CHAPTER VII.

ANTIQUITIES OF OAJACA AND GUERRERO.

NAHUA ANTIQUITIES -- HOME OF THE ZAPOTECS AND MIZTECS --

REMAINS IN TEHUANTEPEC -- FORTIFIED HILL OF GUIENGOLA --

PETAPA, MAGDALENA, AND LAOLLAGA -- BRIDGE AT CHIHUITLAN --

CROSS OF GUATULCO -- TUTEPEC -- CITY OF OAJACA AND

VICINITY -- TLACOLULA -- ETLA -- PEÑOLES -- QUILAPAN --

RUINS OF MONTE ALBAN -- RELICS AT ZACHILA -- CUILAPA --

PALACES OF MITLA -- MOSAIC WORK -- STONE COLUMNS --

SUBTERRANEAN GALLERIES -- PYRAMIDS -- FORTIFICATIONS --

COMPARISON WITH CENTRAL AMERICAN RUINS -- NORTHERN

MONUMENTS -- QUIOTEPEC -- CERRO DE LAS JUNTAS -- TUXTEPEC

-- HUAHUAPAN -- YANGUITLAN -- ANTIQUITIES OF GUERRERO.

[Sidenote: NAHUA MONUMENTS.]

I now enter what has been classified in a preceding volume of this

work as the home of the Nahua nations,--nations, most of which were at

the time of the Spanish conquest, and during the preceding century,

subjected to the allied powers of Anáhuac, and were more or less

closely related to the nations of the central valley, in blood,

language, or institutions. It has been seen, in what has been said on

the subject,[VII-1] that the dividing line between the Nahuas and

Mayas, drawn across the isthmus of Tehuantepec, is not a very sharply

defined one. Many analogies, linguistic, institutionary, and

mythologic, were found between nations dwelling on different sides of

the line; so in monumental relics, and in traditional history, we

shall find many points of similarity; but on the whole, the

resemblances will be so far outweighed by the differences, as "to

indicate either a separate culture from the beginning, or what is more

probable, and for us practically the same thing, a progress in

different paths for a long time prior to the coming of the Europeans,"

to repeat the words of a preceding chapter.

The relics to be described in the present chapter are those of the

isthmus proper, and of that portion of the Mexican Republic above the

isthmus which lies in general terms south of the eighteenth parallel

of latitude, including the states of Oajaca and Guerrero, and

stretching on the Pacific from Tonalá to the mouth of the Rio

Zacatula, a distance of between five and six hundred miles. The

province of Tehuantepec, belonging politically to the state of Oajaca,

includes the central continental mountain chain, with the plains on

the Pacific at its southern base, a region somewhat less fertile and

attractive than those in which many of the ruins already described are

situated. The two chief mountain ranges of the Mexican Republic, one

skirting the Atlantic, the other the Pacific shore, draw near each

other as the continent narrows, and meet in Tehuantepec. The southern

portions of these two converging ranges, the broad mountain-girt

valleys in the angle formed by their junction, and a narrow strip of

tierra caliente on the southern coast, constitute the state of Oajaca,

the home of the Miztecs, Zapotecs, and other tribes somewhat less

civilized, powerful, and celebrated. The interior valleys are for the

most part in the tierra templada, and include some of the best

agricultural land in the country, with all the larger towns grouped

round the capital as a centre. Guerrero is made up of the very narrow

lowlands of the coast, the southern mountain range extending through

its whole length from north-west to south-east, and the valley of the

Zacatula further north. It is a region but little known to travelers,

except along the great national highway, or trail, which leads from

Acapulco, the most important port of the state, to the city of Mexico.

[Sidenote: RUINS OF GUIENGOLA.]

Five or six leagues from the city of Tehuantepec, the capital of the

province of the same name, and in the south-western corner of the

province, have been found the remains of an aboriginal fortification

or fortified town, which, according to the traditional annals of the

country, was built by the Zapotecs, not very long before the Conquest,

to resist the advance of the Aztec forces. The principal remains are

on a lofty hill, the cerro of Guiengola, but the fortified territory

is said to extend over an area measuring one and a half by over four

leagues, the outer walls being visible throughout the entire

circumference at every naturally accessible point. Besides the

protecting walls there are remains of dwellings, all of stone without

mortar, except a cornice on the larger walls. Three fortresses covered

with a coating of hard plaster are mentioned. Ditches accompany the

walls and add to the strength of the works. From a subterranean

sepulchre were taken about two hundred pieces of pottery, including

vases and imitations of various animals. The tombs had a coating of

compact cement, and the skeletons found in them were lying face down.

The preceding information I take from a very vague account written by

Sr Arias and published in the _Museo Mexicano_. Arias visited the

locality in 1833; he claims to have sent some very interesting relics,

found at Guiengola and other localities in the vicinity of

Tehuantepec, to the museum at Oajaca; but the man to whom they were

entrusted probably disposed of them in a manner more profitable to

himself, if less advantageous to the museum. Several natural caves are

spoken of by Arias, and one of them, seventy feet deep, showed traces,

according to the German traveler Müller, of having been formerly

inhabited. The latter also found vestiges of dwellings scattered

throughout the vicinity, and speaks of a well-preserved tumulus

standing not long before his visit in a valley close by. It was

thirty-three feet high, with a base of ninety by one hundred and five

feet, and a summit platform sixty by seventy-five feet, reached by a

stairway of twenty-five wide steps. At the side of this tumulus was a

quadrilateral elevation covering an area of about two acres, and

enclosed by a wall eight feet high and twelve feet thick. Whether

these structures are identical with the 'castles' of Arias is

uncertain. A correspondent of _Hutchings' Magazine_ in 1858 describes

a wall of rough stones four feet thick and thirty feet high, said to

extend nine miles. This writer speaks also of buildings with pillars

in their centre, and of quarries from which the stone was originally

taken. Some plans accompanied Arias' report but were not published.

Unsatisfactory as it certainly is, the preceding is all the

information extant respecting these remains,[VII-2] or at least

referred definitely to Guiengola by name; but some remains were

described by Dupaix and sketched by Castañeda, at a point three

leagues west of Tehuantepec, which undoubtedly belonged to this group,

and were probably the same ruins which the other writers so vaguely

mention. On the top of a high hill, surrounded by other grand ruins,

are two pyramids of hewn stone and mortar. The first is fifty-five by

one hundred and twenty feet at the base, and thirty by sixty-six feet

at the summit. The main stairway, thirty feet wide, of forty steps,

leads up the centre of the western slope; there are also narrower

stairways on the north and south. The pyramid is built in four

terraces, the walls of the lower one being perpendicular; and of all

the rest sloping. The whole surface was covered with a brilliant

cement of lime, sand, and red ochre. No remains whatever were found on

the summit. A remarkable feature is noticed on the surface of the

second story, from which project throughout the whole circumference,

except where interrupted by the stairways, four ranges of flat stones,

forming hundreds of small shelves. The only suggestions made

respecting the possible use to which these shelves were devoted are

that they supported torches or human skulls.

[Illustration: 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 with their 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.

[Illustration: 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]

[Sidenote: MONUMENTS OF TEHUANTEPEC.]

In the city of Tehuantepec, or in its immediate vicinity, 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 definitely locating 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

of a 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]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 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, or at 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 supposed to 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.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 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]

[Illustration: 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 the north-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 at _d_

and _f_, is that the terraces are covered with walls and embankments

parallel or at right angles to each other. The structure at _c_ is

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, at _h_, 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 at _e_ seem 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 which are not given.

García mentions a similar mound, but speaks of the central room as

being circular.

[Illustration: 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 mentions a 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]

[Illustration: Aboriginal Coin from Monte Alban.]

[Sidenote: 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 at _b_, or _g_, 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 deem the 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.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 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 the work 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.

[Illustration: 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 have been 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 other figures 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, five inches 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.

[Illustration: Terra-Cotta Image--Zachila.]

[Illustration: 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]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 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

miles north-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 the

ruins, 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]

[Sidenote: 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 the _Ilustracion 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 named _Mitla_. José María

García saw the ruins in October, 1855, as is stated in the bulletin

of the Mexican Geographical 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]

[Illustration: 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 as four. 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 in number, 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.

[Illustration: Ground Plan of Palace No. 1.]

[Sidenote: 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 only slight 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]

[Sidenote: 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 employed in 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]

[Illustration: Façade of First Palace--Mitla.]

[Illustration: Façade of First Palace--Mitla.]

[Sidenote: 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 the doorways; 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]

[Illustration: Interior--South wing of the First Palace.]

The following cut I take from Baldwin's work, for which 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]

[Sidenote: 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 passage _f, 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. The cut 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]

[Illustration: Grecques on Interior of Room at Mitla.]

