well paved streets, the inhabitants of which were well clothed. He gives a similar account of Cozumel; adding that marble pillars were found there, as well as the remains of ancient buildings which had even at that time fallen into ruins. Peter Martyr also learnt that the furniture and hangings used by the natives were good and rich; and that they possessed innumerable books which differred in nothing from European books, that the contents were in a kind of hieroglyphic writing, and the leaves made of the inner rind of trees. These books contained accounts of their religious rites and ceremonies, as well as legal, astronomical, and agricultural information. (4th Decade, 8th chapter.)
We thus see that along this part of the coast a people lived at the time of the Spanish Conquest who were considerably advanced in civilization: that they encouraged the visits of strangers: that human sacrifices, and especially of children, were universal, although at the same time the people abstained from eating human flesh, which even the Mexicans encouraged; that they possessed an organized priesthood and an oracle. The priests are described as wearing long black mantles like the Dominicans; and the worshippers in the excitement of their festivals cut themselves so as to draw blood in honour of their deities. The people, and more especially the women, are described as being well clothed, and in this respect their customs which were oriental in strictness bore a striking contrast to half naked tribes in their vicinity.
To give a lengthened description of the buildings would demand more space than can be given to it here. It will therefore be sufficient to remark that the arrangement of the bricks in the Pyramid of Quetzalwalt at Cholula, to diminish the pressure by making the upper course overlap the under, in the form of inverted steps is found in Egyptian and other ancient remains: (Bradford's American Antiquities p. 77.) that the dresses of the figures at Copan, especially the caps on the head and sandals on the feet (ibid. p. 97) bear a striking oriental resemblance: that the style of architecture at Uxmal, especially the figures similar to caryatides, as well as the accessory ornaments are similar to Egyptian art (ibid. p. 102).
Norman in his 'Rambles in Yucatan,' points out a resemblance between the building called the "Dome" at Chichen-Itza and the Greenan temple in Donegal. Stephens describes subterranean chambers in shape like a dome and coated with plaster. These are found in many places, but the best account is at p. 227 of the 1st volume of his travels in Yucatan. These are however similar to the Phœnician cisterns to be found by the Mediterranean especially those on the site of Carthage.
