Chapter 15

Section of Chila Tomb.

REMAINS AT CHILA.

At Chila, in the extreme southern part of Puebla, is a hill known as La Tortuga, on which is built an unterraced pyramid eighty-eight feet square at the base, fifty-five feet high, with a summit platform fifty feet square. It is built of hewn stone and covered, as it appears from Castañeda's drawing, with cement. The exterior surface is much broken up by the trees that have taken root there. A stairway leads up the western front. Near the north-eastern corner of the mound is an entrance leading down by seven stone steps to a small tomb about eleven feet below the surface of the ground and not under the mound. At the foot of the steps is an apartment measuring five and a half feet long and high, and four feet wide, with a branch, or gallery, four feet long and a little less than three feet wide and high, in the centre of each of the three sides, thus giving the wholetomb in its ground plan the form of a cross. Its vertical section is shown in the cut. There is certainly a general resemblance to be noted in this tomb-structure to those at Mitla; the interior is lined with hewn blocks laid in lime mortar and covered with a fine white plaster, the plaster on the ceiling being eight or nine inches thick. The discovery of human bones in the lateral galleries leaves no doubt respecting the use to which the subterranean structure was devoted.[IX-1]

At Tehuacan el Viejo, two leagues eastward of the modern town of Tehuacan, in the south-eastern part of the state, were found ruins of stone structures not particularly described.[IX-2]At San Cristóval Teopantepec, a little native settlement north-westward of the remains last mentioned, is another hill which bears a pyramid on its top. A road cut in the rocky sides leads up the hill, and on the summit, beside the pyramid, traces of smooth cement pavements and other undescribed remains were noticed. The pyramid itself from a base fifty feet square rises about sixty-seven feet in four receding stories with sides apparently sloping very slightly inward toward the top, the fourth story being moreover for the most part in ruins. The most remarkable feature of this structure is its stairway, which is different from any yet noticed, and similar to that of the grand teocalli of Mexico-Tenochtitlan as reported by the conquerors. It leads up diagonally from bottom to top of each story on the west, not, however, making it necessary to pass four times round the pyramid in order to reach the summit, as was the case in Mexico, since in this ruin the head of each flight corresponds with the foot of the one above, instead of being on the opposite side of the pyramid. The whole is built of stone and mortar, only the exteriorfacing being of regular blocks, and no covering of cement is indicated in Castañeda's drawing.[IX-3]

TEPEXE AND TEPEACA.

At Tepexe el Viejo, on the Zacatula River, some sixteen leagues south-east of the city of Puebla, Dupaix discovered, in 1808, a structure which he calls a fortification. It was located on a rocky height, surrounded by deep ravines, and the rough nature of the ground, together with the serpents that infest the rocks, prevented him from making exact measurements. There are traces of exterior enclosing walls, and within the enclosed area stands a pyramid of hewn stone and lime mortar, in eight receding stories. A fragment of a circular stone was also found at Tepexe, bearing sculptured figures in low relief, which indicate that the monument may have borne originally some resemblance to the Aztec calendar-stone, to be mentioned hereafter. Another round stone bore marks of having been used for sharpening weapons.[IX-4]

At Tepeaca and vicinity four relics were found:—1st. A bird's, perhaps an eagle's, head sculptured in low relief within a triple circle, together with other figures, on a slab about a foot square; apparently an aboriginal coat of arms. 2d. A stone head eighteen inches high, of a hard, reddish material; the features are very regular down to the mouth, below which all is deformed. 3d. A sculptured slab, built into a wall, shown only in Kingsborough's plate. 4th. A feathered serpent coiled into a ball-like form, six feet in diameter. It was carved from a red stone, and also painted red, resting on a cubical pedestal of a light-colored stone.[IX-5]

At San Antonio, near San Andres Chalchicomula, on the eastern boundary of the state, a pyramid stands on the summit of a rocky hill. The pyramid consists of three stories, with sides sloping at an angle of about forty-five degrees, is about twenty-five feet in height, and has a base fifty-five feet square. A stairway about ten feet wide, with solid balustrades, leads up the centre of the western front; and on the top, parts of the walls of a building still remained in 1805. This summit building was said to have been in a good state of preservation only twelve years before. The material is basalt, in blocks about two by five feet, according to Dupaix's plate, laid in mortar, and all but the lower story covered with cement.[IX-6]

Stone Monster's Head.

