Chapter 12

Pyramid near Tehuantepec.

The second pyramid is shown in the accompanying cut. The dimensions of the base and summit platform are about the same as those of the former pyramid, but the height is over fifty feet. The chief stairway, shown in the cut, is on the east, and narrower stairways also afford access to the summit on the north and south. The curved slope of the lower story constitutes a feature not found in American pyramids farther south, and rarely if at all in the north. The upper story has three projections, or cornices, on its perpendicular sides; and between them is set a row of blocks, said to be white marble, bearing sculptured designs in bas-relief. Three of these blocks withtheir sculptured figures, found by Castañeda at the foot of the pyramid, are shown in the cut. Of the building which appears on the summit nothing is known further than may be gathered from the cut. The sides of the pyramid were covered with cement, which was doubtless in a much more dilapidated condition than is indicated in the drawing.

Marble Tablets from Tehuantepec.

Near the pyramids, and perhaps used in connection with them as an altar, is a structure comprised of eight circular masses of stone and mortar, like mill-stones in shape, placed one above another, and diminishing in size towards the top. The base is ten feet and a half in diameter, and the summit about four feet and a half, the height being about twelve feet. Kingsborough's translation, without any apparent authority, represents this monument as standing on a base sixty-six feet long and twelve feet high.

About a hundred paces in front of the second pyramid, stands a structure precisely similar to the lower story of that just described, twelve feet in diameter and three feet high. Both of these altar-like pyramids were built of regular blocks of stone, and covered with a hard white plaster. Dupaix suggests that the latter was a gladiatorial stone, or possibly intended for theatrical representations.[VII-3]

MONUMENTS OF TEHUANTEPEC.

In the city of Tehuantepec, or in its immediatevicinity, Dupaix found a flint lance-head of peculiar shape, having three cutting edges, like a bayonet. Its dimensions were one and a half by six inches, and the end was evidently intended to be fixed in a socket on the shaft. Cuts of four terra-cotta idols, sent to the Mexican Museum probably by Arias, already mentioned, are given in a Mexican magazine, and also in a Spanish edition of Prescott's work. Two of them wear horrible masks, the main feature of which is the projection from the mouth of six large tusks, like those of some fierce animal or monster. The same Arias speaks of a statue representing a naked woman, but broken in pieces; also a stone tablet covered with hieroglyphics. A small earthen bowl or censer, with a long handle, was presented to the American Ethnological Society, as coming from some point on the Tehuantepec interoceanic route.[VII-4]

In the region of Petapa, a town forty or fifty miles north of Tehuantepec, a stalactite cave is mentioned by Brasseur, on the walls of which figures painted in black are seen, including the imprint of human hands like those on the Yucatan ruins except in color. A labyrinth of caves, with some artificial improvements, is also reported, where the remains of princes and nobles were formerly deposited, and where an arriero claims to have seen over one hundred burial urns, painted and ranged in order round the sides of the cave.[VII-5]Only four leagues from Tehuantepec, near Magdalena, Burgoa speaks of a statue of Wixepecocha, the white-haired reformer and prophet of the Zapotecs, which Brasseur, without naming his authority, states to have been still visible a few years before he wrote.[VII-6]Lafond briefly mentions three pyramids on the isthmus without definitelylocating them;—that of Tehuantepec, seventy-two feet high, that of San Cristóval near the former, and that of Altamia in a broad plain.[VII-7]At Laollaga, seven leagues from Tehuantepec in a direction not stated, Arias—very vaguely, as is the custom of Mexican and Central American explorers of local antiquities—describes a group of mounds, some of which are seventy or eighty varas square, built of stones—or stone adobes, as the author calls them—three feet long and half as thick. In connection with these mounds, flint and copper hatchets have been found, together with many anchor-shaped objects of what is spoken of as brass. A cave containing some relics was reported to exist in the same vicinity; and at another point, some fourteen leagues from the city, is a mound seventy-five feet high, on the side of which was discovered a black rock, covered with hieroglyphic characters.[VII-8]At Chihuitlan, a day's journey from the city, a bridge of aboriginal construction, stretches across a stream. The bridge is twelve feet long, six feet wide, and nine feet high above the water, having low parapets guarding the sides. The conduit is nine feet wide, and is formed by two immense stones, which meet in the centre. According to Castañeda's drawing these two stones have curved surfaces, so that the whole approaches in form a regular arch. The whole structure is of the class known as cyclopean, built of large irregular stones, without mortar.[VII-9]