[Sidenote: ROOF STRUCTURES.]

I now have to speak of the roof which originally covered this

building, since in the other buildings and palaces nothing will be

found to throw any additional light on the subject. It seems evident

that the columns in the southern wing were intended to support the

roof, and if there were no contradictory evidence, the natural

conclusion would be that the covering was of wooden beams stretching

completely across the narrow apartments, and resting on the pillars of

the wider ones, as we have seen to be the case at Tuloom, on the

eastern coast of Yucatan.[VII-48] Burgoa, in whose time it is not

impossible that some of the roofs may have been yet in place, tells us

that they were formed of large stone blocks, resting on the columns,

and joined without mortar.[VII-49] Humboldt states that the roof was

supported by large _sabino_ beams, and that three of these beams still

remained in place (1802). According to Dupaix, both the roofs and

floors in the northern wing were formed by a row of beams, or rather

logs, of the _ahuehuete_, a kind of pine, a foot and a half in

diameter, built into the top of the wall, and stretching from side to

side. He does not inform us what traces he found to support his

opinion. Mühlenpfordt[VII-50] found traces of a roof in one of the

northern rooms sufficient to convince him that the original "consisted

of round oak timbers, eight inches in diameter, placed across the room

at a distance of eight inches one from another; these were first

covered with mats, on which were placed stone flags, and over the

latter a coat of lime; forming thus a solid and water-proof covering."

Fossey speaks of one worm-eaten beam, but probably obtained his

information from Humboldt. Tempsky, notwithstanding the shortness of

his exploration, made the remarkable discovery that one of the

northern rooms was still covered by a flat roof of stone. He also

found windows in some of the buildings. What would he not have found

had he been able to remain a few hours longer at Mitla? Viollet-le-Duc

judges from the quantity and quality of the débris in the south wing,

that the roof could not have been of stone in large blocks, but was

formed by large beams extending longitudinally from pillar to pillar,

and supporting two transverse ranges of smaller timbers, laid close

together from the centre to either wall, the whole being surmounted by

a mass of concrete like that which constitutes the bulk of the walls;

and finally covered with a coating of cement. I have no doubt that

this author has given a correct idea of the original roof structure,

although in attempting to explain in detail the exact position

which--'il y a tout lieu de croire'--each timber occupied, it is

possible that the distinguished architect has gone somewhat beyond his

data.[VII-51]

* * * * *

[Illustration: View from Court of Palace No. 1.]

As I have said before, the western building of the palace No. 1--like

the southern building, if any ever stood on the south of the

court--has entirely fallen. Of the eastern building, _d_, there remain

standing a small portion of the wall fronting on the court, including

a doorway and its lintel, and also two of the five columns which

occupied the centre of the building. The condition of this side

structure seems not to have changed materially between Dupaix's and

Charnay's visits, a period of over fifty years. The preceding cut,

taken by Baldwin from Tempsky's work, gives a tolerably correct idea

of what remains of it, except that the lintel had a sculptured front.

It is a view from the south side of the court, and includes an

imperfect representation also of the northern façade.[VII-52]

The palaces of Mitla are differently numbered by different writers,

and much that has been written of them is so vague or confused that is

difficult to determine in many cases what particular structure is

referred to; I believe, however, that the preceding pages include all

that is known of the palace numbered 1 on my general plan. I close my

account of this palace by presenting on the opposite page a cut copied

for Baldwin's work from one of Charnay's photographs, a general view

of the ruins. The cut is a distant view of the palace No. 1 from the

south-west, and cannot be said to add very materially to our

knowledge respecting this building.[VII-53]

[Sidenote: VIEW OF PALACE.]

[Illustration: Distant View of Palace No. 1.]

[Sidenote: THE SECOND PALACE.]

The remaining palaces of Mitla, Nos. 2, 3, and 4, may be more briefly

disposed of, since in the construction of their walls they are

precisely the same as No. 1, but are not in so good a state of

preservation. No. 2 is located south-west of No. 1, and almost in

contact with it, so that both groups have been by some visitors

described together under the name of First Palace. It consists of four

buildings, built on low mounds like those of No. 1, from seven to nine

feet high, about a square court. All four are precisely the same in

their ground plan, which is identical with that of the western

building in palace No. 1. The dimensions of the four buildings are

also the same, according to Castañeda's plan, being about eighteen by

ninety-two English feet;[VII-54] but Mühlenpfordt's plan, so far as it

can be understood, makes the eastern and western buildings about one

hundred and forty feet long, the northern and southern being about

twenty by one hundred feet, and the former somewhat larger than the

latter.

The western building is the best preserved, being, so far as can be

judged by human figures in Charnay's photographs, about seventeen feet

high. The eastern building has fallen, and only its foundation stones

remain by which to trace its plan. Three doorways open on the court

from each building, and in the rear wall opposite the doors square

niches are seen. There are no traces of columns in any of the

apartments; nor was any part of the roofs in place in 1806. The outer

walls are composed, as in palace No. 1, of oblong panels of mosaic;

whether any mosaic work is found in the interior, is not stated. The

court is said by Mühlenpfordt to be covered with a coating of cement

five or six inches in thickness, painted red as was also the exterior

of the buildings. The same writer, and Müller, noted that the

supporting mounds were double, or terraced, on the exterior;[VII-55]

and the latter, that one of the central doorways diminishes in width

towards the top. If this, latter statement be true, it must be one of

the doorways in the southern building, of which no photographic view

was taken.[VII-56] Views of the southern façade of the northern

building are given by Charnay, Dupaix, Mühlenpfordt, and Tempsky; of

the court façade of the western building, by Charnay and Mühlenpfordt;

and Charnay also took photographs of the western and southern façades

of the latter building.[VII-57]

* * * * *

Under the northern building of this palace there is a subterranean

gallery in the form of a cross. The entrance to this gallery is said

by several writers to have been originally in the centre of the

court, but this seems to rest on no very good authority, and it is not

unlikely that the entrance was always where it is now, at the base of

the northern mound, as shown in the photograph and in other views. The

centre of the cross may be supposed to be nearly under the centre of

the apartment above, and the northern, eastern, and western arms are

each, according to Castañeda's drawings, about twelve feet long, five

and a half feet wide, and six and a half feet high. The southern arm,

leading out into the court is something over twenty feet long, and for

most of its length only a little over four feet high; its floor is

also several feet lower than that of the other arms, to the level of

which latter four steps lead up. Nearly the whole depth of this

gallery is probably in the body of the supporting mound rather than

really subterranean. The top is formed of large blocks of stone,

stretching across from side to side, and, according to Mühlenpfordt,

plastered and polished. The floor was also covered, if we may credit

Müller, with a polished coat of cement. The walls are panels of mosaic

work like that found on the exterior walls above. Mühlenpfordt noticed

that the mosaic work was less skillfully executed than on the upper

walls, and therefore probably much older. The large dall that covers

the crossing of the two galleries is supported by a circular pillar

resting on a square base. According to Tempsky the natives call this

the 'pillar of death,' believing that whoever embraces it must die

shortly. The whole interior surface, sides, floor, and ceiling, are

painted red. No relics of any kind have been found here. Fossey says

that this gallery, or at least _a_ gallery, leads from the palace to

the eastern pyramid--meaning probably the western pyramid, No. 5 of

the plan--and from that point still further westward, where it may be

traced for a league to the farm of Saga, and extends, as the natives

believe, some three hundred leagues. Tradition relates that the

Zapotecs originally had their temples in natural caverns, which they

gradually improved to meet their requirements, and over which they

finally built these palaces. There are consequently many absurd rumors

afloat respecting the extent of the subterranean passages, but nothing

has ever been discovered to indicate the existence of natural caves or

extensive artificial excavations at this point. At the time of

Charnay's visit the opening to the gallery had been closed up, and the

natives would allow no one to remove the obstructions, on the ground

that hidden treasure was the object sought.[VII-58]

* * * * *

[Illustration: Ground Plan--Palace No. 3.]

[Sidenote: THIRD PALACE.]

Palace No. 3 of the plan is said to have no supporting mound, but to

stand on the level of the ground. Its ground plan, according to

Castañeda, the only authority, is shown in the cut. The whole

structure, divided into three courts, is about two hundred and

eighty-four feet long and one hundred and eight feet wide, the

thickness of the walls, not shown in the plan, being five or six feet.

