_Architecture._—The works of the Mound-builders and Pueblos have already been described and their transitional forms or stages noted. To seek for parallelisms or analogies between the Mound-builders and the people of Asia because mounds are common to both continents, or to seek to identify them with the people of Northern Europe because the shell-heaps of our sea-board resemble those of Denmark, would certainly be an unjustifiable use of the imagination, in anything like a serious discussion of the question. We have no disposition to speculate on this subject, since such speculation cannot furnish any satisfactory results. Certain resemblances between American and Hindoo-mounds have been supposed to exist, but the resemblance, if any, proves nothing.[491] That more fruitful and wonderful field of ancient architecture in Central America, Yucatan and Mexico, furnishes abundant opportunity for the discussion of our subject. Detailed descriptions of the remains found in different localities have been given by travelers, artists and authors, the latter availing themselves of several accounts and instituting comparisons between the statements of different explorers. Such works, savoring somewhat of the critical, cannot be underrated, since their development of the true facts has contributed largely to our knowledge of the subject. It has been generally the rule for writers to undertake the description of remains in a particular locality and treat them in detail, thus presenting to the mind a pleasant picture of the whole, together with the relation of parts. This is certainly a satisfactory plan to many readers, but it seems to us that such a course is unnecessary, after it has been once pursued by the explorer. By repetitions nothing is gained, unless the work of classification (by which certain architectural forms and methods are woven into a style and their variations noted) receives attention. In preceding chapters we have treated of the Maya, the Quiché, and the Nahua peoples, and in this, it is our purpose to briefly note the main features of their styles of architecture, sculpture, etc., as indicated in the divisions above laid down.