At Quauhquelchula, near Atlixco, in the western part of the state, Dupaix noticed four relics of antiquity. 1st. A rattlesnake eight feet and a half long, and about eight inches in diameter, sculptured in high relief on the flat surface of a hard brown stone. 2d. A hard veined stone of various colors, four feet high and ten feet and a half in circumference, carved into a representation of a monster's head with protruding tusks, a front view of which is given in the cut.The rear is flat and bears a coat of arms, made up of four arrows or spears crossing a circle, with other inexplicable figures. 3d. Another coat of arms, three lances across a barred circle, carved in low relief on the face of a boulder. 4th. A human face, larger than the natural size, on the side of another boulder, and looking towards the town.[IX-7]At the town of Atlixco a very beautifully worked and polished almond-shaped agate was seen.[IX-8]

Serpent-Cup—Santa Catalina.

On the hacienda of Santa Catalina, westward from Atlixco, was found the coiled serpent shown in the cut. The material is a black porous volcanic stone, and the whole seems to form a cup, to which the head of the serpent served as a handle. Another relic from this locality was a masked human figure of the same stone.[IX-9]

PYRAMID OF CHOLULA.

About ten miles west of the city of Puebla de los Angeles, and in the eastern outskirts of the pueblo of Cholula, is the famous pyramid known throughout the world by the name of Cholula. The town at its basewas in aboriginal times a large and flourishing city, and a great religious centre. The day of its glory was in the Toltec period, before the tenth century of our era, and tradition points for the building of the pyramid to a yet more remote epoch, when the Olmecs were the masters of the central plateaux. Several times during the religious contests that raged between the devotees of rival deities, the temple of Cholula was destroyed and rebuilt. Its final destruction dates from the coming of the Spaniards, who, under Hernan Cortés, after a fierce hand-to-hand conflict on the slopes of the pyramid, maddened by the desperate resistance of the natives, elated by victory, or incited by fanatical religious zeal and avarice, sacked and burned the magnificent structure on the top of the mound. Since the time of the Conquistador, after the fierce spirit of the Spaniards had expended its fury on this and other monuments reared in honor of heathen gods, the mound was allowed to remain in peace, save the construction of a winding road leading up to a modern chapel on the summit, where services are performed in which the great Quetzalcoatl has no share.[IX-10]

Since 1744, when the historian Clavigero rode up its side on horseback, this pyramid has been visited by hundreds of travelers, few tourists having left Anáhuac without having seen so famous a monument of antiquity, so easily accessible from the cities of Mexico and Puebla. Humboldt's description, made from a personal exploration in 1803, is perhaps the most complete that was ever published, and most succeeding visitors have deemed it best to quote his account as being better than any they could write from their own observations. Dupaix and Castañeda, and in later times Nebel, also examined and made drawings of Cholula. The four or five viewsof the mound that have been published differ greatly from each other, accordingly as the artist pictured the monument as he saw it or attempted to restore it more or less to its original form. Humboldt's drawing, which has been more extensively copied than any other, contrary to what might be expected from his text, was altogether a restoration, and bore not the slightest resemblance to the original as he saw it, since Clavigero found it in 1744, "so covered with earth and shrubs that it seems rather a natural hill than an edifice," and there is no reason to suppose that at a later date it assumed a more regular form.[IX-11]

For the past two centuries, at least, the condition and appearance of the mound has been that of a natural conical hill, rising from the level of a broad valley, and covering with its circular base an area of over forty acres.[IX-12]On closer examination, however, traces of artificial terraces are noted on the slopes, and excavations have proven that the whole mound, or at least a very large portion of it—for no excavation has ever been made reaching to its centre—is of artificial construction. By the careful surveys of Humboldt and others the original form and dimensions have been clearly made known. From a base about fourteen hundred and forty feet square, whose sides face the cardinal points, it rose in four equal stories to a height of nearly two hundred feet, having a summit platform of about two hundred feet square.[IX-13]Humboldt in 1803 found the four terraces tolerably distinct, especially on the western slope; Evans in1870 found the lower terrace quite perfect, but the others traceable only in a few places without excavation.