Nearly all the walls have fallen except those of the buildings about

the central court, B, which have been repaired, covered with a roof of

tiles, and are occupied by the curate of the parish as a residence. In

the western front a doorway has been cut, before which, supporting a

balcony, or awning, stand two stone columns which were evidently

brought from some other part of the ruins. Both on the exterior and

court walls, the regular panels of mosaic work are seen in the upper

portions; the lower parts have been repaired with adobes, and newly

plastered in many places. The modern church, quite a large and

imposing structure, stands either upon or adjacent to a part of this

ancient palace.[VII-59]

[Illustration: Ground Plan--Palace No. 4.]

[Sidenote: FOURTH PALACE, AND PYRAMIDS.]

The cut is a ground plan of palace No. 4, which is also said to stand

on the original level of the ground. The walls are spoken of by all

visitors as almost entirely in ruins, and as presenting no

peculiarities of construction when compared with the other palaces.

From one of the portions still standing, however, Mühlenpfordt copied

some fragmentary paintings, representing processions of rudely

pictured human figures, as shown in the accompanying cut. The same

author speaks of similar paintings, very likely not the work of the

original builders of Mitla, on the walls of some of the other

buildings.[VII-60]

[Illustration: Painting on Doorway--Palace No. 4.]

* * * * *

Two mounds, or groups of mounds, stand west and south of the other

ruins at 5 and 7 of the plan. No. 5 was photographed by Charnay, and

is described as built of adobes, ascended by a stone stairway, and

bearing now a modern chapel. According to Castañeda's drawing probably

representing these pyramids, the principal structure had four stories,

or terraces, and was about seventy-five feet high, measuring at the

base about one hundred and twenty feet on its shortest sides from east

to west. The stairway faces westward towards the court formed by the

smaller mounds which have only two stories. Group No. 7 is

represented by Castañeda as consisting like No. 5 of a large mound and

three small ones, of two and one stories respectively, surrounding a

court in whose centre is a block, or altar, which Dupaix thinks may

conceal the entrance to a subterranean passage. Mühlenpfordt

represents the arrangement of the mounds as on my plan, and thinks the

smaller elevations may have borne originally buildings like the

northern palaces. In one of these mounds, according to the

last-mentioned author, a tomb was found. Dupaix also describes two

tombs found under mounds, the locality of which is not specified. One

of these tombs was in the form of a cross, with arms about three by

nine feet, six feet high, covered with a roof of flat stones, and in

its construction like the gallery under palace No. 2, except that the

small brick-shaped blocks of which its sides are formed are not

arranged in grecques, but laid so as to present a plain surface. The

second tomb was of rectangular form, about four by eight feet in

dimensions. In one of them some human remains, with fragments of fine

blue stone were discovered.[VII-61]

[Sidenote: FORTIFIED HILL.]

At a distance of a league and a half eastward of the village, Dupaix

described and Castañeda sketched a small plain square stone building,

divided into four apartments, standing on the slope of a high rocky

hill. On the plate there is also shown the entrance to a subterranean

gallery not mentioned in Dupaix's text.[VII-62] Three fourths of a

league westward from the village is a hill some six hundred feet in

height, with precipitous sides naturally inaccessible save on one

side, toward Mitla. The summit platform, probably leveled by

artificial means, is enclosed by a wall of stone about six feet thick,

eighteen feet high, and over a mile in circumference, forming many

angles, as is shown in the annexed plan. On the eastern and accessible

side, the wall is double, the inner wall being higher than the outer;

and the entrances are not only not opposite each other, but penetrate

the walls obliquely. Heaps of loose stones, _c_, _c_, _c_, were found

at various points in the enclosure, doubtless for use as weapons in a

hand-to-hand conflict. Outside of the walls, moreover, large rocks,

some three feet in diameter, were carefully poised where they might be

easily started down the sides against the advancing foe. Within the

fortress, at several places, _d_, _e_, _f_, _g_, are slight remains of

adobe buildings, probably erected for the accommodation of the

aboriginal garrison. All we know of this fortress is derived from the

work of Dupaix and Castañeda.[VII-63]

[Illustration: Plan of Fortress near Mitla.]

Dupaix claims to have found the quarries which furnished material for

the Mitla structures, in a hill three-fourths of a league eastward

from the ruins, called by the Zapotecs Aguilosoé, by the Spaniards

Mirador. The stone is described as of such a nature that large blocks

may be easily split off by means of wedges and levers, and many such

blocks were scattered about the place; the removal of the stone to the

site of the palaces, here as in the case of many other American ruins,

must have been the chief difficulty overcome by the builders. Stone

wedges, together with axes and chisels of hard copper, are said to

have been found at Mitla, but are not particularly described.[VII-64]

[Illustration: Head in Terra Cotta--Mitla.]

A head in terra cotta, wearing a peculiar helmet, was sketched here by

Castañeda, and is shown in the cut. Another terra-cotta image

represented a masked human figure, squatting cross-legged with hands

on knees. A large semicircular cape reaches from the neck to the

ground, showing only the hands and feet in front. The whole is very

similar to some of the figures at Zachila, already described, but the

tube which may be supposed to have held a torch originally, projects

above the head, and is an inch and a half in diameter. The only

specimen of stone images or idols found in connection with the ruins,

is shown in the cut. It represents a seated figure, carved from a hard

red stone, and brilliantly polished. Its height is about four inches.

Tempsky tells us that the children at Mitla offered for sale small

idols of clay and sandstone, which had been taken from the inner

palace walls.[VII-65]

[Illustration: Stone Image from Mitla.]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: GENERAL REMARKS.]

[Sidenote: COMPARISONS.]

The ruins of Mitla resemble Palenque only in the long low narrow form

of the buildings, since the low supporting mounds can hardly be said

to resemble the lofty stone-faced pyramids of Chiapas. A stronger

likeness may be discovered when they are compared with the structures

of Yucatan; since in both cases we find long narrow windowless

buildings, raised on low mounds, and enclosing a rectangular

courtyard, walls of rubble, and facings of hewn stone. The contrasts

are also strong, as seen in the mosaic grecques, the absence of

sculpture, and the flat roofs, in some cases supported by columns;

although in one city on the east coast of Yucatan flat roofs of wooden

beams were found. Whether the mosaic work of Mitla indicates in

itself an earlier or later development of aboriginal art than the

elaborately sculptured façades of Uxmal, I am unable to decide; but

the flat roof supported by pillars would seem to indicate a later

architectural development than the overlapping arch. The influence of

the builders of Palenque and the cities of Yucatan, was doubtless felt

by the builders of Mitla. How the influence was exerted it is very

difficult to determine; Viollet-le-Duc attributes these northern

structures to a branch of the southern civilization separated from the

parent stock after the foundation of the Maya cities in Yucatan. Most

antiquarians have concluded that Mitla is less ancient than the

southern ruins, and the condition of the remains, so far as it throws

any light on the subject, confirms the conclusion. This is the last

ruin that will be found in our progress northward, which shows any

marked analogy with the Maya monuments, save in the almost universal

use of supporting mounds or pyramids, of various forms and dimensions.

It has already been shown that the Zapotec language has no likeness

whatever to the Aztec, or to the Maya, and that so far as institutions

are concerned, this people might almost as properly be classed with

the Maya as with the Nahua nations. The Abbé Brasseur in one part of

his writings expresses the opinion that Mitla was built by the Toltecs

from Cholula, who introduced their religion in Oajaca in the ninth or

tenth century. Mitla is also frequently spoken of as a connecting link

between the Central American and Mexican remains; this, however, is

merely a part of the old favorite theory of one civilized people

originating in the far north, moving gradually southward, and leaving

at each stopping-place traces of their constantly improving and

developing culture. There seems to have been no tradition among the

natives at the Conquest, indicating that Mitla was built by a people

preceding the Zapotecs. On the contrary, Burgoa and other early

Oajacan chroniclers mention the place frequently as a Zapotec holy

place, devoted to the burial of kings, the residence of a certain

order of the priesthood, who lived here to make expiatory sacrifices

for the dead, and a place of royal mourning, whither the king retired

on the death of a relative. Subterranean caverns were used for the

celebration of religious rites before the upper temples were built.

