Page:The Conquest of Mexico Volume 2.djvu/475

 ascertained the dimensions with admirable precision, one-third belong to the cemi-civilised races; and of them thirteen are Mexican. The number of these last is too small to found any general conclusions upon, considering the great diversity found in individuals of the same nation, not to say kindred.—Blumenbach's observations on American skulls were chiefly made, according to Prichard (Physical History, vol. i. pp. 183, 184), from specimens of the Carib tribes, as unfavourable, perhaps, as any on the continent.

Page 394 (4).—Yet these specimens are not easy to be obtained. With uncommon advantages for procuring these myself in Mexico, I have not succeeded in obtaining any specimen of the genuine Aztec skull. The difficulty of this may be readily comprehended by any one who considers the length of time that has elapsed since the Conquest, and that the burial-places of the ancient Mexicans have continued to be used by their descendants. Dr. Morton more than once refers to his specimens, as those of the "genuine Toltec skull, from cemeteries in Mexico, older than the Conquest." (Crania Americana, pp. 152, 155, 231 et alibi.) But how does he know that the heads are Toltec? That nation is reported to have left the country about the middle of the eleventh century, nearly eight hundred years ago,—according to Ixtlilxochitl, indeed, a century earlier; and it seems much more probable, that the specimens now found in these burial places should belong to some of the races who have since occupied the country, than to one so far removed. The presumption is manifestly too feeble to authorise any positive inference.

Page 394 (5).—The tower of Belus, with its retreating stories, described by Herodotus (Clio, sec. 181), has been selected as the model of the teocalli; which leads Vater somewhat shrewdly to remark, that it is strange no evidence of this should appear in the erection of similar structures by the Aztecs, in the whole course of their journey to Anahuac. (Mithridates, theil iii. abtheil 3, pp. 74, 75.) The learned Niebuhr finds the elements of the Mexican temple in the mythic tomb of Porsenna. (Roman History, Eng trans. [London, 1827], vol. i. p. 88.) The resemblance to the accumulated pyramids, composing this monument, is not very obvious. Conf. Pliny (Hist. Nat., lib. 36, sec. 19). Indeed, the antiquarian may be thought to encroach on the poet's province, when he finds in Etruican fable,—" cum omnia excedat fabulositas," as Pliny characterises this,—the origin of Aztec science.

Page 394 (6).—See the powerful description of Lucan, Pharsalia, lib. 9, v. 966. The Latin bard has been surpassed by the Italian, in the beautiful stanza, beginning Giace l' alta Cartago (Gierusalemme Liberata, C. 1 5, a. 20), which may be said to have been expanded by Lord Byron into a canto,—the fourth of Childe Harold.

Page 394 (7).—The most remarkable remains on the proper Mexican soil are the temple or fortress of Xochicalco, not many miles from the capital. It stands on a rocky eminence, nearly a league in circumference, cut into terraces faced with stone. The building on the summit is seventy-five feet long, and sixty-six broad. It is of hewn granite, put together without cement, but with great exactness. It was constructed in the usual pyramidal, terraced form, rising by a succession of stories, each smaller than that below it. The number of these is now uncertain; the lower one alone remaining entire. This is sufficient, however, to show the nice style of execution, from the sharp, salient cornices, and the hieroglyphical emblems with which it is covered, all cut in the hard stone. As the detached blocks found among the ruins are sculptured with bas-reliefs in like manner, it is probable that the whole building was covered with them. It seems probable, also, as the same pattern extends over different stones, that the work was executed after the walls were raised. In the hill beneath, subterraneous galleries, six feet wide and high, have been cut to the length of one hundred and eighty feet, where they terminate in two halls, the vaulted ceilings of which connect by a sort of tunnel, with the buildings above. These subterraneous works are also lined with hewn stone. The size of the blocks, and the hard quality of the granite of which they consist, have made the buildings of Xochicalco a choice quarry for the proprietors of a neighbouring sugar-refinery, who have appropriated the upper stories of the temple to this ignoble purpose! The Barberini at least built palaces, beautiful themselves, as works of art, with the plunder of the Coliseum. See the full description of this remarkable building, both