The material of which the mound was constructed is adobes, or sun-dried bricks, generally about fifteen inches long, laid very regularly with alternate layers of clay. From its material comes the name Tlalchihualtepec, 'mountain of unburnt bricks,' which has been sometimes applied to Cholula. An old tradition relates that the adobes were manufactured at Tlalmanalco, and brought several leagues to their destination by a long line of men, who handed them along singly from one to another. Humboldt thought some of the bricks might have been slightly burned. Respecting the material which constitutes the alternate layers between the bricks, called clay by Humboldt, there seems to be some difference of opinion between different explorers. Col. Brantz Mayer, a careful investigator, says the adobes are interspersed with small fragments of porphyry and limestone; and Mr Tylor speaks of them as cemented with mortar containing small stones and pottery. Evans tells us that the material is adobe bricks and layers of lava, still perfect in many places. The historian Veytia by a personal examination ascertained the material to be "small stones of the kind calledguijarros, and a kind of bricks of clay and straw," in alternate layers.[IX-14]Beaufoy claims to have found the pyramid faced with small thin hewn stones, one of which he carried away as a relic—a very wonderful discovery certainly, when we consider that other very trustworthy explorers, both preceding and following Beaufoy, found nothing of the kind. Mr Heller could not find the stone facing, but, as he says, he did find a coating of mortar as hard as stone, composed of lime, sand, and water.[IX-15]Many visitors have believed that the pyramid is only partially artificial, the adobe-work having been added toa smaller natural hill. This is, however, a mere conjecture, and there are absolutely no arguments to be adduced for or against it. The truth can be ascertained only by the excavation of a tunnel through the mound at its base, or, at least, penetrating to the centre. It is very remarkable that such an excavation has never been made, either in the interests of scientific exploration or of treasure-seeking.

Bernal Diaz, at the time of the Conquest, counted a hundred and twenty steps in a stairway which led up the slope to the temple, but no traces of such a stairway have been visible in more modern times. There are traditions among the natives, as is usually the case in connection with every work of the antiguos, of interior galleries and apartments of great extent within the mound; such rumors are doubtless without foundation. The Puebla road cuts off a corner of the lower terrace, and the excavation made in building the road not only showed clearly the regular interior construction of the pyramid, but also laid bare a tomb, which contained two skeletons with two idols in basalt, a collection of pottery, and other relics not preserved or particularly described, although the remains of the tomb itself were examined by Humboldt. The sepulchre was square, with stone walls supported by cypress beams. The dimensions are not given, but the apartment is said to have had no traces of any outlet. Humboldt claims to have discovered a peculiar arrangement of the adobes about this tomb, by which the pressure on its roof was diminished.

It is very evident that the pyramid of Cholula contains nothing in itself to indicate its age, but from well-defined and doubtless reliable traditions, we may feel very sure that its erection dates back to an epoch preceding the tenth century, and probably preceding the seventh. Humboldt shows that it is larger at the base than any of the old-world pyramids, over twice as large as that of Cheops, but only slightly higherthan that of Mycerinus. "The construction of the teocalli recalls the oldest monuments to which the history of the civilization of our race reaches. The temple of Jupiter Bélus, which the mythology of the Hindus seems to designate by the name of Bali, the pyramids of Meïdoùm and Dahchoùr, and several of the group of Sakharah in Egypt, were also immense heaps of bricks, the remains of which have been preserved during a period of thirty centuries down to our day."[IX-16]

The historical annals of aboriginal times, confirmed by the Spanish records of the Conquest, leave no doubt that the chief object of the pyramid was to support a temple; the discovery of the tomb with human remains may indicate that it served also for burial purposes. It is by no means certain, however, that the mound was in any sense a monument reared over the two bodies whose skeletons were found; for besides the position of the skeletons in a corner of the pyramid, indicating in itself the contrary, there is the possibility that the bodies were those of slaves sacrificed during the process of building, and deposited here from some superstitious motive. It will require the discovery of tombs near the centre of this immense mound to prove that it was erected with any view to use as the burial place of kings or priests.[IX-17]Wilson, always a sceptic on matters connected with Mexican aboriginal civilization, pronounces the pyramid of Cholula "the finest Indian mound on this continent; where the Indians buried the bravest of their braves, with bows and arrows, and a drinking cup, that they might not be unprovided for when they should arrive at the hunting-grounds of the great spirit." "It is sufficiently wasted by time to give full scope to the imagination to fill out or restore it toalmost any form. One hundred years ago, some rich citizen constructed steps up its side, and protected the sides of his steps from falling earth by walls of adobe, or mud-brick; and on the west side some adobe buttresses have been placed to keep the loose earth out of the village street. This is all of mans labor that is visible, except the work of the Indians in shaving away the hill which constitutes this pyramid. As for the great city of Cholula, it never had an existence."[IX-18]At a short distance from the foot of the large pyramid, two smaller ones are mentioned by several visitors; one of which is doubtless a portion of the chief mound separated by the road that has been already mentioned. One of them is described by Beaufoy as having perpendicular sides, and built of adobes nine inches square and one inch thick; the second was much smaller and had a corn-patch on its summit. Cuts of the two small mounds are given by the same explorer. Bullock claims to have found on the top of one of the detached masses a ditch and wall forming a kind of figure-eight-formed enclosure one hundred feet long, in which were many human bones. Evans has a theory that the small mounds were formed of the material taken from the larger one in shaping its terraces. Latrobe says that many ruined mounds may be seen from the summit; in fact, that the whole surface of the surrounding plain is broken by both natural and artificial elevations. Ampère was led by his native guide, through a misunderstanding, to a flat-topped terraced hill, still bearing traces of a pavement, at a locality called Zapotecas.[IX-19]

