“The table was well supplied with substantial meats, especially game, among which the most conspicuous was the turkey.  Also, there were found very delicious vegetables and fruits of every variety native to the continent.  Their palate was still further regaled by confections and pastry, for which their maize-flower and sugar furnished them ample materials.  The meats were kept warm with chafing-dishes.  The table was ornamented with vases of silver and sometimes gold of delicate workmanship.  The favorite beverage was chocolatl, flavored with vanilla and different spices.  The fermented juice of the maguey, with a mixture of sweets and acids, supplied various agreeable drinks of different degrees of strength.”

It is not necessary to describe their great public works, their floating gardens, their aqueducts, bridges, forts, temples,

Common form of arch, central America.

palaces, and gigantic pyramids, all ornamented with wonderful statuary.

Section of the treasure-house of Atreus at Mycenae

We find a strong resemblance between the form of arch used in the architecture of Central America and that of the oldest buildings of Greece.  The Palenque arch is made by the gradual overlapping of the strata of the building, as shown in the accompanying cut from Baldwin’s “Ancient America,” page 100.  It was the custom of these ancient architects to fill in the arch itself with masonry, as shown in the picture

Arch of Las Monjas, Palenque, central America

on page 355 of the Arch of Las Monjas, Palenque.  If now we took at the representation of the “Treasure-house of Atreus” at Mycenae, on page 354-one of the oldest structures in Greece—­we find precisely the same form of arch, filled in in the same way.

Rosengarten ("Architectural Styles,” p. 59) says: 

“The base of these treasure-houses is circular, and the covering of a dome shape; it does not, however, form an arch, but courses of stone are laid horizontally over one another in such a way that each course projects beyond the one below it, till the space at the highest course becomes so narrow that a single stone covers it.  Of all those that have survived to the present day the treasure-house at Atreus is the most venerable.”

The same form of arch is found among the ruins of that interesting people, the Etruscans.

“Etruscan vaults are of two kinds.  The more curious and probably the most ancient are false arches, formed of horizontal courses of stone, each a little overlapping the other, and carried on until the aperture at the top could be closed by a single superincumbent slab.  Such is the construction of the Regulini-Galassi vault, at Cervetere, the ancient Caere.” (Rawlinson’s “Origin of Nations,” p. 117.)

It is sufficient to say, in conclusion, that Mexico, under European rule, or under her own leaders, has never again risen to her former standard of refinement, wealth, prosperity, or civilization.