"When we had finished our inspection of the Dwarf's House we descended the steeply sloping pyramid, picking our way very carefully to avoid accidents. Except where the stones are so thick as to afford no clinging ground for vegetation, the sides of the mound are covered with bushes, which are occasionally cut away by the proprietor of Uxmal.
FAÇADE OF WEST WING OF CASA DE LAS MONJAS.
"We went first to the House of the Nuns, which is a building about 280 feet square, with a large court-yard in the centre. There is a high gate-way on the south side by which we entered the house; the house has eighty-eight rooms or apartments opening into the court-yard, but no doors opening to the outside. As we entered the court our attention was drawn to the sculptures on the interior façades of the building; on one side there is a representation of two enormous serpents, so immense in size that they run the whole length of the edifice, their exact measurement being 173 feet. Their bodies are twisted together, and in the spaces between the folds are many strange hieroglyphics. We seemed to be once more in India, or some other Eastern country, where serpent worship once prevailed and is by no means unknown at the present day.
GROUND-PLAN OF LAS MONJAS.
"Mr. Burbank told us that the ruins have suffered a good deal in recent years, and at the rate they are being destroyed there will be little more than a few heaps of rubbish remaining here when the next century begins. Nearly every visitor to them thinks he must carry away something, and most people are not at all particular about defacing the hieroglyphics or other sculptures. A large quantity of stone has been taken from the ruins for building purposes at the Uxmal hacienda; and the Indians do not seem to have any reverence, or but very little, for the homes of their by-gone ancestors. There are the usual traditions about buried treasures in the buildings, and every little while somebody tries to find them. Nothing of value has ever been discovered, but the digging that forms a necessary part of every search is a serious injury to the sculptures and walls.
"The hand of man is ably aided in the work of destruction by the tropical vegetation; around the building it is so thick that all access would soon be cut off if the rapidly growing mass were not occasionally cut away in places where paths are desired. The roof is overgrown with yuccas and other plants, that convert it into a sort of hanging garden; their roots, swelling in the crevices between the stones, are rapidly breaking down the walls and converting the whole into a shapeless mass of ruins."