At the beginning of the present century the palace of the Quiché kings was in such a state of preservation that its plan could be easily traced, even to the garden. But unfortunately a small gold image was discovered in the ruins; and this determined the Government to search for treasure, which tradition has always located in the ruins of Utatlan. In this search the palace was utterly destroyed; and hardly a wall would have been left standing had not the Indios, indignant at the wanton destruction of their once famous capital, become so turbulent that explorations were no longer safe. In 1834 a commission from the capital made a full and careful report on the condition of the ruins, and on this report Stephens largely rests in his interesting account of Quiché. Even in 1840, at the time of his visit, he found many traces which are now gone, especially the Sacrificatorio, which was a quadrilateral pyramid, with a base of sixty-six feet on the side, and a height, in that ruined condition, of thirty-three feet. One side of this awful relic of human misery was plain, though bearing traces of painted figures of animals; but the other three sides were supplied with steps in the middle, as may be seen in the illustration, taken from Catherwood’s sketch. These steps were only eight inches wide on the tread, while the risers were seventeen inches,—a proportion that must have made the descent very awkward for the priests if they were as corpulent as the more modern monks. [Illustration: Quiché Altar of Tohil (Sacrificatorio).] We met on our return a _marimba_, carried by two men, while the three players followed, beating out clear and agreeable notes. A frame between seven and eight feet long and twenty-nine inches high, supports on cords thirty strips of hard wood, beneath each of which is a wooden resonator duly proportioned for tones. The music was always attractive, and just now it drew a long procession in honor of the gymnasts of the day before, who followed the marimba on horseback. [Illustration: Marimba.] In the Plaza we bought _jicaras_, or calabash[14] chocolate-cups,—three for a medio. Other interesting things for sale were small crabs dried on spits, dried shrimps of large size, raw cotton white and brown, floss silk, cloths both cotton and woollen, fresh and preserved squash, bread, sugar-candy, and _eau sucré_ colored pink, tin-ware, pottery, ropes and bags of pita, leather sandals, sugar-cane, coconuts, baskets, and cheap foreign wares. In this town of six thousand inhabitants there are very few manufactures. We saw a woman boldly eating the game she caught in a little girl’s hair. I had before seen aged Hawaiian women engaged in this fascinating pursuit; but they always seemed ashamed to be seen by strangers. Not so the Quiché woman; the wretch even held her hand out for us! [Illustration: Jicara.]