Charnay fancies that the palaces were built by a people that

afterwards migrated southward. He noticed that the walls in sheltered

places were covered with very rude paintings--a sample of which has

been given--and suggests that these were executed by occupants who

succeeded the original builders. It will be apparent to the reader

that the ruins at Mitla bear no resemblance whatever to other Oajacan

monuments, such as those at Guiengola, Monte Alban, and Quiotepec; and

that they are either the work of a different nation, or what is much

more probable, for a different purpose. I am inclined to believe that

Mitla was built by the Zapotecs at a very early period of their

civilization, at a time when the builders were strongly influenced by

the Maya priesthood, if they were not themselves a branch of the Maya

people.[VII-66]

The mosaic work undoubtedly bears a strong resemblance to the

ornamentation observed on Grecian vases and other old-world relics;

but this analogy is far from indicating any communication between the

artists or their ancestors, for, as Humboldt says, "in all zones men

have been pleased with a rhythmic repetition of the same forms, a

repetition which constitutes the leading characteristic of what we

vaguely call grecques, meandres, and Arabesques."[VII-67]

In the northern part of Oajaca, towards the boundary line of Puebla,

remains have been found in several localities. Those near Quiotepec

are extensive and important, but are only known by the description of

one explorer, Juan N. Lovato, who visited the ruins as a commissioner

from the government in January, 1844.[VII-68] Lovato's account

contains many details, but the drawings which originally accompanied

it were, with two exceptions, not published, and from the text only a

general idea can be formed respecting the nature of the ruins. The

following are such items of information as I have been able to extract

from the report in question.

[Sidenote: RUINS OF QUIOTEPEC.]

A hill about a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide at its base, and

over a thousand feet high, known as the Cerro de las Juntas, stands at

the junction of the rivers Quiotepec and Salado. At the eastern end,

where the streams meet, the ascent is precipitous and inaccessible,

but the other sides and the summit are covered with ruins. The slopes

are formed into level platforms with perpendicular terrace walls of

stone, of height and thickness varying according to the nature of the

ground. In ascending the western slope, thirty-five of these terrace

walls were encountered; on the southern slope there were fifty-seven,

and on the northern eighty-eight, counting only those that were still

standing. One of the walls at the summit is about three hundred and

twenty feet long, sixty feet high, and five and a half feet thick.

Scattered over the hill on the terrace platforms, the foundations of

small buildings, supposed to have been dwellings, were found in at

least a hundred and thirty places. In connection with these buildings

some tombs were found underground, box-shaped with walls of stone,

containing human remains and some fragments of pottery. Tumuli in

great numbers are found in all directions, probably burial mounds,

although nothing but a few stone beads has been found in them. Other

mounds were apparently designed for the support of buildings. At

different points towards the summit of the hill are three tanks, or

reservoirs, one of which is sixty feet long, twenty-four feet wide,

and six feet deep, with traces of steps leading down into it. In the

walls traces of beams are seen, supposed by the explorer to have

supported the scaffolding used in their construction.

[Illustration: Temple Pyramid--Cerro de las Juntas.]

Besides the terrace walls, foundations of dwellings, and the remains

that have been mentioned, there are also many ruins of statelier

edifices, presumably palaces and temples. Of these, the only ones

described are situated at the summit on a small level plateau, of a

hundred and twenty-two by two hundred and forty-eight feet. These

consist of what are spoken of as a palace and a temple, facing each

other, a hundred and sixty-six feet apart. Between the two are the

bases of what was formerly a line of circular pillars, leading from

one edifice to the other. The bases, or pedestals, are fourteen inches

in diameter, five inches high, and about fourteen feet apart. The

Temple faces north-east, and its front is shown in the accompanying

cut. This is a form of the pyramidal structure very different from any

that has been met before. Its dimensions on the ground are fifty by

fifty-five feet. The Palace is described as thirty-nine feet high in

front and thirty-three feet in the rear, and has a stairway of twenty

steps about twenty-eight feet wide, leading up to the summit on the

front. Judging by the plate, this so-called palace is a solid

elevation with perpendicular sides, ornamented with three plain

cornices, one end of which is occupied throughout nearly its whole

width by the stairway mentioned. The material of the two structures is

the stone of the hill itself cut in thin regular blocks, laid in what

is described as mud, and covered, as is shown by traces still left in

a few parts, with a coating of plaster. Both the structures, according

to the plates, have a rather modern appearance, and differ widely from

any other American monuments, but there seems to be no reason to doubt

the reliability of Sr Lovato's account, considering its official

nature, and I cannot suppose that the Spaniards ever erected such

edifices. The foundations and arches of three small apartments are

vaguely spoken of as having been discovered by excavation in

connection with the Palace, but whether they were on its summit or in

the interior of the apparently solid mass, does not clearly appear,

although Müller states that the latter was the case. On the summit of

the Palace a copal-tree, one foot in diameter, was found. Five

sculptured slabs were sketched by Müller at Quiotepec, but he does not

state in what part of the ruins they were found. Each slab has a human

figure in profile, surrounded by a variety of inexplicable attributes.

The foreheads seem to be flattened, and four of the five have an

immense curved tongue, possibly the well-known Aztec symbol of speech,

protruding from the mouth. Somewhere in this vicinity, on the

perpendicular banks of rock that form the channel of the Rio Tecomava,

painted figures of a sun, moon, and hand, are reported, at a great

height from the water.[VII-69]

[Sidenote: TUXTEPEC AND HUAHUAPAN.]

Near the town of Tuxtepec, some fifty miles eastward from Quiotepec,

near the Vera Cruz boundary, there is said to be an artificial mound

eighty-three feet high, known as the Castillo de Montezuma. A passage

leads toward the centre, but nothing further is known of it, except

that some stone idols are mentioned by another writer as having been

dug from a mound in a town of the same name.[VII-70]

[Illustration: Sculptured Block from Huahuapan.]

At Huahuapan, about fifty miles westward of Quiotepec, Dupaix found

the sculptured block shown in the cut. It is four and a half feet

long, and a foot and a half high; the material is a hard blue stone,

and the sculpture in low relief seems to represent a kind of coat of

arms, from which projects a hand grasping an object, a part of which

bears a strong resemblance to the Aztec symbol of water. This relic

was found in a hill called Tallesto, about a league east of the

town.[VII-71]

In another hill, called Sombrerito, only half a league from the town,

a laborer in 1831 plowed up an ancient grave, said to have contained

human bones, fine pottery, with gold beads and rings. All the relics

were buried again by the finder, except four of the rings, which came

into the possession of the Bishop of Puebla, and two of which are

shown in the cut. With some doubts respecting the authenticity of

these relics I give the cuts for what they are worth. There are

accounts and drawings of several rudely carved stone images from the

same region.[VII-72]

[Illustration: Gold Rings from Huahuapan.]

At Yanguitlan, ten or fifteen miles south-east of Huahuapan, several

relics were found, including a human head of natural size carved from

red stone; two idols of green jasper, slightly carved in human

likeness; three cutting implements of hard stone; and the two objects

shown in the cuts on the opposite page. The first is a spear-head of

gray flint, and the second a very curious relic of unknown use, and

whose material and dimensions the finder has neglected to mention. It

is of a red color, and is very beautifully wrought in two pieces, one

serving as a cover for the other, apparently intended to be joined by

a cord as represented in the cut. Among the uses suggested are those

of a censer and a lantern.[VII-73]

[Illustration: Relics from Yanguitlan.]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: ANTIQUITIES OF GUERRERO.]

Respecting the relics of the state of Guerrero, my only information is

derived from a statistical work by Sr Celso Muñoz, contained in the

report of Gov. Francisco O. Arce to the legislature of the state in

1872. This author mentions such relics in the district of Hidalgo,

north of the Rio Zacatula towards the Mexican boundary, as follows:

1st. "The _momoxtles_, or tombs of the ancient Indians, which are

found in almost all the towns, although they are constantly

disappearing, and abound especially in the municipality of Cocula."

2d. "Traces of ancient settlements of the aborigines, who either

became extinct or migrated to other localities: such are seen on the

hill of Huizteco, in the municipality of Tasco, in that of Tetipac el

Viejo and of Coatlan el Viejo, of Tetipac, of Coculatepil, of Piedra

Grande or San Gaspar, region of Iglesia Vieja, Cocula, and many

others." 3d. At Tepecoacuilco "there are traces very clearly defined

of many foundations of houses; and in excavations that have been made

there have been found many idols and flint weapons, especially lances,

very well preserved, and other curious relics of Aztec times." 4th. At

Chontalcuatlan, there are traces of the ancient town on a hill called

Coatlan el Viejo, where there is also said to be a block of porphyry

one or two mètres in diameter, on the surface of which is sculptured a

coiled serpent.[VII-74]

FOOTNOTES:

[VII-1] See vol. ii., chap. ii., of this work.

[VII-2] _Arias_, _Antigüedades Zapotecas_, in _Museo Mex._, tom. i.,

pp. 246-8, _Müller_, _Reisen_, tom. ii., pp. 356-7; _Hutchings' Cal.

Mag._, vol. ii., pp. 395; 539-41; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat.

Civ._, tom. iii., p. 359, with reference to _Carriedo_, _Estudios

hist. y estad. del Estado Oaxaqueño_, tom. ii., append. i.; _Garay_,

_Reconocimiento_, p. 110; _Id._, _Survey_, pp. 112-13; _Id._, _Acct._,

pp. 79-81.

