TEOTIHUACAN.
Quotations—Pre-Toltec Civilisation—Egyptian and Teotihuacan
Pyramids Compared—General Aspect of the Pyramids—Cement
Coatings—_Tlateles_ and Pyramids—Idols and Masks—Description
by Torquemada—S. Martin’s Village—Pulque and Mezcal—S. Juan of
Teotihuacan.
On account of its vicinity to Mexico, Teotihuacan has been so often
described, that there is little or nothing to be said which has not
been well said before. She was a flourishing city at the time of
the Toltecs, and the rival 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 was a Toltec city;
and my excavations in bringing to light palaces having nearly the
same arrangement as those at Tula, will confirm their opinion. The
orientation of this city is indicated by Clavigero in the following
passage:
“The famous edifices at Teotihuacan, three miles north of this village
and twenty-five from Mexico, are still in existence.”
The two principal pyramids were dedicated to the Sun and Moon, and
were taken as models for building later temples in this region. That
of the Sun is the most considerable, 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 intermediate
gradations are almost effaced. A temple stood on the summit of the
larger mound, having a colossal statue of the Sun, made of one single
block of stone.
Its breast had a hollow, in which was placed a planet of fine gold.
This statue was destroyed by Zumarraga, first Bishop of Mexico, and the
gold seized by the insatiable Spaniards. The interior of the pyramid is
composed of clay and volcanic pebbles, incrusted on the surface with
the light porous stone, _tetzontli_; over this was a thick coating of
white stucco, such as was used for dwellings. Where 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 “Path of Death” (_Micoatl_), with its tombs
and tumuli, covering a space of nine square miles; to the south and
south-west the hills of Tlascala, the villages of S. Martin and S.
Juan, the snowy top of Iztaccihuatl towering above the _Matlacinga_
range; and in the west the Valley of Mexico with its lakes, whilst far,
far away the faint outline of the Cordilleras was perceptible in this
clear atmosphere.
If by an effort of the imagination we were to try and reconstruct this
dead city, restore her dwellings, her temples and pyramids, coated
with pink and white outer coatings, surrounded by verdant gardens,
intersected by beautiful roads paved with red cement, the whole bathed
in a flood of sunshine, we should realise the vivid description given
by Torquemada: “All the temples and palaces were perfectly built,
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 and
beautiful gardens full of fragrant flowers, which were grown for the
service of the temples.” This quotation goes far to prove that the
ruins are not so ancient as some writers have maintained; but that
temples and palaces were extant at the time of the Conquest, and that
pyramids were repaired by the successive occupants of the soil, even
during the wars which a displacement of races naturally entailed.
The outline of the pyramids is everywhere visible, and serves as a
beacon to guide the traveller to the ruins of Teotihuacan, about
thirty-seven miles north of Mexico. Besides these, there are some
smaller mounds to the south, indicating that the ancient city extended
as far as Matlacinga hill, which bounds the valley on this side, whilst
it stretched six miles to the north.
We set out under the escort of an Indian, and soon reach an immense
mound known as the _Citadel_, measuring over 1,950 feet at the sides.
It is a quadrangular enclosure, consisting of four embankments some
19 feet high and 260 feet thick, on which are ranged fifteen pyramids;
whilst, towards the centre, a narrower embankment is occupied 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 season. The bed
is full of obsidian pebbles, some transparent, some opaque green, but
most of a grayish tint. On the opposite bank of the torrent we observed
in some places three layers of cement, laid down in the same way, and
consisting of the same materials, as I can certify, notwithstanding all
that has been said to the contrary.
This cement is identical with that of Tula, except that there it was
probably done for the sake of solidity, since it is only to be met
with on the declivity of the hill; whereas here, where the city was
demolished several times, it was due to the fact that the new occupant
did not care to clear the ground of all the rubbish, but contented
himself with smoothing down the old coating and laying a new one on the
top of it. This supposition becomes almost a certainty when we add that
numerous fragments of pottery have been found between the layers. This
is, besides, amply exemplified in Rome and other cities, where ancient
monuments are divided from later ones by thick layers of detritus; nor
is it necessary for a long interval to 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, etc. I select for myself some masks which portray the
various Indian types with marvellous truth, and at times not without
some artistic skill. Among them are types which do not seem to belong
to America: a negro (see plate), whose thick lips, flat nose, and
woollen hair proclaim his African origin; below this a Chinese head,
Caucasian and Japanese specimens; heads with retreating foreheads, like
those displayed at Palenque, and not a few with Greek profiles. The
lower jaw is straight or projecting, the faces smooth or bearded; in
short, it is a wonderful medley, indicative of the numerous races who
succeeded each other, and amalgamated on this continent, which, until
lately, was supposed to be so new, and is in truth so old.