The only miscellaneous Cholulan relics of which I find a mention, are three described by Dupaix andsketched by Castañeda. They were, a stone head, said to have originally been the top of a column; a quadrangular block, with incised hieroglyphics on one of its faces; and a mask of green jasper, reported to have been dug from the pyramid.[IX-20]

REMAINS AT NATIVIDAD.

On the summit of the Sierra de Malinche, which forms the boundary between Puebla and Tlascala, the existence of ruined walls and pyramids, with fragments of stone images, is mentioned without description.[IX-21]At San Pablo del Monte two kneeling naked females in stone, modestly covering the breasts with the hands, were sketched by Castañeda.[IX-22]Of an important group of remains in the vicinity of Natividad, between Puebla de los Angeles and Tlascala, a very unintelligible account has been written by Cabrera, for the Mexican Geographical Society. The ruins seem to cover a hill, different localities on the slopes of which are called Mixco, Xochitecatl, Tenexotzin, Hueyxotzin, and Cacaxtlan. The western slope has gigantic terraces, and among other relics five vertical stones calledhuitzocteme, supposed to have been used for sacrificial purposes. They are two varas high and three fourths of a vara wide. On the northern slope a concavity of stone and mud is mentioned, whose bottom is strewn with pottery and obsidian weapons. At Cacaxtlan, the site of the principal fortress in the wars between Tlascala and Mexico, are ditches and subterranean passages running in all directions. The chief ditch extends from north to south across the hill; it is about twenty-eight feet wide and eleven or twelve feet deep, with embankments formed of the earth thrown out. The subterranean passages are believed to penetrate theheights of Cacaxtlan. One has an opening among the rocks on the north, beginning at the cave of Ostotl; another begins on the east at San Miguel del Milagro, having for an entrance a square hole five or six yards deep, from the bottom of which it extends horizontally in a semicircular course; the third opening is on the south, and its top is supported by columns left in the volcanic stone; and finally, the fourth subterranean passage sends out vapor when it is about to rain. This is all I can glean from Cabrera's account—in fact, rather more than I can fully understand.[IX-23]Dupaix found at Natividad two wooden teponastles, or aboriginal musical instruments, similar to the one found at Tlascala by the same explorer and shown in the accompanying cut. The former were, however, less elaborately carved; the latter was three feet long and five inches in diameter, the cut showing a side and end view. Other relics found by Dupaix in the city of Tlascala and vicinity, are the following:—a lance-head, nine inches long, of green flint; a small stone statue, nine or ten inches in height, representing a seated female, whose head bears a strong resemblance to some ofthe Palenque profiles; a mask of green agate a little smaller than the natural size of the face, pronounced by Dupaix the finest specimen of sculpture seen in America; an earthen vase calledpopocaxtli, used in ceremonies in honor of the dead, found in connection with some human bones; two mutilated human heads carved from a gray stone; and a masked, bow-legged idol of stone, twenty-four inches high, standing on a small pedestal, covering the breasts with the hands.[IX-24]

Teponastle from Tlascala.

ABORIGINAL BRIDGES.

At Pueblo de los Reyes, northward from Tlascala, on the road to San Francisco, two aboriginal bridges over a mountain stream were sketched by Castañeda. One is eleven feet high and thirty-seven feet wide; the other fifty-five feet high and thirty-three feet wide; each being over a hundred feet in length. They are built of large irregular stones in mortar. The conduits through which the stream passes are from four to six feet wide and high, one of them having a flat top, while in the other two large blocks meet and form an obtuse angle. On the top of the bridges at the sides are parapets of brick four or five feet high, pierced at intervals to allow water to run from the road; and at each of the four corners stands a circular, symmetrical, ornamental obelisk, or pillar, over forty feet high, of stone and mortar, covered with burned bricks. It is quite probable that the brick-work of these bridges, if not the whole structure, is to be referred to Spanish rather than to aboriginal times. Sr Almaraz sketched at Xicotepec, in the north, some fifty miles west of Papantla, a teponastle of iron-wood, gracefully carved and brilliantly polished.[IX-25]