[VII-3] _Dupaix_, 3d exped., pp. 6-7, pl. iii.-v., fig. 6-9;

_Kingsborough_, vol. vi., p. 469, vol. iv., pl. iii.-v., fig. 6-9;

_Larenaudière_, _Mex. Guat._, pl. viii., from Dupaix, showing second

pyramid; _Mayer's Observations_, pp. 25-6, with cut of the first altar

representing its successive platforms as forming a spiral ascent.

[VII-4] _Dupaix_, 3d exped., p. 6, pl. ii., fig. 5; cut of same

lance-head in _Gondra_, in _Prescott_, _Hist. Conq. Mex._, tom. iii.,

p. 85, pl. xiv.; _Museo Mexicano_, tom. i., pp. 248-9, tom. iii., pp.

135-7; _Hist. Mag._, vol. iii., p. 240.

[VII-5] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Voy. Tehuan._, pp. 122-5.

[VII-6] _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. ii., cap. lxxii.; _Brasseur

de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., pp. 9-10.

[VII-7] _Lafond_, _Voyage_, tom. i., p. 139.

[VII-8] _Museo Mex._, tom. i., p. 248.

[VII-9] _Dupaix_, 3d exped., p. 8, pl. vi., fig. 10; _Kingsborough_,

vol. v., p. 289, vol. vi., p. 469, vol. iv., pl. vi., fig. 10;

_Lenoir_, pp. 16, 71. Kingsborough calls the name of the locality of

these remains Chilmitlan. His plate shows regular quadrilateral

openings in the parapets, while in Castañeda's plate they appear of

irregular form, as if made by the removal of stones.

[VII-10] _Garay_, _Reconocimiento_, pp. 110-12; _Id._, _Survey_, pp.

113-15; _Id._, _Acct._, pp. 79-81.

[VII-11] _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. ii., p. 298; _Florencia_,

_Hist. Comp. Jesus_, pp. 233-6, _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat.

Civ._, tom. iii., pp. 39, 286, tom. i., p. 146.

[VII-12] Besides remains attributed to particular localities, see

_Museo Mex._, tom. iii., p. 135, cuts and descriptions of four earthen

idols found in this state; _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. i., fol.

160, 166, 170, 197, tom. ii., fol. 275, 298, 319-21, 330, 344-5, 363,

mention and slight description of burial places, caves, temples, etc.,

of the natives, some of them seen by the author; _Mühlenpfordt_,

_Mej._, tom. ii., pp. 186, 195, 200, 206, 212, 215, slight mention of

scattered relics; _Mayer's Mex. Aztec, etc._, vol. ii., p. 218, cuts

of three heads in Peñasco collection, said to have come from Oajaca.

[VII-13] _Dupaix_, 2d exped., pp. 28-9.

[VII-14] _Müller_, _Reisen_, tom. ii., p. 282, with cut of the ring.

[VII-15] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 47.

[VII-16] _Gondra_, in _Prescott_, _Hist. Conq. Mex._, tom. iii., p.

91.

[VII-17] _Museo Mex._, tom. i., p. 249.

[VII-18] _Dupaix_, 3d exped., p. 6, pl. ii., 2d exped., p. 51.

[VII-19] _Fossey_, _Mexique_, pp. 375-6. No authority is given, and M.

Fossey was not himself an antiquarian explorer.

[VII-20] _Charnay_, _Ruines Amér._, pp. 249-51.

[VII-21] _Dupaix_, 2d exped., pp. 17-23, pl. xxi-viii., fig. 64-77;

_Kingsborough_, vol. v., pp. 247-51, vol. vi., pp. 444-6, vol. iv.,

pl. xix-xxv., fig. 64-77; _Lenoir_, pp. 16, 22, 49-51. Carriedo's

_Atlas de una Fortaleza Zapoteca, etc._, mentioned by _Gondra_, in

_Prescott_, _Hist. Conq. Mex._, tom. iii., p. 94, and in _Museo Mex._,

tom. i., p. 246. The editors of the latter magazine announced their

intention to publish the drawings as soon as the plates could be

engraved, but I have not seen the volume in which their purpose was

carried out, if indeed it was ever carried out. García's report in

_Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom. vii., pp. 270-1, with plates;

_Müller_, _Reisen_, tom. ii., pp. 270-1, with plates; _Charnay_,

_Ruines Amér._, pp. 250-3; _Viollet-le-Duc_, in _Id._, pp. 25-6, with

cut. Other references to slight notices of Monte Alban, containing no

original information are;--_Larenaudière_, _Mex. Guat._, pl. i., from

Dupaix; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 340;

_Fossey_, _Mexique_, pp. 370-1. This writer locates the ruins ¼ of a

league from the city. _Escalera_ and _Llana_, _Mej._, p. 332;

_Baldwin's Anc. Amer._, p. 91.

[VII-22] See authorities in preceding note.

[VII-23] Plate showing the stones in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom.

vii., p. 270.

[VII-24] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., pp.

339-40.

[VII-25] 'Elle représente un dieu dont les attributs caractérisent le

principe actif de la nature qui produit les grains et les fruits.

C'est le dieu qui crée, conserve et est en hostilité permanente avec

le Génie destructeur qui gouverne aussi le monde. Son casque ou son

diadème, ombragé d'un panache considérable et qui atteste son

importance, est orné de la Grande couleuvre, nommée aussi par les

astronomes modernes le _serpent d'Ève_, dont la présence dans le ciel

annonce la saison des récoltes.' _Lenoir_, in _Antiq. Mex._, tom. ii.,

div. i., pp. 57-8. Cut also in _Mayer's Obs._, p. 32, pl. iii., from

the original which is preserved in Mexico.

[VII-26] Plate also in _Gondra_, in _Prescott_, _Hist. Conq. Mex._,

tom. iii., pp. 64-5, pl. xi.

[VII-27] Copies of plates in _Mayer's Obs._, p. 32, pl. iii.; _Id._,

_Mex. Aztec, etc._, vol. ii., pp. 218-19.

[VII-28] Dupaix says of this image: 'Elle participe un peu du style

égyptien. Elle est couverte de trois vêtements qui croisent l'un sur

l'autre symétriquement, et qui sont bordés de franges. La tête est

ornée de tresses qui font deviner le sexe; les oreilles et le cou sont

parés de bijoux; enfin toute cette figure est étrange.' 2d exped., p.

49. This image in the opinion of M. Lenoir, _Antiq. Mex._, tom. ii.,

div. i., pp. 60-1, represents the Mexican goddess Toci, and the

preceding one the god of war, Huitzilopochtli. These images are now in

the Mexican Museum, and plates of them were published by Sr Gondra, in

_Prescott_, _Hist. Conq. Mex._, tom. iii., pp. 90-5, pl. xvii., who by

no means agrees with Lenoir's conclusions identifying them with Aztec

deities, although he agrees with Dupaix respecting their probable use

as chandeliers.

[VII-29] Authorities on antiquities of Zachila. _Dupaix_, 2d exped.,

pp. 44-51, pl. xlvii., fig. 95-116; _Kingsborough_, vol. v., pp.

269-78, vol. vi., pp. 458-63, vol. iv., pl. xlvii.-li., fig. 96-117.

Kingsborough also attributes fig. 118-19 to Zachila, but according to

the official edition the relics represented by those numbers came from

Tizatlan in Tlascala. _Lenoir_, in _Antiq. Mex._, tom. ii., div. i.,

pp. 57-63. The aboriginal name of the place was Zaachillatloo.

_Dupaix_, pp. 44-5. Brasseur, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 47,

speaks of a fortress visited by several travelers, built by Zaachila,

the great Zapotec conqueror, on the top of a lofty rock 25 leagues

east of Oajaca. Mention of ruins and two cuts of figures in

_Ilustracion Mej._, tom. iii., pp. 367-8, 480; _Escalera_ and _Llana_,

_Mej. Hist. Descrip._, p. 226.

[VII-30] _Escalera_ and _Llana_, _Mej. Hist. Descrip._, p. 226;

_Fossey_, _Mex._, p. 376.

[VII-31] Liubá, 'Sepultura;' Miquitlan, 'infierno ó lugar de

tristeza.' _Dupaix_, 2d exped., p. 30. Leoba, or Luiva, '_sépulture_;'

_Miguitlan_, 'lieu de désolation, lieu de tristesse.' _Humboldt_,

_Vues_, tom. ii., pp. 278-9. Yopaa, Lyoba, or Yobaa, 'terre des

tombes;' Mictlan, 'séjour des Morts.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist.

Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp. 304-5, tom. iii., p. 9. Liobáá, 'place of

rest.' _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom. vii., p. 170.

[VII-32] 'Uno, llamado Mictlan, que quiere decir infierno ó lugar de

muertos, á do hubo en tiempos pasados, (segun hallaron las muestras)

edificios mas notables y de ver que en otra parte de la Nueva España.

Hubo un templo del demonio y aposentos de sus ministros, maravillosa

cosa á la vista, en especial una sala como de artesones, y la obra era

labrada de piedra de muchos lazos y labores.' _Mendieta_, _Hist.

Ecles._, pp. 395-6; _Burgoa_, _Descrip. Geog._, tom. ii., fol. 259,

etc.

[VII-33] 'Du haut de la forteresse de Mitla, la vue plonge dans la

vallée et se repose avec tristesse sur des roches pelées et des

solitudes arides, image de destruction propre à relever l'effet des

palais de Liobaa. Un torrent d'eau salée (?), qui se gonfle avec la

tempête, coule au milieu des sables poudreux qu'il entraîne avec lui.

Les rives sont sèches et sans ombrages; à peine voit-on de distance en

distance quelques nopals nains, ou quelques poivriers du Pérou, aussi

maigres que le terrain où ils ont pris racine. Seulement, du côté du

village, la verdure sombre des magueys et des cactus donne au tableau

l'aspect d'un jardin d'hiver planté de buis et de sapins.' _Fossey_,

_Mexique_, p. 371.

[VII-34] _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. ii., pp. 278-85, pl. xvii-viii.,

fol. ed., pl. xlix-l; _Id._, in _Antiq. Mex._, tom. i., div. ii., pp.

28-30, supl. pl. viii.; _Id._, _Essai Pol._, pp. 263-5. Humboldt

speaks of Martin as 'un architecte mexicain très-distingué.' _Dupaix_,

2d exped., pp. 30-44, pl. xxix-xlvi., fig. 78-93; _Kingsborough_, vol.

v., pp. 255-68, vol. vi., pp. 447-56, vol. iv., pl. xxvii-xli., fig.

81-95; _Lenoir_, in _Antiq. Mex._, tom. i., div. ii., pp. 16, 23-4,

52-7. Mühlenpfordt, _Mejico_, tom. i., pref., p. 5, claims to have

been for some time Director of road-construction in the state of

Oajaca, and states his intention of publishing at some future time 18

or 20 large copper-plate engravings illustrating the antiquities of

Mitla and others. These plates, so far as I know, have never been

given to the public. Carriedo accompanied Mühlenpfordt, or

Mihelenpforott as he writes the name, and published some of the

drawings, perhaps all, in the _Ilustracion Mejicana_, tom. ii., pp.

493-8. Some of the German artists' descriptive text is also quoted

from I know not what source. _Tempsky's Mitla_, pp. 250-3, with plates

which must have been made up for the most part from other sources than

the author's own observations. García's visit, _Soc. Mex. Geog.,

Boletin_, tom. vii., pp. 271-2. Sawkin's exploration, in _Mayer's

Observations_, p. 28, et seq., with plates. It will be shown later

that Mr Sawkins' drawings are without value to the archæological

student. Fossey's account, _Mexique_, pp. 365-70; _Charnay_, _Ruines

Amér._, pp. 261-9, phot. ii-xviii.; _Viollet-le-Duc_, in _Id._, pp.

74-104, with cuts. After Charnay had completed, as he thought, the

work of photographing the ruins, all his negatives were spoiled for

want of proper varnish. He was therefore compelled to return alone,

since he had exhausted the somewhat limited patience of his native

assistants, and to work day and night to take a new set of pictures.

Müller, _Reisen_, tom. ii., pp. 279-81, seems also to have made a

personal exploration. Other references for Mitla containing no

original information are as follows:--_Baldwin's Anc. Amer._, pp.

117-22, with two cuts from Charnay and two from Tempsky, all given in

my text. _Gallatin_, in _Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., p.

173; _Bradford's Amer. Antiq._, pp. 85-6; _Larenaudière_, in

_Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, tom. xxxiv., pp. 121-2; _Gondra_, in

_Prescott_, _Hist. Conq. Mex._, tom. iii., pp. 90-5, pl. xvii.;

_Mayer's Mex. as it Was_, pp. 251-3; _Id._, _Mex. Aztec_, vol. ii.,

pp. 213-16; _Klemm_, _Cultur-Geschichte_, tom. v., pp. 157-60;

_Morelet_, _Voyage_, tom. i., pp. 270-1; _Id._, _Travels_, p. 92;

_Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 462; _Prescott's Mex._,

vol. i., p. 14, vol. iii., pp. 404-6; _Malte-Brun_, _Précis de la

Géog._, tom. vi., p. 463; _Mexicanische Zustände_, tom. i., pp. 403-4;

_Wappäus_, _Mex. Guat._, p. 162; _Lemprière_, _Mexique_, p. 144;

_Hassel_, _Mex. Guat._, p. 255; _Hermosa_, _Manual Geog._, p. 135;

_Escalera_ and _Llana_, _Mex._, pp. 327-32, 225, same as in _Fossey_;

_Lafond_, _Voyages_, tom. i., p. 139; _Bonnycastle's Span. Amer._,

vol. i., p. 154, vol. ii., p. 233; _D'Orbigny_, _Voyage_, p. 356;

_Conder's Mex. Guat._, vol. ii., pp. 130-4; _Dally_, _Races Indig._,

pp. 16-17; _Macgillivray's Life Humboldt_, pp. 314-15; _Mills' Hist.

Mex._, p. 158; _Mexico in 1842_, p. 77; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,

_Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 105; _Larenaudière_, _Mex. Guat._, pl.

ii-vi., from Dupaix; _Delafield's Antiq. Amer._, pp. 55, 59-60.

[VII-35] Charnay, phot. xvii., gives a general view of the ruins, from

which, however, no clear idea can be formed of the arrangement of the

structures. The buildings are named or numbered as follows by the

different authors; Dupaix numbers them as they are marked on my plan;

Carriedo and Mühlenpfordt unite Nos. 1 and 2 under the name of 1st

Palace, making No. 3 No. 2, and No. 4 No. 3; Charnay's 1st or grand

palace is the northern building of No. 1; his 2d is the eastern

building of the same; his 3d and 4th are the northern and western

buildings respectively of No. 2. My No. 3 is called by him the House

of the Curate, and No. 4 is only mentioned by him without name or

number.

[VII-36] At the Conquest the ruins covered an immense area, but they

now consist of six palaces and three ruined pyramids. _Charnay_,

_Ruines Amér._, p. 261.

[VII-37] Dupaix's ground plan, pl. xxix., fig. 78, represents such a

southern building and mound, although very slight, if any, traces

remained of the former at the time of his visit. Martin's plan, given

by Humboldt, shows two shorter mounds without buildings; while

Carriedo's plan locates no structure whatever south of the court, and

I have omitted it in my plan.

[VII-38] The dimensions are very nearly those of the plans of Martin

and Castañeda, who differ only very slightly. The dimensions given by

the different authorities are as follows: A. 12½×47½ varas,

_Castañeda_; 13¼×46½ varas, _Martin_, in _Humboldt_; 40 mètres long,

_Charnay_; 180 feet long, _Tempsky_; 132 feet long, _Fossey_. C. 22×22

varas, _Castañeda_ and _Martin_; _d_, 7×35½ varas, _Castañeda_; 7½×34½

varas, _Martin_. Walls 1½ to 3½ varas thick, _Castañeda_; 1½ varas,

_Martin_. Height 5 to 6 mètres, _Humboldt_; 14 feet, _Fossey_. The

height of the inner columns, to be spoken of later, shows something

respecting the original height of the walls.

[VII-39] Charnay, p. 264, describes the material of this filling as

'terre battue, mêlée de gros cailloux.' His photographs of walls where

the facing has fallen show in some places a mass of large irregular

stones, even laid with some regularity in a few instances; in other

parts of the ruins there seem to be very few stones, but only a mass

of earth or clay; and in still other parts the wall has every

appearance of regular adobes. Dupaix, p. 35, says that sand and lime

are mixed with the earth. 'El macizo, ó grueso de las paredes se

compone de una tierra mezclada y beneficiada con arena y cal.' 'De

tierra preparada, hollada ó beneficiada cuando fresca y pastosa.'

Tempsky, p. 251, declares the material to be rough boulders in cement.

Humboldt, _Vues_, tom. ii., p. 283, speaks of 'une masse d'argile qui

paroît remplir l'intérieur des murs.'

