Note 1149 — Chapter XXV · BUILDINGS, MEDICINE, BURIAL, PHYSICAL PECULIARITIES, AND CHARACTER OF THE MAYAS.

Godoi, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série i., tom. x., pp. 171-2. At the Lake of Masaya in Nicaragua, Boyle noticed a 'cutting in the solid rock, a mile long, and gradually descending to depth of at least three hundred feet! This is claimed as the work of a people which was not acquainted with blasting or with iron tools. Nature had evidently little hand in the matter, though a cleft in the rock may perhaps have helped the excavators. The mouth of this tunnel is about half a mile from the town.' Ride, vol. ii., p. 11. Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iv., lib. viii., cap. vii., mentions the same thing in a very different manner: 'La subida y baxada, tan derecha como vna pared, que como es de peña viua, tiene en ella hechos agujeros, adonde ponen los dedos de las manos, y de los pies.'