The famous wall that was found by Cortés, extending along the frontier of Tlascala, has been spoken of in another part of this work. Brasseur de Bourbourg tells us that many remains of this wall are still visible, and some other authors vaguely speak to the same effect; but as no modern traveler describes or locates these remains, I think it altogether likely that the statements referred to may be simply echoes of those made by the early writers, who represented the ruins of the wall as visible in the years immediately following the Conquest.[IX-26]

RELICS AT CUERNAVACA.

Passing westward into the state of Mexico, and beginning again in the south, I find a notice in a Mexican government report, of ruins at Tejupilco, in the south-west, about sixty miles westward of Cuernavaca. The remains are noticed especially on the hill of Nanchititla, consisting of buildings standing on regular streets yet traceable, and built of very thin blocks, or slates, of stone without mortar. In the valley of San Martin Luvianos, in the same region, a subterranean apartment with polished sides of cement, discovered in 1841, contained quantities of carbonized maize.[IX-27]At Zacualpan, midway between Cuernavaca and Tejupilco, and some leagues further south, flint spear-heads, stone masks, and other relics not specified are said by the same authority to have been found in a cave.[IX-28]A peculiarity of the aboriginalrelics found by Dupaix at Cuernavaca and vicinity was that all consisted of sculptured figures on the surface of large naturally shaped boulders. The first was an immense lizard over eight feet long and a foot and a half thick, carved in high relief on the top of a rough block. Four small circular projections are seen on the side of the rock below the animal. On the southern face of another isolated boulder was sculptured in low relief the coat of arms shown in the cut, which, in its principal features of a circle on parallel arrows or lances, is very similar to others that have been mentioned.[IX-29]On the flag that projects from the upper part of the circle, a Maltese cross is seen, and the bird's head above is pronounced of course by Dupaix to be that of an eagle.[IX-30]On the opposite, or northern, side of the same boulder are sculptured the figures shown in the cut. The lefthand figure, thirteen inches high, may in connection with the small circles be a record of a date—thirteen calli. M. Lenoir, however, on account of the column shown within the building, believes the whole may be an emblem of phallic worship, the column being a phallus and the building its shrine or temple. The sculpture on both sides of this rock is described as having been executed with great care and clearness. Somewhat less than a league south of the city is another isolated rock, said to have served as a boundary mark to the ancient Quauhnahuac, 'place of the eagle,' of which the modern name Cuernavaca is a corruption. On the face of this rock is carved in rather high relief the figure represented in the cut, which, in consideration of the aboriginal meaning of the name, and the purpose served by the stone, may be regarded as an eagle. The material is a fine gray stone, the bird is thirty-five inches high, and the boulder, or its locality, is called by the natives Quauhtetl, 'stone eagle.'[IX-31]

Coat of Arms—Cuernavaca.

Boulder-Sculptures at Cuernavaca.

Eagle of Cuernavaca.

RUINS OF XOCHICALCO.

The ruins of Xochicalco, doubtless the finest in Mexico, are about fifteen miles 13° west of south from Cuernavaca, and about seventy-five miles south-west from the city of Mexico. The first published description was written by Alzate y Ramirez, who visited the locality in 1777, and published his account with illustrative plates as a supplement to his Literary Gazette in November, 1791.[IX-32]Humboldt made up his account from that of Alzate; Dupaix and Castañeda included Xochicalco in their first exploration; Nebel visited and sketched the ruins in 1831; and finally an account, perhaps the most complete extant, written from an exploration in 1835 by order of the Mexican government, was published in theRevista Mexicana.[IX-33]

RUINS OF XOCHICALCO.

Xochicalco, the 'hill of flowers,'[IX-34]is a natural elevationof conical form, with an oval base over two miles in circumference, rising from the plain to a height of nearly four hundred feet.[IX-35]Mr Latrobe claims to have found traces of paved roads, of large stones tightly wedged together, one of them eight feet wide, leading in straight lines towards the hill from different directions. The account in theRevistamentions only one such causeway running towards the east. A ditch, more or less filled up and overgrown with shrubbery, is said to extend entirely round the base of the hill, but its depth and width are not stated; perhaps in the absence of more complete information its existence should be considered doubtful.