[VII-40] 'Los compartimientos divididos por unos tableros

cuadrilongos, terminados por unas molduras cuadradas que sobresalen á

la linea de la muralla, contienen en sus planos unas grecas de alto

relieve de una bella invencion, pues sus dibujos presentan unos

enlaces complicados arreglados á una exactisima geometría, con una

grande union entre las piedras que los componen, las que son de varios

gruesos, y configuraciones; ademas se advierte una perfecta nivelacion

en toda esta admirable ensambladura.' _Dupaix_, 2d exped., p. 31. A

mosaic of soft sandstone cut in blocks 7×2⅛×1 inches, and all

forming a smooth exterior surface. _Tempsky's Mitla_, pp. 251-2, with

a very faulty cut. The statement about the smooth surface is certainly

erroneous, as is probably that respecting the size of the blocks. 'Ces

arabesques forment une sorte de mosaïque, composée de petites pierres

carrées, qui sont placées avec beaucoup d'art, les unes à côté des

autres.' _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. ii., p. 283; with cuts of three

styles of this mosaic from Martin. 'Briquettes de différentes

grandeurs.' The modern church is built of stone from the ruins. The

natives carry away the blocks of mosaic in the belief that they will

turn to gold. _Charnay_, _Ruines Amér._, p. 252, 263-5. Phot. v-vi.,

view of southern façade. 22 different styles of grecques on this

front. _Fossey_, _Mexique_, pp. 367-8. Cuts of 16 different styles in

_Ilustracion Mej._, tom. ii., p. 501.

[VII-41] An Indian woman was reported to have one of the heads from

these holes, built into the walls of her house, but it could not be

found. _Dupaix_, 2d exped., p. 31.

[VII-42] Besides the photograph copied above, Charnay's photographs,

vii.-viii., present views from the east and west, showing that the

same style of construction and ornamentation extends completely round

the building. Dupaix's plate xxx. represents this façade, but shows

only a small portion of the stone-work. Kingsborough gives in its

place a magnificent plate, 1×5 feet, showing the whole front restored

in all its details; he gives also the plate from _Antiq. Mex._, but

refers it to the palace No. 2. pl. xxxi., fig. 85. See description of

the walls quoted from Burgoa, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom.

vii., pp. 170-3.

[VII-43] 5.8 mètres high; one third of the height buried in the

ground. _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. ii., p. 282. 4 varas above surface, 2

varas below, 1 vara diameter. _Id._, in _Antiq. Mex._, suppl. pl.

viii. Of the material, Humboldt says: 'Quelques personnes,

très-instruites en minéralogie, m'ont dit que la pierre est un beau

porphyre amphibolique; d'autres m'ont assuré que c'est un granite

porphyritique.' 12 feet high, 9½ feet in circumference. _Fossey_,

_Mex._, pp. 367-8. About 14 feet high, _Charnay_, _Ruines Amér._, p.

263; 5½ varas high, 1 vara in diameter, material granite, _Dupaix_, p.

31. Over 5 varas high. _Burgoa_, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom.

vii., p. 171. 12 feet high, 4 feet diameter. _Tempsky's Mitla_, p.

253. 10 feet 10½ inches above ground, over 6 feet below, 3⅓ varas in

circumference; material porphyry. _Ilustracion Mej._, tom. ii., pp.

495-6. So large that two men can hardly reach round them, 5 fathoms

high. _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, pp. 395-6. Material a porous

limestone. _Viollet-le-Duc_, in _Charnay_, _Ruines Amér._, p. 78.

[VII-44] See _Charnay_, phot. x.

[VII-45] _Charnay_, phot. vii.-viii.

[VII-46] _Charnay_, phot. xi. Plate in _Tempsky's Mitla_, pp. 252-3,

very incorrect, as are nearly all of this author's illustrations.

[VII-47] _Charnay_, phot. ix.

[VII-48] See p. 257 of this volume.

[VII-49] _Murguia_, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom. vii., pp.

170-3. 'De grandes dalles, de plus de deux pieds d'épaisseur, reposant

sur des piliers d'une hauteur de trois mètres, formaient le plafond de

ces palais: au-dessus on voyait une corniche saillante ornée de

sculptures capricieuses, dont l'ensemble formait comme une sorte de

diadème posé sur le sommet de l'édifice.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,

_Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 26, Burgoa.

[VII-50] As quoted in _Ilustracion Mej._, tom. ii., p. 496.

[VII-51] _Viollet-le-Duc_, in _Charnay_, _Ruines Amér._, pp. 78-9.

[VII-52] _Charnay_, phot. xii., p. 264; _Dupaix_, pp. 31-2, pl. xxxi.,

fig. 80.

[VII-53] In the preceding pages it will be noticed that I have paid no

attention to the plates and description by Mr J. G. Sawkins, from an

exploration in 1837, as given by Col. Brantz Mayer in his

_Observations on Mexican History and Archæology_, published among the

_Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge_. My reasons for disregarding

Sawkins' authority are, that the said descriptions and plates are just

sufficiently accurate to identify palace No. 1 with the one referred

to, but otherwise constitute one of the most bare-faced frauds

recorded in the annals of antiquarian exploration in America. The

following points are more than sufficient to substantiate what I have

said:--1st. Sawkins reverses the cardinal points, respecting which the

other authorities agree, placing the principal building on the east of

the court instead of the north, etc. To avoid repetition and

confusion, I shall in the following remarks, however, correct this

error and speak of each building in its proper location. 2d. Sawkins

found five standing columns in the eastern building, _d_, four of

which supported parts of a wall, while the other standing apart was

taller than the rest; now the columns supporting the wall may have

been the piers between the doorways--but only _three_ of these were

standing in 1806 (see _Dupaix_, pl. xxxi.); and the taller column

standing apart agrees well enough with the truth, except that there

were _two_ of them standing in 1859. (See _Charnay_, _Ruines Amér._,

phot. xii.) On the west our explorer correctly found everything

obliterated, and the 'crumbling and indistinct walls' which he found

on the south may have been part of palace No. 2. 3d. Coming now to the

northern building, Sawkins found in the front 4 doorways, so narrow

and low that only one person at a time could enter, and that only by

stooping; during the next 20 years these doorways grew remarkably in

size, and decreased in number, since Charnay's photograph shows 3

doorways with standing human figures in two of them, not obliged to

stoop or much pressed for elbow room, as may be seen in the copy I

have given. 4th. Sawkins found all the adornments removed from this

façade; they were perhaps replaced before Charnay's visit. 5th. In the

interior, A of the plan, Sawkins found niches in the end walls not

seen by any other visitor. 6th. The six columns represented by Martin

and Dupaix as standing in the centre of this apartment, had all been

removed (!) at the time of Sawkins' visit. It was a strange freak of

the camera to picture them all in place 20 years later. 7th. But

Charnay's photographic apparatus had yet other repairs to make, for in

the northern wing, C, the walls of the interior apartments had all

disappeared, and even the interior surface of the outer walls, which

enclosed the quadrangle, had no mosaic work, but the panels presented

only 9 long recesses in three tiers on each side. Mr Sawkins' plates

are two in number; one of them presents a general view of this palace

from the west, and although faulty, indicates that the artist may have

actually visited Mitla; the other is a rear view of the northern

building, gives a tolerably correct idea of the construction of the

walls, and may possibly have been made up from the large plate in

Kingsborough's work. I have no more space to devote to Sawkins. He may

have been already 'shown up' by some critic whose writings have

escaped my notice. It is proper to add that as Col. Mayer apparently

consulted only Humboldt's description of Mitla, it is not at all

strange that this zealous investigator and usually correct writer was

deceived by a pretended explorer.

[VII-54] _Dupaix_, pl. xxxii., fig. 81, where the dimensions are

6½×33½ varas. Carriedo's, or Mühlenpfordt's, plan, pl. ii., makes the

court 114×135 feet, and the western building 128.9 feet on the inside;

on page 495, and on another plan, it is implied that the eastern mound

never bore any building.

[VII-55] _Ilustracion Mej._, tom. ii., p. 495.

[VII-56] _Müller_, _Reisen_, tom. ii., p. 280.

[VII-57] _Charnay_, _Ruines Amér._, phot. xiii.-xvi.; _Dupaix_, p. 33,

pl. xxxiii., fig. 82-3; _Kingsborough_, vol. v., pp. 258-9, vol. vi.,

pp. 450-1, vol. iv., pl. xxx., fig. 84; _Lenoir_, in _Antiq. Mex._,

tom. ii., div. i., pp. 53, 16; _Mühlenpfordt_, in _Ilustracion Mej._,

p. 500, pl. vi.; _Tempsky's Mitla_, pp. 250-1.