Respecting Tehuantepec antiquities, I have in addition to what has been said only brief mention by Garay of the following reported relics: On a cliff of the Cerro del Venado, is the sculptured figure ofa deer, whence comes the name of the hill. Nine miles east of the same hill the Indians pointed out the location of a valley where they said were the remains of a large town of stone buildings. The Cerro de Coscomate, near Zanatepec, is said to have a sculptured image of the sun, with an inscription in unknown characters. And finally, relics have been found on the islands of Monapostiac, Tilema, and Arrianjianbaj; those on the first being in the form of earthen idols, while in the latter were the foundations of an aboriginal town.[VII-10]

At the port of Guatulco, south-west from Tehuantepec on the Oajacan coast, there may yet be seen, if Brasseur's statement is to be credited, traces of the roads and buildings of the ancient city that stood in this locality, and transmitted its name to the modern town. Guatulco was likewise one of the many localities described by the early Catholic writers as containing a wonderful cross, left here probably by Saint Thomas during his sojourn in America. We are not very clearly informed as to the material of this relic, but we know, from the same authorities, that all the powers of darkness could not destroy it, not even the famous Englishman, Sir Francis Drake, who subjected it for three days to the fiercest flames without affecting its condition. Brasseur also tells us that the remains of Tututepec, a great aboriginal south-coast capital, are still to be seen three or four leagues from the sea, between the Rio Verde and Lake Chicahua.[VII-11]

MISCELLANEOUS REMAINS.

Passing now to the interior valleys about the capital city of Oajaca, where the chief remains of aboriginal works are found, I shall mention first a few miscellaneous relics of minor importance, orat least only slightly known to explorers,[VII-12]beginning with the city of Oajaca, where Dupaix found two ancient ornaments of great beauty. The first was a pentagon of polished transparent agate, about two inches in diameter and an inch and a half thick. The surface bore no marks of the instruments by which it was polished, and a hole was bored through the stone presumably for the insertion of a string. The second was a hexagonal piece of black touch-stone, of about the same dimensions, sprinkled with grains of gold or copper, and like the former brilliantly polished. The hole in this stone was bored in the form of a curve, by an unknown process which must have been accompanied by no little difficulty.[VII-13]

At Tlacolula, some twenty miles south-east of Oajaca, Mr Müller reports the opening of a mound twelve feet high and eight feet in diameter at the base. It was simply a heap of earth, and the only artificially wrought objects found in the excavations were an earthen tube two inches in diameter and nearly two feet long, closed at each end with a stone plug, found in a horizontal position somewhat above the natural surface of the ground, and a bowl-shaped ring of the same material lying in a vertical position over the tube near the centre of the mound, but separated from the first relic by a layer of earth.[VII-14]Remains of the ruined fortress of Quíyechapa are said to have been seen by travelers at a point some twenty-five leagues east of Oajaca.[VII-15]At Etla, two leagues northward from the capital, two subterranean tombs were opened, and found to contain what are supposedto have been earthen torch-bearers, or images in distorted human form, with a socket in the head which indicates their former use. Similar images found at Zachila will be noticed later in this chapter. A wooden fac-simile of the tomb is mentioned by Sr Gondra as preserved in the Mexican Museum.[VII-16]At Peñoles, seven leagues from Oajaca, a skull covered and preserved by a coating of limestone was found.[VII-17]On the western boundary of this state, perhaps across the line in Guerrero, at Quilapan, formerly a great city of the Miztecs, an axe cast from red copper was found, one fourth of an inch thick, four inches long, and three and a half inches wide. From a mound opened in the same vicinity some fragments of statues and of pottery were taken.[VII-18]Fossey tells us that conical mounds in great numbers are scattered over the whole country between Oajaca, Zachila, and Cuilapa. The mounds are from fifteen to fifty feet high, and are formed in some cases of simple earth, in others of clay and stones. Human remains are found often in the centre together with stone and earthen figures. Those figures which are molded in human form agree in features with the Zapotec features of modern times. Copper mirrors and hatchets have also been found, according to this author, as well as golden ornaments and necklaces of gilded beads.[VII-19]M. Charnay saw in the second valley of Oajaca as he came from Mexico the ruins of a temple, the building of which was begun by the Spaniards in the time of Cortés, on the site of an aboriginal temple. The ruined walls of the latter were of adobes, and served for scaffolding in the erection of the former, and both ruins now stand together. The whole valley was covered with tumuli, probably tombs, as the author thinks;but the natives would neither help to make excavations nor permit strangers to make them.[VII-20]