Subterranean Galleries—Xochicalco.

Very near the foot of the northern slope are the entrances to two tunnels or galleries, one of which terminates at a distance of eighty-two feet; at least, it was obstructed and could not be explored beyond that point. The second gallery, cut in the solid limestone of the hill, about nine feet and a half wide and high, has several branches running in different directions, some of them terminated by fallen débris, others apparently walled up intentionally. The floors are paved to the thickness of a foot and a half with brick-shaped blocks of stone, the walls are also in many places supported by masonry, and both pavement, walls, and ceiling are covered with lime cement, which retains its polish and shows traces in some parts of having had originally a coating of red ochre. The principal gallery, after turning once at a right angle, terminates at a distance of several hundred feet in a large apartment about eighty feet long, in which two circular pillars are left in the living rock to support the roof. The accompanying cut is Castañeda's ground plan of the galleries and subterranean apartment,abeing the entrance on the north;bthe terminationof main gallery;c,k, the branch gallery;eandd, obstructed passages;g,g, the room andf,f, the pillars. The scale of the plan is about fifty feet to the inch, but the dimensions, according to the scale, are doubtless inaccurate. According to the plan the galleries are only a little over four feet wide; and the apartment thirty-three by thirty-nine feet. Alzate's plan agrees with it so far as it goes; theRevistagives no plan, and its description differs in some respects, so far as the arrangement of the galleries is concerned, from the cut.[IX-36]In the top of the room at the south-east corner, ath, is a dome-like structure, a vertical section of which is shown atjof the preceding cut, six feet in diameter and six feet high, lined with stone hewn in curved blocks, with a round hole about ten inches in diameter extending vertically upward from the top. It has been generally believed that this passage leads up to the pyramid on the top of the hill, to be described later; but it will be seen that if the hill be two miles in circumference, or even half that size, the galleries are not nearly long enough to reachthe centre under the pyramid. Nebel fancied that the hole in the cupola was so situated that the rays of the sun twice a year would penetrate from above and strike an altar in the subterranean hall. The natives report other passages in the hill besides the one described, and believe that one of them leads to Chapultepec, near the city of Mexico.

THE HILL OF FLOWERS.

Passing now from the interior to the outer surface of the 'hill of flowers,' we find it covered from top to bottom with masonry. Five terraces, paved with stone and mortar, and supported by perpendicular walls of the same material, extend in oval form entirely round the whole circumference of the hill, one above the other. Neither the width of the paved platforms nor the height of the supporting walls has been given by any explorer, but each terrace, with the corresponding intermediate slope, constitutes something over seventy feet of the height of the hill. The terrace platforms have sometimes been described, without any authority, as a paved way leading round and round the hill in a spiral course to the summit. Dupaix speaks of a road about eight feet wide, which leads to the summit, but no other explorer mentions any traces of the original means of ascent. Each terrace wall, while forming in general terms an ellipse, does not present a regular line, but is broken into various angles like the bastions of a fortification. The pavements all slope slightly towards the south-west, thus permitting the water to run off readily. According to the plans of Alzate and Castañeda there are two additional terraces where a spur projects from the hill at the north-eastern base. Latrobe is the only authority on the intermediate slopes between the terraces, which he says are occupied with platforms, bastions, and stages one above another. It is evident from all accounts that the whole surface of the hill, very likely shaped to some extent artificially, was covered with stone work, and that defense was one object aimed at by the builders.TheRevistarepresents the terrace platforms as additionally fortified by the perpendicular supporting walls projecting upward above their level, forming what may perhaps be termed a kind of parapet.

On the summit is a level platform measuring two hundred and eighty-five by three hundred and twenty-eight feet.[IX-37]According to Alzate, Humboldt, Dupaix, and other early authorities—except Nebel, who is silent on the subject—this plaza is surrounded by a wall. Dupaix says the wall is built of stones without mortar, is five feet and a half high, and two feet and nine inches thick. Alzate represents the wall as perpendicular only on the inner side, being in fact a projection of the upper terrace slope, forming a kind of parapet, and making the plaza a sunken area. Latrobe also speaks of the plaza as a hollow square, and Alzate's representation is probably a correct one; for the author of the account in theRevistasays that the wall described by previous visitors could not be found; and moreover, that there was no room for it on the north between the central pyramid and "one of the solid stone masses, orcaballeros, that surround the platform," thecaballeros, which may perhaps in this connection be translated 'parapets,' being doubtless the same structures that the others describe as a wall.

