This last sentence cannot be entertained,--for _mosaic_ is an arrangement of COLOURED stones, to represent a _painted floor_, wall, or ceiling,--their shape is not material, but they must be possessed of different colours. Now this does not appear upon the walls of Uxmal [_i. e._ of the edifice now in review], and the absence of _coloured_ stones gives the negative to their being even "a species of mosaic." Nor were the stones _first_ sculptured, "and then set in their places in the wall;" that is entirely a modern custom; but by applying the history of ancient sculpture to the preceding description, the means whereby the accuracy of facial sculpture of the wall was obtained, is at once defined and established. The Greeks placed the stones of their friezes and pediments upon their Temples in their _rough state_,--_they were sculptured afterwards_, and consequently the greatest accuracy in the connecting lines from one stone to another was obtained, and could be by that manner only. The fluting of a column (of one or more blocks of marble) was always sculptured _after_ it had been erected in its rough state. This was the only practice in that branch of art, and without doubt it was (it must have been) so practised upon the beautiful and unique walls of Uxmal. In perusing the foregone descriptions, the reader may almost ask himself if his perceptive powers are not betraying him?--whether he is reading of an Athenian display of Sculpture, or really of an ancient edifice on the Western Continent! Well might it have appeared to the bewildered traveller as "a work of enchantment." He then proceeds to describe another building of the same character and sculpture: an edifice supposed to have "some reference to the Vestals, who in Mexico were employed to keep burning the sacred fire." It is thus sketched: "It is situated on an artificial elevation about fifteen feet high. Its form is quadrangular, and one side, according to my measurement, is ninety-five _paces_ in length. It was not possible to pace all around it, from the masses of fallen stones which encumbered it in some places, but it may be safely stated at _two hundred-and-fifty feet square_ [_i. e. one thousand feet_ in the entire measurement!]. It is built entirely of _cut stone_ [like the other buildings] and the whole exterior is filled with the same rich, elaborate, and incomprehensible sculptured ornaments. The principal entrance is by a large doorway into a beautiful _patio_ or courtyard, grass-grown but clear of trees, and the whole of the _inner façade is ornamented more richly and elaborately than the outside_, and in a more perfect state of preservation."