“Behind the serpent, who appears to be speaking to the goddess Cihuacohuatl, are two naked figures; they are of a different color, and seem to be in the attitude of contending with each other. We might be led to suppose that the two vases, which we see at the bottom of the picture, one of which is overturned, is the cause of this contention. The Serpent woman was considered in Mexico as the mother of two twin children; these naked figures are perhaps the children of Cihuacohuatl; they remind us of the Cain and Abel of the Hebrew tradition.” Ib. I. p. 195. Pyramidal structures are also found scattered over the islands of the Pacific. “The natural temples (in the Polynesian islands) consisted of a number of distinct Maraes, altars, and sacred dormitories, appropriated to the chief pagan divinities, and included in one large stone enclosure of considerable extent. Several of the distinct temples contained smaller inner-courts, within which the gods were kept. The form of the interior or area of the temples was frequently that of a square or a parallelogram, the sides of which extended forty or fifty feet. Two sides of this were enclosed by a high stone wall; the front was protected by a low fence; and opposite, _a solid Pyramidal structure_ was raised, in front of which the images were kept, and the altars fixed. These piles were often immense. That which formed one side of the square of the large temple in Atehura, according to Mr. Wilson, by whom it was visited when in a state of preservation, was 270 feet long, 94 feet wide at the base, and 50 feet high; being at the summit 180 feet long and 6 wide. A flight of steps led to its summit; the bottom step was six feet high. The outer stories of the Pyramid, composed of coral and basalt, were laid with great care, and hewn or squared with immense labor, especially the _trava_, or corner stones.” Ellis’s Polynesian Researches, vol. I. p. 339, 340. “The most remarkable objects in Easter Island, are its monuments of stone-work and sculpture, which, though rude and imperfect, are superior to any found among the more numerous and civilized tribes of the South Sea islands. These monuments consist of a number of terraces or platforms, built with stairs, cut and fixed with great exactness and skill, forming, though destitute of cement, a strong durable pile. On these terraces are fixed colossal statues or busts.”[10] Ib. vol. III. p. 325.