In addition to the relics described in the few and unsatisfactory notes of the preceding pages, three important groups of antiquities in central Oajaca remain to be noticed: Monte Alban, Zachila, and Mitla; our information respecting the two former being also far from satisfactory.

RUINS OF MONTE ALBAN.

Monte Alban is located immediately west of the city of Oajaca, or Antequera, at a distance of from half a mile to five miles according to different authorities. These differences in the statements of the distance perhaps result from the fact that some visitors estimate it in an air line, while others include the windings of the road which must be traveled over a mountainous country in order to reach the ruins, which seem to be located on a high hill or on a range of hills overlooking the town. Dupaix and Castañeda visited this place during their second expedition. Juan B. Carriedo made in 1833 a manuscript atlas of plans and drawings of the remains, which has never been published, but which is said to be preserved in the Mexican Museum. José María García explored Monte Alban in 1855, and his report with some drawings was published in the bulletin of the Mexican Geographical Society. Müller, the German traveler, visited the place in 1857 with one Ortega, and published a plan in his work. Finally we have Charnay's description from an exploration in 1858 or 1859, unaccompanied, however, by photographic views.[VII-21]

Plan of Ruins—Monte Alban.

Notwithstanding this array of authorities, which ought to give a clear idea of a single group of remains, the reader will find the following description very imperfect, since each of the visitors, as a rule, describes a different part of the ruins, and they do not often agree in their remarks on any one structure. The plan in the annexed cut is copied from that in Müller's work, and shows all the remains marked on the original, except four small structures on a northern continuation of the hill, or spur,a, shown in thenorth-eastern part of the plan. As the plan indicates, the ruins are situated on a plateau of some three hundred by nine hundred yards along the summit of a range of high hills with precipitous ascent, rising from the banks of a stream which Müller calls the Rio Xoxo. The works mentioned as not included in the plan, are described by Müller as the remains of four walls which form a parallelogram. All he tells us of the works atdandf, is that the terraces are covered with walls and embankments parallel or at right angles to each other. The structure atcis described as a pyramidal elevation fifty feet high and two hundred and fifty varas square at the base, from the summit platform of which rise a smaller terrace, or mound, at the north-west corner, and various other embankments and ruined walls not particularly described, but indicated on the plan. The structures in the central portion of the main plateau, ath, are spoken of as parallel embankments about thirty feet high.

To the ruins thus far mentioned no one but Müller refers definitely, although others speak somewhat vaguely of the ruined embankments and walls that cover the whole surface of the plateau. Only the southern remains ateseem to have attracted the attention of all. These Müller briefly represents as an embankment fifty feet high, enclosing a quadrilateral space, on which embankment were two pyramids or mounds. One of the latter was proved by excavating to have no interior apartments or galleries; the other was penetrated at the base by galleries at right angles with each other, and leading to a central dome-shaped room, the top of which had fallen. García represents the square court as enclosed, not by a continuous embankment, but by four long mounds, having a slight space between them at the ends. The southern mound is the largest of the four, being about forty-five feet high, and, according to García's plan, about twelve hundred feet long and three hundred feet wide. It seems, from the drawings,to be nothing but a simple heap of earth and rough stones, although the slopes of the sides and ends were doubtless regular originally, perhaps even faced with masonry, and there are traces of a stairway leading up to the summit platform from the court. On the summit of the mounds, and also in the court, are many conical mounds, four of which were particularly noticed. These mounds were the only remains on the plateau of Monte Alban which attracted the attention of Dupaix and Castañeda, and are represented by them as heaps of rough stones, in some cases with mortar, covered on the exterior with cement, and traversed at the base by galleries, the sides of which are faced with hewn blocks. García says the mounds are about twenty-four feet high; but Dupaix calls one forty feet, another sixty, and a third still higher.

