cempoalla, which, on account of the circuit obliged to
be taken in passing the mountains, was more than thirty
miles in length. The greatest difficulty that had to be
overcome arose from three great chasms which crossed
the route; and these were surmounted by constructing
as many bridges of stone and mortar. The first of forty-
seven arches, the second of thirteen, and the third, which
was the largest and most surprising, of sixty-seven
arches. The largest arch, which is also the central one,
being built from the lowest depths of the ravine, is 110
geometrical feet in height, and sixty-one feet in breadth,
sufficient to admit of the highest masted vessel passing

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VOL, IX. N.S.— NO, LI.

either side of the great one, gradually diminish in depth
from the top as they approack the edge of the chasm.
This magnificent structure is 3178 feet, or more than a
half a mile in length.

The remains of Copan, Quimgua, Santa Cruz del
Quiche, Ocosingo, Palenqué, and Uxmal, in Central
America, are equally striking. For height and solidity,
the walls of Copan, towering sometimes to ninety feet,
are unexampled in any part of the world. The ruined
mounds and terraces of Quirigua, intermingled with
statues of gods and heroes, carved out of solid blocks
twenty-six feet and upwards in length, and weighing
from thirty to forty tons each, bespeak an antiquity far
transcending that of the Aztec conquest of Anahuac.
The whole place is a mass of stupendous ruins, almost
every stone of which contains its own particular story in
the mute hieroglyphies of the workman. The ruins of
Santa Cruz del Quiche are equally extensive and enigma-
tical. Here it was that Catherwood, the explorer, heard
of that mysterious Indian city still existing in all its
pagan splendour, in the midst of a country as yet
untrodden by the foot of the white man. Ocosingo and
Palenqué, each a metropolis of pyramids and palaces,
profusely ornamented with figures of men and animals,
and exhibiting a superior knowledge of the architectural
art, are also spots to excite the admiration, but not to
satisfy the curiosity of the dauntless intruder. The
atmosphere of each is pestilential, and the stillness of
chaos ‘is only broken by the howling of the wild beast or
the raging of the tempest. But of all these long since
depopulated cities, Uxmal or Itzalan, in Yucatan, is the
greatest source of wonder to the visitor. In the vast
extent and variety of its ruins, and in their picturesque
effect, they have oftentimes been compared to those of
Thebes. The style and character of the ornaments are
unique and peculiar, bearing no resemblance to those
elsewhere on the continent. The edifices are of colossal
proportions, and wholly constructed of freestone. Of
these, the Casa del Gobernador, the house of the governor,
so named by the natives, is the grandest in position, the
most stately in architecture and proportions, as well as
the most perfect in preservation of all the remaining
structures. It stands on three ranges of terraces, the
first of which is six hundred feet long, being walled with
cut stone. On the upper or third terrace stands the
palace itself, the facade measuring three hundred and
twenty feet. The whole building is of dressed stone, and
as the visitor ascends the steps, and casts his bewildered
eye along its open and desolate doors, it is impossible to
believe that he sees before him (as reported by Robertson)
the work of “a race who were ignorant of art, and
perished in the rudeness of savage life!” This palace
presents a display of elaborate sculptural carving, 752
feet in length, on which traces of painting are still
visible. And idols here, strange to say, are conspicuous
by their absence.

The southern continent of America, and more especially
the north and north-western portions of it, including the
higher ranges of the mighty Andes, presents as interesting
a field for exploration and speculation by the archeologist
as that on the northern continent. The objects in both
are equally deformed by the haze of antiquity. F or
here, too, are manifold vestiges of long since extinct
civilizations; of civilizations which preceded that of the

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