But for the perfectly horizontal position of the eyes, the aspect of some of the faces represented by Stephens would strike us as having a Mongolian cast. The magnificently sculptured hieroglyphics which cover the sides and backs of these huge idols, no doubt could tell the sealed story of Copan’s greatness and the attributes of its many gods, were the key once discovered. Everything is covered with these significant symbols, differing slightly from those at Palenque; but who will read them? In the court of the temple, a solid block of stone six feet square and four feet high, resting on four globular stones was sketched by Catherwood, and pronounced an altar by Stephens. Sixteen figures in profile, with turbaned heads, breast-plates, and each seated cross-legged on hieroglyphic-like cushions, are sculptured in low-relief, four figures being on each side of the block. The top of the altar is covered with thirty-six squares of hieroglyphics, shown in a cut on a future page. Besides numbers of masks, effigies and rows of death’s heads at Copan, there are sculptures of the face which we may believe to have been portraits. The Copan sculpture is generally admitted to be of a high order, and Stephens thinks it unsurpassed in Egypt. The receding forehead of most of the portraits have excited general interest, and are believed to be delineations of the priestly or aristocratic type. No weapons are sculptured at Copan, but on the contrary altars abound in considerable numbers, especially in front of the sculptured obelisks or idols. The presumption is therefore strong that this was a religious centre, unmolested by any enemy, and undisturbed by the alarm of war.[575] [Illustration: Figure from Monte Alban.] _Nahua Sculpture._—The Nahua sculpture is not of as high an order nor of as frequent occurrence as that of the Mayas. At Monte Alban in Oajaca, in a gallery within a mound, Castañeda sketched the sculptured profile shown in the accompanying cut, employed in Mr. Bancroft’s work. It is cut upon the face of a granite block about three feet square, and is interesting because of the Chinese-like queue which hangs from the figure’s head. At Mitla the grecques and arabesques which cover the façades of the several edifices are not sculptured, except in cases where large stones serve as lintels over doorways. On them the running borders are sculptured in low-relief, while the remainder of the profuse ornamentation is of the nature of mosaic work, being built into the wall.