Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/492

484 structure. By creeping on the hands and knees through this narrow passage down an incline for about twenty-four feet, one has the satisfaction of reaching a pozo, or well, about fifteen feet deep. Farther than this no one has yet penetrated; yet it is safe to say that this aperture was left by the ancient builders of this pyramid, and not made by treasure-seekers, as is shown by the carefully cut and smoothed walls of the passage and well. It is conjectured that the Pyramid of the Sun has a similar opening, as yet unknown, because hidden by the accumulated débris of centuries; and if this is found, it is thought that a larger chamber will be discovered than in the Pyramid of the Moon, owing to the greater length of base, approximating nearly to that of the Pyramid of Cheops. Two great peaks rise from the distant ridge of enclosing hills, one exactly south and the other north, and a line drawn from one to the other of these pyramids passes exactly over the apices of both. There may be nothing in this, yet it struck me as a remarkable coincidence, as I verified my casual observation with the compass, standing on the summit of the Pyramid of the Sun.

South of the Pyramid of the Moon, and running along the western base of that of the Sun, is the wonderful avenue called El Camino de los Muertos,—the Road of the Dead, or Micoatli, lined on either side with tumuli. These mounds have been a still greater puzzle to antiquarians than the pyramids, yet it would seem that the ancient appellation applied to the place, "Path of the Dead," would explain their object. Señor Cubas says that from some of them human bodies have been taken; and it may be that those clay heads that we find scattered in such numbers over the plain are the effigies of buried priests and kings. These heads of clay or terra-cotta, so grotesque in feature and singular in design, are so abundant that one can hardly wander over a freshly-ploughed field without treading on one. No two of them, it is said, have ever been found alike in feature, and this would seem to bear out the theory that they were designed as images of the kings, priests, or minor rulers.

Garcia Cubas, in his study of these pyramids, likens the