PYRAMID OF XOCHICALCO.

In this plaza, cultivated in later years as a cornfield, there are several mounds and heaps of stones not particularly described; and near the centre is a pyramid, or rather the lower story of one, with rectangular base, the sides of which, exactly or very nearly facing the cardinal points, measure sixty-five feet from east to west, and fifty-eight feet from north to south. The lower story, which in some parts is still standing to its full height, is divided into what may be termed plinth, frieze, and cornice, and is about sixteen feet high.[IX-38]

Pyramid of Xochicalco.

In the centre of one of the façades is an open space, something over twenty feet wide, bounded by solid balustrades, and probably occupied originally by a stairway, although it is said that no traces of steps have been found among the débris. The cut, from Nebel, shows the front of the pyramid on one side of the opening, being the eastern portion of the northern front, according to Nebel, who locates the stairway on the north, or the northern part of the western front, according to theRevista, which speaks of the opening as being on the west.

The pyramid, or at least its facing, is built of large blocks of granite or porphyry,[IX-39]a kind of stone notfound within a distance of many leagues. The blocks are of different sizes, the largest being about eleven feet long and three feet high, and few being less than five feet in length. They are laid without mortar, and so nicely is the work done that the joints are scarcely perceptible. The cut shows one of the façades, probably the northern, from Castañeda's drawing, which corresponds almost exactly to that given by Alzate. So far as the details of the sculpture are concerned it is probably not very trustworthy. The preceding cut, from Nebel, is perhaps the only reliable drawing in this respect that has been published. The whole exterior surface seems to have been covered with sculptured figures in low relief, apparently executed after the stones were put in place, since one figure extends, with the greatest exactitude at the joints, over several blocks of stone.[IX-40]

Pyramid of Xochicalco.

I translate from theRevistathe following remarks about the sculptured figures: "At each angle, and on each side, is seen a colossal dragon's head, from whose great mouth, armed with enormous teeth, projects a forked tongue; but in some the tongue is horizontal, while in others it falls vertically; in the first it points towards a sign which is believed to bethat of water, and in the others towards different signs or emblems.... Some have pretended to see in these dragons images of crocodiles; but nothing certain can be known of these fantastic figures which have no model in nature.... On the two sides still standing there are two figures of men larger than the natural size, seated cross-legged in the eastern fashion, wearing necklaces of enormous pearls, rich ornaments, and a head-dress out of all proportion, with long flowing plumes. In one hand they hold a kind of sceptre, and the other is placed on the breast; a hieroglyphic of great size, placed in the middle of each side, separates the two figures, whose heads are turned, on the east side, one north and the other south, while on the north side both face the west. The frieze which surrounds this story presents a series of small human figures, also seated in the eastern manner, with the right hand crossed on the breast, and the left resting on a curved sword, whose hilt reminds us of ancient swords; a thing the more worthy of attention since no people descended from the Toltecs or Aztecs has made use of this kind of arms. The head-dress of these small figures, which closely resemble those mentioned before, is always disproportionately large, and this circumstance, which is found in all the Egyptian mythologic fables, is considered in the latter an emblem of power or divinity. With the human figures are seen various signs, some of which seem allegorical and others chronologic, so far as may be judged from their conformity with those employed in the Aztec paintings.... Another sign, apparently of a different nature, is often repeated among the figures; it is a dragon's mouth, open and armed with teeth, as in the large reliefs, from which projects instead of a tongue a disk divided by a cross.... It has also been thought (Alzate) that dances are represented on the frieze of Xochicalco, but its perfect preservation makes such an error inexcusable, and figures seated with legscrossed and hands on a sword, exclude any idea of sacred or warlike dances, and suggest only mythologic or historical scenes. Over the frieze was a cornice adorned with very delicate designs in the form ofoalmetasor meandres in the Greek style." The cut shows one of the bas-reliefs on a larger scale than in the preceding illustrations. There is, as Nebel observes, a certain likeness between these sculptured designs and the stucco reliefs of Palenque, although in the architectural features of the monument, and of the base on which it rests, there seems to be no analogy whatever with any of the southern ruins.

Bas-Relief from Xochicalco.