One of the mounds stands at the head of the stairway from the court, and the gallery through it at the base is described by García as having a bend in the centre, being six feet high, wide enough for two persons, and according to the plate, surmounted by large inclined blocks of stone resting against each other and forming an angle at the summit. Dupaix describes one of the mounds as traversed from north to south by a gallery nine feet high and six feet wide, which makes a turn, or elbow, near the centre, thus forming a room about twelve feet square and of the same height. The two mounds may very likely be identical, for although Castañeda's plate represents a regular curved arch, Kingsborough's copy has the pointed arch of large stones. Another of these artificial stone hills, according to Dupaix, has in the centre a room eighteen feet square, and thirty feet high, with a semicircular or dome-like top, the surface being formed of hewn stone. From the centre of each side a gallery thirty feet long, seven and a half feet high, and four feet and a half wide, with a regular arch, leads to the open air. The whole is said to be built on a large rectangular base of masonry, the dimensions of whichare not given. García mentions a similar mound, but speaks of the central room as being circular.

Sculptured Profile from Monte Alban.

Another of these structures, resembling at the time of Dupaix's visit a natural hill covered with trees, is sixty feet high, and has a gallery seven and a half feet high and six feet wide, with arched top, extending seventy-eight feet, or nearly the whole diameter from south to north. The left hand, or western, wall of the gallery is composed of granite blocks, generally about twenty-eight by thirty-six inches and eighteen inches thick, on the surface of which are sculptured naked human figures in profile facing northward toward the interior of the mound. Four of these figures were sketched by Castañeda, and one of them, from whose head hangs something very like a Chinese queue, is shown in the cut. García locates this mound or another very similar one in the court, and he also sketched some of the figures, but very slight if any resemblance can be discovered between his drawings and those of Castañeda. Müller speaks of one of the tablets the sculptured design of which represents a woman giving birth to a ball. García states that human bones and fragments of pottery have been dug from these ruins, Dupaix found some bones, and M. Lenoir suggests that the figures in bas-relief were portraits of persons buried in the tombs. Dupaix mentionsa fourth mound similar to the others, having an angular ceiling, and a pavement of lime and sand.

Charnay describes the plateau as being partially artificial, and as covering about one half a square league, covered with masses of stone and mortar, forts, esplanades, narrow subterranean passages, and immense sculptured blocks. The arches of the galleries, contrary to Dupaix's statements, are formed by large inclined blocks. The grandest ruins are at the south end of the plateau; they are mostly square truncated pyramids, about twenty-five feet high, and having steep sides. Enormous masses of masonry represent what once were palaces, temples, and forts.[VII-22]

Aboriginal Coin from Monte Alban.

RELICS AT MONTE ALBAN.

Three smooth cubical stones, seven and a half feet high, four and a half feet wide, and eighteen inches thick, of granite, according to García, but of red porphyry, in the opinion of Müller, were found during the ascent of the hill, perhaps atb, org, of the plan. Two of the stones were standing close together, while the third had fallen; all are supposed to have formed an altar or pedestal.[VII-23]At the southern brink of the plateau Müller found a crumbling stone covered with hieroglyphics. On the slope of the hill, stones covered with sculptured hieroglyphics were noticed by Dupaix, also at the western base long cubes, some plain and others sculptured. One of the latter six feet long, four feet and a half wide, and eighteen inches thick, was sketched by Castañeda,together with a circular stone three varas and a half in circumference. His plates also include a semi-spherical mirror of copper-covered lava, three and a half inches in diameter, with beautifully polished surface and a hole drilled through the back; a copper chisel, seven inches long and one inch in diameter; and finally, the cast copper implement shown in the preceding cut, one of two hundred and seventy-six of the same form, but of slightly varying dimensions, which were found in an earthen jar dug up in this vicinity. The dimensions of the one shown in the cut are about eight by ten inches. Pieces of copper of this form were used by the Nahua peoples for money, and such was doubtless the purpose of these Oajacan relics. A precisely similar article from one of the Mexican ruins lies before me as I write. Charnay states that the plateau is covered with fragments of very fine pottery, on which a brilliant red glazing is observable. He states further, that an Italian explorer, opening some of the mounds, found necklaces of agate, fragments of worked obsidian, and even golden ornaments of fine workmanship.

