Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/201

 The Valley of Mexico is a basin, elliptical in form, about forty miles long by thirty wide. It is rimmed by mountains of porphyry, and its surface is diversified with lakes and hills. The scenery is unrivaled now as when it first met the enraptured gaze of the Spaniards, who in their enthusiasm exclaimed: "It is the promised land!"

The valley is watered by lakes, both of fresh and salt water. Lake Tezcuco, whose waters once surrounded the capital, has now retreated three miles.

A great portion of the valley was once a vast forest, which was denuded by the vandal conquerors. Hardly a vestige remains to tell of past glories save the grove of ancient cypresses at Chapultepec festooned with their melancholy moss.

In every direction one may gaze on scenes of beauty and grandeur, while in the distance, but ever in view, are the majestic Popocatapetl towering 17,720 feet over the surrounding mountains—and his less familiar but no less sublime consort, Istaccihuatl, pronounced és-tak-se-hwatl.

Popocatapetl ("Smoking Mountain "), with his tall peak, stands side by side with Iztaccihuatl, familiarly called La Mujer Blanca, or the Woman in White. The two mountains unite in forming a feature of intense interest to every stranger. The grand old mountain, lifting his imposing volcanic cone thousands of feet into the clear sky, seems to keep a majestic watch over the motionless slumbers of the Woman in White. The Smoking Mountain is silent now; but who can predict that the sleeping citizens of Mexico will never more be rudely awakened by his convulsive shakings and awful thunders?

The Indians, with their endless legends and traditions, wove a romantic story of these mountains. With their love for the marvelous, they attribute the Titanic mutterings of Popocatapetl to grief for his beautiful Iztaccihuatl, who sleeps on regardless of his thunderous tones.

The Woman in White lies stretched out as in a long and peaceful slumber—the rugged brow of the mountain forming the bier upon which she rests.

The Toltecs, the Chichimicas, and the Acolhuausmay have pitched