Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/489

Rh the world; daily, workmen are unearthing some relic of the past, and if our scientific societies would keep pace with the development of this country, they should appoint a small party of qualified men to travel over this road with the advanced engineers.

Tradition has it that here the great culture hero, Quetzalcoatl, developed the civilization that raised the Toltecs above the level of their neighbors. Here is pointed out that famous "Hill of Shouting," whence the "God of the Air" sent his summons and commands over the entire vale of Anahuac. Here were those celebrated gardens, in which grew cotton ready dyed in various colors for the loom, and those famous crystal and feather palaces.

Some say that Ouetzalcoatl was a native of the East, and came from over the ocean. For him, indeed, has been claimed nearly every nationality on earth, and he has been by turns a Welshman, an Egyptian, and even an Irishman; but, as it is expressly stated that he was a man of peace, this last supposition is hardly tenable.

Beyond Tula, and within reach of a day's excursion from Mexico City, is Queretaro, a city founded by early Spanish settlers, and celebrated for its magnificent aqueduct, its vast and enterprising cotton factories, and for the sad part it played in the overthrow of the Maximilian dynasty.

The Hill of Bells,—Cerro de las Campanas,—where the Emperor was shot, is conspicuous near the city, and the objective point of many a pilgrimage, now that the railroad has made it accessible from the capital.

Situated southeast of Tula, and about forty miles distant from Mexico City, are other ruins intimately connected with Toltec history,—the pyramids of Teotihuacan. Both during their residence at Tula, and after the disruption of their empire, when a remnant of the Toltecs turned their faces in this direction, these pyramids were considered by them as the nucleus of a holy city, Teotihuacan, City of the Gods. Their kings came here to be crowned, and here dwelt their priests; but though their traditions undoubtedly refer to these pyramids, yet they are doubtless of pre-Toltec origin. The pyramidal structure seems to have been confined to the table land and its central slopes;