Respecting these ruins Charnay says: "Monte Alban, in our opinion, is one of the most precious remains, and very surely the most ancient, of the American civilizations. Nowhere else have we found these strange profiles so strikingly original." He pronounces the arch similar to that employed in Yucatan, but this opinion does not agree with his description on another page, where he represents the ceilings of the galleries as formed of large inclined blocks of stone. Viollet-le-Duc gives a cut indicating the latter form of arch; and I think there can be no doubt that Dupaix and Castañeda are wrong in representing semicircular arches. M. Viollet-le-Duc deems the sculpture different in type from that at Palenque but very similar to the Egyptian. He regards the works as fortifications and speaks of the galleries as penetrating the ramparts. Müller and García also deemthe remains those of fortifications, while Ortega seeks to form them into a stately capital full of royal palaces, temples, and fine edifices. García tells us that these works were erected by a Zapotec king, with a view to resist the advance of the Miztecs; while Brasseur believes that here was the fortress of Huaxyacac built by the Aztecs about the year 1486, and garrisoned to keep the country in subjection.[VII-24]

It seems to me that the preceding description, imperfect as it is, is yet more than sufficient to prove that the structures on Monte Alban were never erected by any people as temporary works of defense. The choice of location shows, however, that facility of defense was one of the objects sought by the builders, and renders it very improbable that a city proper ever stood here, where, at least in modern times, there are no springs of water. On the other hand, the conical mounds as represented by Castañeda's drawings seem in no way fitted for defensive works, and were almost certainly erected as tombs of Zapotec nobles or priests. The plateau was probably in aboriginal times a strongly fortified holy place, sacred to the rites of the native worship, but serving perhaps as a place of refuge to the dwellers in the surrounding country when threatened by an advancing foe. It is moreover very likely that in the period of civil strifes and foreign invasions which preceded the Spanish Conquest, these works were strengthened and occupied by the Zapotecs, and possibly by the Aztecs also in their turn, as a fortress.

RELICS AT ZACHILA.

Zachila, ten or twelve miles, according to the maps, southward from Oajaca, was the site of a great Zapotec capital. A writer in a Mexican magazine mentions the base of an ancient pyramid as still visible near the church of the modern town. With the exception of this brief mention all our information respecting the antiquities of Zachila comes from thework of Dupaix; and this writer, so far as permanent monuments are concerned, only speaks generally of an immense group of mounds in conical form, built of earth and a few stones, and of the imprint of a gigantic foot probably marking the meridian somewhat south of the mounds. From excavations in these tumuli, stone and clay statues, or idols, were obtained, together with pottery, burnt bricks, pieces of human bones, and fragments of ruined walls. Of the objects taken from the tumuli or found in the vicinity, over twenty were described and sketched by Dupaix and Castañeda.

Stone Statue from Zachila.

