The Ancient Cities of the New World

al Aspect of the Pyramids-Cement Coatings-Tlateles and Pyramids-Idols and Masks-Des

al of Tula; and like her was destroyed and subsequently rebuilt by the Chichemec emperor Xolotl, preserving under the new régime her former supremacy. In the opinion of Veytia, Torquemada, and other historians, Teotihuacan wa

e miles north of this village and twenty-

iderable, measuring 680 feet at the base by 180 feet high. Like all great pyramids, they were divided into four storeys, three of which are still visible, but the

re the pyramid is much defaced, its incline is from thirty-one to thirty-six degrees, and where the coatings of cement still adhere, forty-seven degrees. The ascent was arduous, especially with a burning sun beating down upon us; but when we reached the top, we were amply repaid by the glorious view which unfolded before our enraptured gaze. To the north the Pyramid of the Moon, and the great "P

whitewashed and polished outside; so that it gave one a real pleasure to view them from a little distance. All the streets and squares were beautifully paved, and they looked so daintily clean as to make you almost doubt their being the work of human hands, destined for human feet; nor am I drawing an imaginary picture, for besides what I have been told, I myself have seen ruins of temples, with noble trees

about thirty-seven miles north of Mexico. Besides these, there are some smaller mounds to the south, indicating that the anc

pied by a higher pyramid, which connects the north and south walls. The shape of the citadel bears a strong resemblance to a vast tennis-court, and if not the latter, it was in all probability used for public ceremonies, but never as a citadel. A little further we crossed a dry watercourse, which becomes a torrent in the rainy sea

have occurred between the two. On the other hand, if we suppose the soil between the coatings to have accumulated there by the work of time, an antiquity must be ascribed to these first constructions which would simply be ridiculous; and we think that if Mendoza had visited the ground, his conclusions would have been much modified. Traces of edifices and walls occupy the base of the torrent, showing that the bed was narrower formerly than it is now, and that it was presumably embanked and spanned by several bridges. As we advance towards the Pyramid of the Sun, fragments of all kinds meet our eyes in every direction; the fields are strewn with pottery, masks, small figures, Lares, ex-votos, small idols, broken cups, stone axes

e and nothing more, which received additions each successive year, and assumed smaller or greater dimensions, according to the longevity of the sovereign who erected it. The gigantic pyramids of Cheops, Chephren, and Mycerinus, correspond to reigns of sixty years each; the smaller correspond to short reigns in which kings were not given time for constructing great monuments. Now, the American mounds belong to one epoch, were built on one plan without any intermission. Architecture, whe

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, whilst the latter, in a climate peculiarly destructive, has left whole cities and monuments in almost perfect preservation. In Peru, the people who followed the earlier races used extant remains for the foundations of their monuments, as, for instance, at Cuzco; whereas in Mexico and Central America monuments were repaired and restored on the same plan

e poor Indians have established their cabins. These cabins measure barely six feet square; yet within them whole families lie huddled up together on the beaten ground, nearly suffocated in summer, almost frozen in winter, nursing their misery. A few beans, a tortilla, is all the food they have, and often not even that. Their children are numerous, but more than half die in the first years for w

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ng walls? You would get, at very small cost

r, we have

all those

to pay for them, and where

r families of you. These huge houses ar

inches in length. I am told that some plants yield as much as 600 litres of liquid. The way the juice is extracted from the aloe is this: Every five years, just as the maguey is about to bloom, shooting up a long stalk crowned with its umbelliferous flowers, the cone forming the centre of the plant is taken out, leaving a hole, which soon fills with the sap of the l

until they are duly fermented; a calf's head or the best part of a chicken is added to the compound previous to distillation. In the first case

S. JUAN, T

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d daily. Then every village had "mesones"74 and an immense "corrale," in which mules, horses, and donkeys were put up, whence the clapping of hands of the tortilleros was heard all day long, and copious libations to the Indian Bacchus were the reverse of edifying. But now all that is over. The railroad has turned S. Juan into a living tomb. The plaza is deserted, tiendas are silent, and windows only open when the tramping of some wretche

r ablutions have to be made at the well in presence of half the village congregated in the yard. When you are hungry you go to the "fonda" in the plaza, where the good man who keeps it does his best to cook you a nice dinner, which we eat to spare his feelings rathe

VOTIVE COLUMN

PALACE, T