[VII-58] _Dupaix_, 2d exped., pp. 32-3, pl. xxxiv.-v., fig. 82;

_Kingsborough_, vol. v., p. 259, vol. vi., p. 451, vol. iv., pl.

xxxii.-iii., fig. 86-7, ground plan, and section showing mosaic work;

_Ilustracion Mej._, tom. ii., pp. 495-500, pl. iv., v., ix. Humboldt,

_Vues_, tom. ii., pp. 278-82, places the gallery erroneously under the

northern wing of palace No. 1, with an entrance in the floor of the

column chamber. _Murguia_, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom. vii.,

pp. 170-3, from Burgoa, about the caves on which the palaces were

built. _Müller_, _Reisen_, tom. ii., p. 280; _Tempsky's Mitla_, pp.

250-1; _Fossey_, _Mex._, p. 369; _Charnay_, _Ruines Amér._, pp. 264-5;

_Mayer's Observations_, p. 30, with cuts from Dupaix. _Lenoir_, in

_Antiq. Mex._, tom. ii., div. i., p. 53. 'Un appartement souterrain

qui a 27 mètres de long, et 8 de large.' _Humboldt_, _Essai Pol._, p.

264.

[VII-59] _Charnay_, _Ruines Amér._, p. 263, phot. iii.-iv.; _Dupaix_,

2d exped., pp. 33, 35-6, pl. xxxvi., fig. 83; _Kingsborough_, vol. v.,

p. 259, vol. vi., p. 451, vol. iv., pl. xxxiv., fig. 88, this plan

differs from the one given above in making the passage _d_ straight.

_Ilustracion Mej._, tom. ii., p. 496.

[VII-60] _Dupaix_, pl. xxxvii., fig. 84; _Kingsborough_, vol. iv., pl.

xxxv., fig. 89. The latter plan represents three doorways in each of

the buildings fronting on the northern court, C. See also references

of preceding note.

[VII-61] _Dupaix_, pp. 34, 39, pl. xxxlx-xl., xliii-iv., fig. 86-7,

91-2; _Kingsborough_, vol. v., pp. 260-1, vol. vi., pp. 451-3, vol.

iv., pl. xxxvii-ix., fig. 91-4; _Lenoir_, in _Antiq. Mex._, tom. ii.,

div. i., pp. 55-6; _Charnay_, p. 263, phot. ii.; _Mühlenpfordt_, in

_Ilustracion Mej._, tom. ii., p. 496; Fossey, _Mexique_, pp. 368-9,

locates these pyramidal groups east and north, instead of south and

west of palace No. 1. He also mentions a granite block, or altar, 4½

feet long and one foot thick.

[VII-62] _Dupaix_, p. 34, pl. xxxviii., fig. 85; _Kingsborough_, vol.

v., p. 259, vol. vi., p. 451, vol. iv., pl. xxxvi., fig. 90.

Kingsborough's plate represents the walls as mostly fallen. _Lenoir_,

in _Antiq. Mex._, tom. ii., div. i., p. 53.

[VII-63] _Dupaix_, pp. 40-1, pl. xliv.-v., fig. 93-4, view of hill,

and plan copied above. _Kingsborough_, vol. v., p. 265, vol. vi., p.

455, vol. iv., pl. xl.-i., fig. 95; _Lenoir_, p. 56. Dupaix's plates

are copied in _Mosaico Mex._, tom. ii., pp. 281-4, and _Armin_, _Alte

Mex._, p. 290; _Fossey_, _Mex._, p. 370. Plate from Sawkins' drawing,

different from that of Castañeda, but of course unreliable, in

_Mayer's Observations_, p. 32, pl. iv.

[VII-64] _Dupaix_, 2d exped., pp. 41-3; _Tylor's Anahuac_, p. 139.

[VII-65] _Dupaix_, 2d exped., pp. 37-8, pl. xli.-ii., fig. 88-90;

_Kingsborough_, vol. v., p. 254, vol. vi., p. 447, vol. iv., pl.

xxvi., fig. 78-80; _Lenoir_, in _Antiq. Mex._, pp. 23-4, 55;

_Tempsky's Mitla_, p. 254.

[VII-66] _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, fol. 257-60; _Id._, in _Soc. Mex.

Geog., Boletin_, tom. vii., p. 170, et seq., pp. 271-2; _Id._, in

_Ilustracion Mej._, tom. ii., p. 494; _Id._, in _Brasseur de

Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., pp. 21-30. Brasseur says

that the temple built over a subterranean labyrinth was called

Yohopehelichi Pezelao, 'supreme fortress of Pezelao.' Built under

Toltec influence. _Id._, tom. i., pp. 304-5, tom. iii., p. 9. Sacked

by the Aztecs about 1494, and the priests carried as captives to

Mexico. _Id._, tom. iii., p. 358; _Tylor's Anahuac_, p. 139. Buildings

of different age. _Dupaix_, 2d exped., pp. 34-5; _Charnay_, _Ruines

Amér._, pp. 252-3, 265; _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. ii., p. 279.

[VII-67] _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. ii., pp. 284-5. 'Les palais

funéraires de Mitla reproduisent en certains cas l'ordonnance des

demeures chinoises.' _Charnay_, _Ruines Amér._, p. iii. The ruins of

Mitla 'nous paraissent appartenir à la civilisation quichée, quoique

postérieurs à ceux de l'Yucatan. La perfection de l'appareil, les

parements verticaux des salles avec leurs épines de colonnes portant

la charpente du comple, l'absence complète d'imitation de la

construction de bois dans la décoration extérieure ou intérieure,

l'ornementation obtenue seulement par l'assemblage des pierres sans

sculpture, donnent aux édifices de Mitla un caractère particulier qui

les distingue nettement de ceux de l'Yucatan et qui indiquerait aussi

une date plus récente.' _Viollet-le-Duc_, in _Id._, pp. 100-1.

[VII-68] Lovato's report was published with two of the nine plates

which originally accompanied it in the _Museo Mex._, tom. iii., p.

329-35, and, without the plates in _Diccionario Univ._, tom. ix., pp.

697-700. Müller, _Reisen_, tom. ii., pp. 251-4, gives an account which

seems to have been made up mostly from Lovato's report, although he

may have personally visited the ruins. A short description, also from

the _Museo Mex._, may be found in _Mayer's Mex. Aztec_, vol. ii., p.

217, and _Id._, _Observations_, pp. 25-6.

[VII-69] _Museo Mex._, tom. i., p. 136. Lovato's exploration was made

by the order of Gen. Leon, and the account furnished for publication

by Sr J. M. Tornel. In describing the Temple, the three flights of

stairs are said to have 10, 8, and 6 steps, respectively, which does

not agree with the plate as copied above. Müller gives the number of

small buildings, or dwellings, whose foundations are visible as 120

instead of 130; he also gives in his dimensions mètres instead of

varas, which would increase them in English feet in the proportion of

92 to 109. He further states that the structures face the cardinal

points.

[VII-70] _Unda_, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, 2da época, tom. i., p.

30; _Museo Mex._, tom. i., p. 250.

[VII-71] _Dupaix_, 2d exped., p. 14, pl. xix., fig. 55;

_Kingsborough_, vol. v., p. 244, vol. vi., p. 442, vol. iv., pl.

xvii., fig. 55; _Lenoir_, in _Antiq. Mex._, tom. ii., div. i., p. 47.

[VII-72] _Museo Mex._, tom. i., pp. 249, 401, with plates of the rings

and 7 stone relics.

[VII-73] _Dupaix_, 2d exped., pp. 15-16, pl. xix.-xx., fig. 56-63;

_Kingsborough_, vol. v., pp. 244-5, vol. vi., pp. 442-3, vol. iv., pl.

xvii.-xviii., fig. 56-63. Respecting the jasper figures M. Dupaix

says: 'Le nombre de celles qu'on trouve dans les sépultures de la

nation zapotèque est infini. Elles ont deux à trois pouces de haut;

elles sont presque toutes de forme triangulaire, quadrangulaire, ou

prismatique, et sont sculptées en jaspe vert foncé, ayant

invariablement la même attitude semblable à celle d'Iris ou d'Osiris,

dont les petites idoles étaient destinées à accompagner les momies

égyptiennes.' The hole in the back part of each is drilled in a curved

line. _Lenoir_, in _Antiq. Mex._, tom. ii., div. i., pp. 47-8.

[VII-74] _Muñoz_, _Estadística del Distrito de Hidalgo_, in

_Guerrero_, _Memoria presentada á la H. Legislatura, por el

Gobernador, Fran. O. Arce_, 1872, pp. 45, 150, 272.