1. A seated human figure with arms and legs crossed as shown in the cut. It is carved from a grayish yellow grindstone-like material, and is about a foot in height. It was found in a tomb together with some human bones. The rear view in the original shows the hair falling down the back and cut square across; while the belt about the waist is passed between the legs and is tied in a knot behind. 2. A seated human figure in granite, eighteen inches high. The arms, from elbow to wrist, are free from the body, and the hands rest on the knees. A string of beads or pearls is suspended from the neck, and a mask with fantastic figures in relief covers the face. In the top of the head is a hollow, and the image seems to havebeen designed, like many others in the same locality, for a vase or, perhaps, a torch-bearer. 3. A seated human figure, twenty-seven inches high, cut from white marble and painted red. The arms and body are concealed by a kind of semicircular cape. The hands appear below the cape, holding some indescribable object. A necklace of beads or pearls surrounds the neck, the face is apparently masked or at least the features are ideally fantastic, and an immense headdress, as large as all the rest of the figure, surmounts the whole in semicircular form. A serpent appears among the emblems of the head-dress.[VII-25]4. A stone twenty-seven inches long, twelve inches high, and three inches thick, of very hard and heavy material. On one side, within a plain border, are four human figures in low relief, two on each side facing a kind of altar in the middle. All are squatting cross-legged, one has clearly a beard, and another has a bird—called by Dupaix an eagle, as is his custom respecting every bird-like sculpture—forming a part of his head-dress. The stone was badly broken, but seems to have been carried by the finder to Mexico.[VII-26]5. A bird bearing considerable likeness to an eagle, holding a serpent in its beak and claws. This figure was sculptured in low relief on a block of hard sandstone three feet square, built into a modern wall. 6. A human face, much like what is in modern times drawn to represent the full moon, three feet in diameter, and also built into a wall. The material is a brilliant gray marble. 7. Three fragments with sculptured surfaces, one of which has among otherfigures several that seem to represent flowers. 8, 9. Two masked images, similar in some respects to No. 2, but of terra-cotta instead of stone. One of them is shown in the cut. They are about a foot and a half high, hollow, and present some indications, in the form of a socket at the back of the head, of having been intended to hold torches.[VII-27]10. A terra-cotta figure, about nine inches high, apparently representing a female clad in a very peculiar dress, as shown in the cut.[VII-28]11. An earthen cylinder, fiveinches in diameter and nine inches high, on the top of which is a head, possibly the caricature of a dog, from whose open jaws looks out a tolerably well-formed human face. 12-17. Six heads of animals or monsters in terra cotta. 18-23. Six earthen dishes of various forms, one of which, in the form of a platter, has within it a representation in clay of a human skull.

Terra-Cotta Image—Zachila.

A tomb is said to have been opened at Zachila in which were several tiers of earthen platters, each containing a skull. Some of the vessels have hollow legs with small balls, which rattle when they are moved.[VII-29]At Cuilapa, some distance north-east of Zachila, the existence of tumuli is mentioned, but a German explorer, who visited the locality with a view to open some of them, is said to have been stoned and driven away by the infuriated natives, notwithstanding the fact that he was provided with authority from the local authorities.[VII-30]

MITLA—HOME OF THE DEAD.

The finest and most celebrated group of ruins in Oajaca, probably the finest in the whole Nahua territory, is that at Mitla, about thirty miles slightly south of east from the capital, and eight or nine milesnorth-east of Tlacolula. Here was a great religious centre often mentioned in the traditional annals of the Zapotecs. The original name seems to have been Liobaa, or Yobaa, 'the place of tombs,' called by the Aztecs Miquitlan, Mictlan, or Mitla, 'place of sadness,' 'dwelling of the dead,' often used in the sense of 'hell.'[VII-31]The buildings at Mitla were at least partially in ruins when the Spaniards came, but their dilapidation probably dated only from the fierce contests waged by the Zapotec kings against the Aztec powers in Anáhuac, during one or two centuries preceding the Conquest; and as we shall see later there is no reason whatever to doubt that the place was occupied by the Zapotec priesthood during the long period of that nation's supremacy in Oajaca and the southern Anáhuac.[VII-32]

The gloomy aspect of the locality accords well with the dread signification of its name. The ruins stand in the most desolate portion of central Oajaca, in a high, narrow valley, surrounded by bare and barren hills. The soil is a powdery sand, which supports no vegetation save a few scattered pitahayas, and is borne through the air in clouds of dust by the cold dry wind which is almost continually blowing. A stream with parched and shadeless banks flows through the valley, becoming a torrent in the rainy season, when the adjoining country is often flooded. No birds sing or flowers bloom over the remains of the Zapotec heroes, but venomous spiders and scorpions are abundant. Yet a modern village with few inhabitants stands amid theruins, and the natives go through forms of worship in honor of a foreign deity in a modern church over the tombs of their ancestors' kings and priests, whose faith they were long since forced to abandon.[VII-33]

EXPLORATION OF MITLA.

