Many a strange story of human greatness and pride, of human, petty and degrading passions, weakness and imperfections, has thus been divulged to us;--while we were also told of the customs of the people; of the scientific acquirements of the _H-Menes_; of the religious rites observed by the _kins_ (priests); of their impostures, and of the superstition they inculcated to the masses; of the communication held by the merchants of Chichen with the traders from Asia and Africa; of the politeness of courtiers and gracefulness of the queen; of the refinement of the court; of the funeral ceremonies, and of the ways they disposed of the dead; of the terrible invasions of barbarous Nahua tribes; of the destruction, at their hands, of the beautiful metropolis Chichen-Itza, the centre of civilization, the emporium of the countries comprised between the eastern shores of Mayapan and the western of Xibalba; of the subsequent decadence of the nations; of their internal strife during long ages. For here, in reckoning time, we must not count by centuries but millenaries. We do not, in thus speaking, indulge in conjectures--for, verily, the study of the walls leaves no room for supposition to him who quietly investigates and compares. How far Mrs. Le Plongeon and myself have been able to interpret the mural paintings, bas-reliefs, sculptures and hieroglyphics, the results of our labors show. (Some of them have been lately published in the “Illustration Hispano-Americana” of Madrid.) The excavating of the magnificent statue of the Itza king, Chac-Mool, buried about five thousand years ago by his wife, the queen of Chichen, at eight metres under ground (that statue has just been wrenched from our hands by the Mexican government, without even an apology, but the photographs may be seen at the residence of Mr. Henry Dixon, No. 112 Albany street, Regent park, London, and the engravings of it in the “Ilustracion Hispano-Americana”); the knowledge of the place where lies that of Huuncay, the elder brother of Chac-Mool, interred at twelve metres under the surface--of the site where the _H-Menes_ hid their libraries containing the history of their nation--the knowledge and sciences they had attained, would of itself be an answer to Professor Mommsen’s ridiculous assertion, that we are anxious to find what _cannot be known_, or what would be _useless_ if discovered. It is not the place here to refute the learned professor’s sayings; nor is it worth while. Yet I should like to know if he would refuse as _useless_ the treasures of King Priam because made of gold that belongs to the archaic times--what gold does not? Or, if he would turn up his nose at the wealth of Agamemnon because he knows that