On the summit of this lower structure a few sculptured foundation stones of a second story were found yet in place, the walls being two feet and three inches from the edge of the lower, except on the west, where the space is four feet and a half. According to the report of the inhabitants of the vicinity, the structure had originally five receding stories, similar to the first in outward appearance, which were all standing as late as 1755, making the whole edifice probably about sixty-five feet high. It is said to have terminated in a platform, on the eastern side of which stood a large block, forming a kind of throne, covered with hieroglyphicsculpture. The proprietors of neighboring sugar-works were the authors of the monument's destruction, the stone being of a nature suitable for their furnaces, and none other being obtainable except at a great distance. Alzate puts on record the name of one Estrada as the inaugurator of this disgraceful work of devastation.[IX-41]Several restorations of the pyramid of Xochicalco have been attempted on paper, that by the artist Nebel being probably the only one that bears any likeness to the original; and even his sketch, so far as the sculptured designs are concerned, must be regarded as extremely conjectural, having as a foundation only a few scattered blocks and the reports of the 'oldest inhabitant.' At the Paris international exhibition in 1867 a structure was built and exhibited in the Champs de Mars, purporting to be a fac-simile of this monument; but judging from a cut published in a London paper, it might with equal propriety have been exhibited as a model of any other ruin in the new or old world.[IX-42]

The second story seems to have had interior apartments, with three doorways at the head of the grand stairway. On the summit of the lower story, according to theRevista, is a pit, perhaps a covered apartment originally, measuring twenty-two feet square, and nearly filled with fragments of stone, some of them sculptured, which were not removed. It is of course possible that there exists some means of communication between this apartment and the subterranean galleries of the hill below.

East of the hill of Xochicalco, on the road to Miacatlan, an immense stone was said to have been found serving as a kind of cover to a hole, perhaps the entrance to a subterranean gallery, on the face of whichwas sculptured an eagle tearing a prostrate native Prometheus. It was broken up and most of the pieces carried away, but Alzate saw one fragment containing a part of the sculptured thigh, from which perhaps with the aid of his imagination and his knowledge of Grecian mythology the good padre prepared a drawing of the whole, which he published. Later visitors have not even seen a fragment of so wonderful a relic. Mr Tylor speaks of a small paved oval space somewhere in connection with the ruin, in which he found fragments of a clay idol. There are no springs of water on or near the hill.

TheRevistasays, "adjoining this hill is another higher one, also covered with terraces of stone-work in form of steps. A causeway of large marble flags led to the top, where there are still some excavations and among them a mound of large size. Nothing further in the way of monuments is to be seen on the lower (part of the?) hill except a granite block, which may be the great square stone mentioned by Alzate, which served to close the entrance to a subterranean gallery, situated east of the principal monument." There are also some traces of one terrace indicated on Castañeda's view of the larger hill. On the sculptured façades of the pyramid, all have found traces of color in sheltered places, and have concluded that the whole surface was originally painted red, except the author of the account in theRevista, who thinks that the groundwork of the reliefs only was covered with a colored varnish, as was the usage in Egypt. Löwenstern claims to have found in the vicinity of Xochicalco the foundation of many aboriginal dwellings.

A slight resemblance has been noted in some of the sculptured human figures, seated cross-legged, to the Maya sculptures and stucco reliefs of Central America; a few figures, like that of the rabbit, may present some analogies to Aztec sculptures, many specimens of which will be shown in the present chapter; the very fact of its being a pyramid in several stories,gives to Xochicalco a general likeness to all the more important American ruins; the terraces on the hill-slopes have their counterparts at Quiotepec and elsewhere; the absence of mortar between the façade-stones is a feature also of Mitla; still as a whole the monument of Xochicalco stands alone; both in architecture and sculpture it presents strong contrasts with Copan, Uxmal, Palenque, Mitla, Cholula, Teotihuacan, or the many pyramids of Vera Cruz. There is no definite tradition referring the origin of this monument to any particular pre-Aztec period, save the universal modern tradition among the natives referring everything wonderful to the Toltecs. It is not, moreover, improbable that the pyramid was built by a Nahua people during the Aztec period; for it must be remembered first that all the grand temples in Anáhuac—the Aztec territory proper—have disappeared since the Conquest, so that a comparison of such buildings with that of Xochicalco is impossible; and second, that the Aztecs were superior to the nations immediately surrounding them in war rather than art, so that it would be by no means surprising to find a grander temple in Cuernavaca than in the valley of Mexico. The Aztec sculpture on such monuments as have been found in the city of Mexico if different from, is not inferior to that at Xochicalco, and there is no reason whatever to doubt the ability of the Aztecs to build such a pyramid. Still there remains of course the possibility of a pre-Aztec antiquity for the building on the hill of flowers, and of Maya influence exerted upon its builders.[IX-43]

REMAINS IN THE SOUTH-EAST.

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