Steps at the angles led from one terrace to another, but these were so placed that anyone mounting had to pass right along the terrace round the pyramid, before he arrived at the steps leading to that above.

The top of the pyramid seemed to be cut off, leaving an area of, as far as he could judge, some fifty feet square.

Smoke ascended from the summit, where, as Malinche had told him, fire always burns before the altar in its center.
Just before reaching the foot of the pyramid, the governor pointed to a building of considerable size.
"Here you will see," he said, leading Roger towards a great gateway, "how well the god has been honored." As he neared the gateway, Roger saw that the building was well-nigh filled with an immense pile, carefully built up, of what at first appeared to him cannon balls, only of larger size than any he had seen piled in the batteries of Plymouth, and of a white color.

Then the thought struck him they were great turnips, or some such root, which might be held sacred to the god.

But as he entered the building the truth flashed across him--the great pile was composed entirely of human skulls.
Roger had made up his mind that, although he would not give way in the slightest in the matter of his faith, he would yet abstain from shocking the religious feeling of the natives.