bands of mosaic grecques, as shown in the cut, which is a fac-simile of Charnay’s photograph engraven for Mr. Bancroft’s work. We should not fail to note the use of immense stones in the base, framework and lintels of the southern wing of the building. One of these is of granite, sixteen or nineteen feet long, with the pattern of the adjacent grecques sculptured on its face. None of the other buildings at Mitla present any architectural contrasts to the one already described, and require no special attention. Under a temple on the south-west side of the one we have just referred to, is a subterranean gallery, constructed in the form of a cross. The opening is at the base of the mound upon which the temple stands. The arms of the cross pointing toward the East, North and West, are each twelve feet long, five and a half feet wide, and six and a half feet high. The southern arm is, however, about twenty feet long, and not more than four feet high throughout most of its length. Near the centre of the cross (which lies directly under the centre of the temple above) a flight of four steps descends in the southern arm of the cross to a lower level, so that the southern arm of the passage is somewhat lower than the others. The entire subterranean chamber was roofed with large flat stones reaching from side to side. The walls, besides being painted red, were ornamented with panels of mosaic, but of a ruder style than that of the superstructure, which is suggestive of an earlier period in the growth of the art. A circular pillar resting on a square base, and called by the natives “the pillar of death,” because of the belief entertained among them that whoever embraced it would immediately die, supports the large flagstone which covers the intersection of the galleries. An immense fortification over a mile in circumference and with stone walls six feet thick and eighteen feet high crowns the summit of a hill, which stands three-fourths of a league south-west of Mitla. The place was inaccessible except on the side toward the village where the wall was double. Castañeda has delineated and Bancroft copied the plan of this fortress.[525] [Illustration: Western Façade of the Palace at Mitla.] [Illustration: Grecques of an Interior Room at Mitla.] Passing into the state of Vera Cruz, the attention of the observer is arrested by great numbers of mounds of all the varieties peculiar to the Mississippi Valley. Excavations have yielded pottery of burnt clay, idols, and flint and stone weapons, as well as implements of agriculture, but no trace of iron or copper is recorded. As the Nahuas are said by Duran and Sahagun to have landed on the Gulf coast not far north of this region, and to have traversed it in their wanderings southward, and since the tradition derives them from Florida, it is not improbable that here we see the continuation of the works of the lower Mississippi.[526] [Illustration: Pyramid near Puente Nacional.]