Page:The Rambler in Mexico.djvu/194

188 After leaving this interesting locality, we made a wide circuit of the mount to visit certain subterraneous excavations, entering deep into a shoulder of the hill, which, to judge by appearances, has been almost entirely cased over by the hand of man.

How far these caverns run under ground, none can pretend to say; our circumstances compelled us to rest satisfied with ascertaining the fact of their existence, and that there was every sign of their being wholly artificial.

The hill of Xochicalco may still be considered unbroken ground for the antiquarian; and there is every probability of its rewarding a really careful and attentive survey. The details of the group of hills and the surrounding country should not be neglected. Our experience may be so far useful to our successors, whoever they may be, as to show, that here, plenty of time, and the means of shelter and refreshment, are absolutely requisite for the excursion. Situated as we were, and little as we positively effected, I wonder that we did so much. By the route we had come, we agreed that it must be seven leagues from Cuernavaca.

I need not tell you that there is neither the shadow of a tradition as to the people whose hands reared this singular monument, nor of the purposes to which it was devoted. I hazard no opinion either as to one or the other.

The general traveller will of course point to the Toltecs; the more learned or pedantic may suggest that it is referable to the Zapotecs, and the probability is that they are the work of neither one nor the other.

Whether the "House of Flowers" was made subservient to self-defence, and formed a stronghold; or was a hill of delight set apart for the habitation of a monarch; or a high place, where the religious mysteries of a people were performed; or a spot chosen for a union of all these objects, it is still one of the most extraordinary localities in New Spain, and deserves much more attention than it has hitherto received.