Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/235

 182 In the left-hand corner of this sculpture will be perceived the head of a monstrous beast, whose bearded and open jaws are armed with sharp teeth, from between which protrudes a forked tongue. In front of this is a crook or staff, terminated by a plume of feathers, similar to that of the head-dress of the figures that will be subsequently described. Beneath the mouth of the monster is a square, resembling a hieroglyph, or perhaps a Chinese letter; and below this is a rabbit, a figure which will be noticed again on the corner stone that formed part of the base of the second story, as well as on the frieze of the first.

Nothing of this pyramid remains so uninjured as the northern front; and this, with the exception of parts of the frieze and cornice, still entire. I present, in the plate marked A, a copy of the drawing made of it by Alzate at the period of his visit in 1777. It will be perceived, that although the figures at the corners somewhat resemble those already described on the western front, yet the lines proceeding from the mouths of the monsters' heads fall in a curve; and it was doubtless from these that the story repeated by Humboldt originated, that "at the Pyramid of Xochicalco there were representations of crocodiles spouting water." They certainly are not crocodiles, but more probably, some fabulous monsters fashioned from the imaginations of the unknown builders, or compounded, perhaps, of various symbols by which they represented their deities.

On the frieze are constantly repeated the figures represented by Nebel in the following drawings :