Some writers, on viewing the configuration of these massive mounds,
have erroneously concluded that they were built for the same purpose
as the Egyptian pyramids; but we cannot sufficiently impress on the
reader that in America the pyramid was synonymous with temple, or used
as basement for temples and palaces. People may have been buried in
the former, as they were buried in the latter; but that is no evidence
of any analogy subsisting between them. In Egypt the pyramid was a
sepulchre 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, whether civil or religious, entirely differs in the two
countries. In Egypt palaces were built of wood; in America they were
built of stone. Among Egyptians temples were colossal; among Americans,
on the contrary, they were small, primitive, hardly more than altars.
The temple was all-important with the former, the palace with the
latter. In fact, the two polities were diametrically opposed, save on
such points of contact as are common to all races in the early stage of
their civilisation.
[Illustration: TERRA-COTTA MASKS AND HEADS FOUND AT TEOTIHUACAN.]
Some writers, arguing from the existence of a civilisation anterior
to the Incas, concluded, with some show of reason, that there existed
a pre-Toltec civilisation also; but a moment’s reflection will show
that no parallel exists between the two; for the former, in a climate
eminently favourable to the preservation of monuments, has hardly left
any trace, 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 as that on which they had been erected. It follows
that in Peru edifices are totally different in character from the
foundations and cyclopean walls which support them, unless the ruins of
Las Casas Grandes be considered pre-Toltec; but even so they would be
the remains of edifices constructed by the first Nahua tribes in their
progress towards the south.
Our digression has sharpened our appetites, and we hasten to the
“fonda” by a short cut across imposing structures and the remains
of houses built by the Spaniards who first settled here after the
Conquest. Although they tried to build on the same principles as the
Indians, they succeeded indifferently, for their constructions are but
a ruinous mass, in the courtyards and open walls of which the 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 want of proper care. The men
earn one shilling a day—one shilling to feed, clothe, and house eight
or nine people. What wonder if they are in tatters which leave them
half uncovered, exposed to the mercy of the elements? Outside these
huts—for the inside does not own so much as a wooden peg—stands the
_metate_, before which women are kneeling nearly the whole day grinding
Indian corn for tortillas.
[Illustration: ROAD TO S. MARTIN.]
“Why don’t you put a roof over these standing walls? You would get, at
very small cost, a comfortable dwelling for your families.”
“But, señor, we have no wood.”
“What, with all those trees about?”
“Ah, señor, we should have to pay for them, and where is the money to
come from?”
“Why, then, club together, three or four families of you. These huge
houses are quite spacious enough for the purpose.”
They only shook their heads incredulously; so simple a notion was quite
beyond them. As their fathers lived before them, so they do, and will
continue to do so for a long time to come. We gave a few coppers to the
poor wretches to drink our health in pulque, which is excellent here,
the _maguey_ reaching sometimes twenty feet in diameter, and the leaves
nine feet ten 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 leaves around it. Then a man with
a bottle and a large skin plies daily from plant to plant, taking
up the liquid with the bottle and pouring it into the skin, which,
when full, he empties into an open receptacle, made of a bull’s hide
stretched out on four poles. When the juice is sufficiently fermented,
bitter herbs are added, and the pulque is then ready for sale.
_Mezcal_ is a kind of brandy made from a smaller kind of aloe, not
unlike a huge cabbage in shape. To prepare it, roots and leaves are
left to soak 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 it is called _mezcal cabecita_; in the second,
considered the finest in flavour, _mezcal pechuga_. The best Indian
cognacs are manufactured at Jalisco.
[Illustration: CHURCH OF S. JUAN, TEOTIHUACAN.]
S. Martin, where we are going to put up for the night, is situated
on the driest spot in the valley, so that the only green things to be
seen about it are its enormous hedges of aloe, shooting up from fifteen
to twenty feet high, and so thick as to make them quite impassable.
Our next stage is S. John of Teotihuacan, which was formerly a station
for the numerous relays of mules plying to and from Mexico, when more
than two thousand passed 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 wretched donkey or a stray
traveller disturb its solitude. Water, that first of commodities, is
plentiful here, and great poplars, beautiful cedars, lend their cool
shade, and make our walk to the church, which stands at the end of a
noble avenue, quite enjoyable. This church is one of the finest to be
seen in Mexico. The steeple, with its three orders of columns rising
on three successive tiers, is striking for its elegance and fine
proportions.
We alight here without much hope of being comfortable, for the only
accommodation is a meson, with a courtyard giving access to bare
rooms paved with bricks, devoid of any furniture, and where privacy
is impossible, for anybody may come and lie alongside of you. Your
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 rather than because we
like his menu. But if the _cuisine_ left something to be desired, it
was amply made up to us by the Municipality, and it was owing to their
kindly help that we were able, within a few hours, to muster men in
sufficient numbers to begin our operations.
[Illustration: MILE-STONE, OR VOTIVE COLUMN, TEOTIHUACAN.]
[Illustration: RUINS OF A PALACE, TEOTIHUACAN.]