There was a character representing a great chief, before whom many figures lay prostrate, evidently slain or subjugated.

Large red paintings, in the shape of bats, occupied prominent positions, and must have represented gods or devils.

Armies of marching men told of that blight of nations old or young--war.

These, and birds unnamable, and beasts unclassable, with dots and marks and hieroglyphics, recorded the history of a bygone people.

Symbols they were of an era that had gone into the dim past, leaving only these marks, {Symbols recording the history of a bygone people.} forever unintelligible; yet while they stood, century after century, ineffaceable, reminders of the glory, the mystery, the sadness of life.
"How could paint of any kind last so long?
asked Jones, shaking his head doubtfully.
"That is the unsolvable mystery," returned Wallace.