Most of the early Spanish chroniclers speak of Mitla and of the traditions connected with the place, but what may be called the modern exploration of the structures, as relics of antiquity, dates from the year 1802, when Don Luis Martin and Col. de la Laguna from Mexico visited and sketched the ruins. It was from Martin and from his drawings in the hands of the Marquis of Branciforte, that Humboldt obtained his information. In August 1806, Dupaix and Castañeda reached Mitla in their second exploring tour. In 1830, the German traveler Mühlenpfordt, during a residence in the country, made plans and drawings of the remains, copies of which were retained by Juan B. Carriedo and afterwards published in a Mexican periodical. Drawings were also made by one Sawkins in 1837, and published by Mr Brantz Mayer in a work on Zapotec antiquities. M. de Fossey was at Mitla in 1838, but his description is made up chiefly from other sources. Sr Carriedo, already mentioned, wrote for theIlustracion Mejicana, a statement of the condition of the ruins in 1852, with measures which had been, or ought to be, taken by the government for their preservation. Mr Arthur von Tempsky spent part of a day at the ruins in February, 1854, publishing a description with several plates in the account of his Mexican travels which he namedMitla. José María García saw the ruins in October, 1855, as is stated in the bulletin of the MexicanGeographical Society, but no description resulted from his exploration. Finally Charnay came in 1859, and succeeded after many difficulties in obtaining a series of most valuable and interesting photographs.[VII-34]

General Plan of Mitla.

The number of ruined edifices at Mitla is variously stated by different authors, according to their methods of counting; for instance, one explorer reckons four buildings enclosing a court as one palace, another asfour. The only general plan ever published is that made by Mühlenpfordt, and published by Carriedo, from which the annexed cut was prepared.[VII-35]Most of the visitors, however, say something of the bearing of some of the buildings from the others, and there are only very few instances where such remarks seem to differ from the plan I have given. The structures usually spoken of as palaces or temples, are four innumber, marked 1, 2, 3, and 4; 5 and 7 are pyramids, mounds, or altars; and 6 shows the position of the houses in the modern village.

Ground Plan of Palace No. 1.

GRAND PALACE.

I begin with the best preserved of all, palace No. 1 of the plan.[VII-36]The arrangement of its three buildings is shown in the accompanying ground plan, a reduction from Castañeda's drawing. Three low oblong mounds, probably of rough stones, only five or six feet high, enclose on the east, north, and west, a court, E, whose dimensions are in general terms one hundred and twenty by one hundred and thirty feet, and each of the mounds supports a stone building. The walls of the northern building are still in a tolerable state of preservation; the eastern one has mostly fallen, and of that on the west onlyslight traces of the foundations remain. It is possible that originally there was a fourth mound, with or without its building, on the south.[VII-37]

The lateral buildings,d,j, are about nineteen by ninety-six feet on the ground. Of the northern building, the southern portion, A, is about thirty-six by a hundred and thirty feet, the northern portion, C, sixty-one feet square, and the whole not far from eighteen feet high, the walls being from four to nine feet in thickness.[VII-38]Other details will be readily learned from the plan. Three doorways open on the court from each building, and a broad stairway of few steps leads up to the doorways, at least on the north.

The southern wing of the northern building, A of the plan, may be first described, being the best known and one of the best preserved of all; and the structure of the walls naturally claims attention first. In Yucatan we have found a filling of rough stones and cement, faced on both exterior and interior with hewn blocks; at Palenque the walls are built entirely of hewn stone; at Mitla the mode of construction somewhat resembles that in Yucatan, but the filling seems to be clay, instead of cement, with an admixture of irregular stones, varying in quantity in different parts of the walls.[VII-39]

CONSTRUCTION OF WALLS.

