Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/313



NE need never be at loss where to go in Mexico for evidences of its past civilization, as some object hoary with antiquity rears its head at every corner. In a portion of the immense building known as the Palace is the Mexican Museum, El Museo Nacional, into which are gathered all the "finds" in archaeological fields. Entering the court, one sees, through a drapery of vines, the famous "sacrificial stone," occupying the centre of a lovely garden of flowers; beyond and above it towers the once-dreaded Huitzilopochtli, the great war-god of the Aztecs; while each side is flanked by a statue, the one on the left obtained in Tlascala, and that on the right in Yucatan. A nondescript monument rises in the eastern part of the garden, with frogs and snakes of stone squatted and coiled about its base; idols lie scattered over the pavement of the courts and in the shrubbery, and images of stone and marble, possessing great value for their antiquity and the skill shown in their workmanship.

The immense sacrificial stone upon which, according to historians, so many thousand victims have been offered up, is worn and polished by the weather; while the statue on the right—of Chaacmol, the tiger-king, discovered by Dr. Le Plongeon in the wilds of Yucatan—is becoming covered with a pernicious discoloration. Poor Chaacmol! to remain buried so many years; to be unearthed by an enterprising archaeologist; to be destined for the United States, but finally to rest ignominiously in this court, half hidden by surrounding plants, and growing green with-exposure to elements from which he had so long been protected.