HISTORY OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND OF THE ITZAS

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ornamentation. Because the country was devoid of any great natural
elevations which would give an effective setting for their buildings,
the people often used substructures of varying heights and
superstructures of several sorts. If one may judge from the sculptures
left by the inhabitants of the early cities, their life was mainly
taken up with an extremely involved ritualistic religion which, in the
hands of a priestly body, was at once the means by which they were
ruled and the outlet for the artistic gifts which they undeniably had.
Very probably the over-elaborate religion was responsible for the
tremendous mass of detail to be seen in so many of the ruined cities.
So great was the eagerness for space upon which to crowd ornamentation
that an architectural feature which served no purpose other than that
of affording more ample space for decoration was evolved. The roof-comb
is found in a high degree of development at Yaxchilan and elsewhere.
(Spinden, 1913, p. 112, fig. 148.) Sometimes, as at Tikal, this
cumbersome construction was carried to such lengths that the area
covered by walls was out of all natural proportion to that covered by