The exterior facing of the wall is shown very clearly by the two following cuts, which represent the southern façade of the building, A, as seen from the court. The first cut I have reduced photographically from Charnay's original photograph; the second, showing the rest of the façade, was taken from the same photograph for Mr Baldwin's work. The facing is of stone blocks cut in different forms and sizes, placed against or in some cases slightly penetrating the inner filling. First, a double tier of very large blocks are placed as a base along the surface of the supporting mound, projecting two or three feet from the line of the wall, the stones of the upper tier sloping inward. On this base is erected a kind of frame-work of large hewn blocks with perfectly plain unsculptured fronts, which divide the surface of the wall into oblong panels of different dimensions. These panels are then filled with a peculiar mosaic work of small brick-shaped blocks of stone of different sizes, set in different positions, so as to form a great variety of regular patterns, usually spoken of as grecques.[VII-40]No mortar seems to have been employedin this facing of stone; at least its use is not mentioned by any author, and Dupaix states expressly that it is not found. Some of the blocks used in the base, frame-work of the panels, and lintels of the doorways, are very large. One of the latter is described by different writers as from sixteen to nineteen feet long, and is said by Dupaix to be of granite. The only sculpture on the façade is found on these lintels, the surface of which is represented as carved into regular figures in low relief, corresponding with the mosaic in the panels. The doorways are about seven feet wide and eight feet high, and in the upper part of the piers that separate them are noticed four round holes, which may be supposed, as in other aboriginal structures, to have served for the support of an awning, although the natives have a tradition that they were originally occupied by stone heads of native deities.[VII-41]The only other peculiarity to be noticed in this front is, that instead of being perpendicular, it inclines slightly outward from the base, as do many of the walls at Mitla.[VII-42]

Façade of First Palace—Mitla.

STONE COLUMNS.

The interior of the building, A, has a pavement of flat stones covered with cement, which latter has mostly disappeared. The inner surface of the walls is of rough stones and earth, probably the same as the interior filling, and covered with a coat of plaster, a greater part of which remained in 1859, and is shown in Charnay's photograph; there were also traces of red paint on these walls in Dupaix's time. There are no windows, or other openings except thedoorways; but on the northern wall, at mid-height, there is a niche, perhaps more than one, one or two feet deep, square in form, and enclosed by four blocks of stone. Extending in a line along the centre of this apartment, are six round stone pillars,g,g, of the plan, each about fourteen feet high, three feet in diameter, and cut from a single block of porphyry or granite. The tops are slightly smaller than the bases, and five or six feet of each stone, in addition to the height mentioned, are buried in the ground.[VII-43]

Interior—South wing of the First Palace.

The following cut I take from Baldwin's work, forwhich it was copied from one of Tempsky's plates. It is very faulty, as is proved by Charnay's photograph taken from the same point of view, in representing the walls as if built of large rough stones without mortar, in putting a doorway in the central part of the northern wall, and in making the columns diminish in size towards the top much more than is actually the case.[VII-44]

MOSAIC GRECQUES AT MITLA.

Passing now to the northern wing of this building, C, the exterior walls are the same in style and construction as those of the southern wing just described, as is proved by the photographic views.[VII-45]The court, C, is about thirty-one feet square, and its pavement was covered with cement, as that of the larger court, E, may have been originally. The ground plan shows the arrangement of the four apartments, b, b, b, b, although it is to be noted that other plans differ slightly from this in the northern and western rooms. The only entrance to the northern court and rooms is from the southern wing through the passagef, f, which is barely wide enough to admit one person. The interior façades, fronting on the court, are precisely like the southern façade of the southern wing, A, being made up of mosaic work in panels.[VII-46]The interior walls of the small apartments, b, b, b, b, unlike those of the southern apartment, A, are formed of mosaic work in regular and graceful patterns, except a space of four or five feet at the bottom, which is covered with plaster and bears traces of a kind of fresco painting in bright colors. The mosaic grecques or arabesques of the upper portions are arranged, not in panels as on the exterior, but in three parallel bands of uniform and nearly equal width, extending round the whole circumference of each room. Thecut is a fac-simile from Charnay's photograph of one of these interiors, and gives an excellent idea of the three mosaic bands that extend entirely round each room.[VII-47]

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