of the Ancient Mexicans. 119 



their tabular form, were invariably selected if in a fertile loca- 

 lity. The entire country from the valley of Mexico to that of 

 Taos, a distance of 2000 miles, being more or less of volcanic 

 formation, presents many of these favourite mounds, which 

 sometimes rise isolated in the centre of extensive plains, and 

 of extraordinary regularity of outline, having the appear- 

 ance of gigantic tables. Others are of pyramidal form, and 

 these the ancient Mexicans made use of as bases or pedestals 

 for their teocalli or temples, sometimes facing them, or point- 

 ing the corners, with solid masonry. These tabular hills have 

 been ingeniously described, by writers on Mexican history, 

 as artificial structures, rivalling, in grandeur of design, and 

 the industry and labour necessary to their construction, those 

 monuments of art and human industry, the pyramids of 

 Egypt. 



It is generally affirmed that the Aztecs were not origi- 

 nally an agricultural people. That this is an error, any one 

 who has visited the ruins of their ancient towns on the Gila, 

 and in other parts of Northern Mexico, can testify beyond a 

 doubt. The remains of ditches and canals, by which the 

 corn fields were irrigated, are plainly perceptible, and the 

 fields themselves can, in many parts, be distinctly traced. 

 In the northern portions of Mexico, this is rendered easy of 

 detection on account of the absence of timber or brushwood, 

 and the consequent bareness of the soil. In the south, where 

 the ground is covered by heavy timber, or a dense vegetation, 

 nothing but the solid blocks of masonry used in the construc- 

 tion of their dwellings are visible to the eye, and any traces 

 of agriculture are concealed by the impenetrable jungle which 

 covers the country. 



The Indians of Northern Mexico, including the Pueblos,^ 

 appear to belong to the same great family — the Apache, 

 from which branch the Navajos, Apaches, Coyoteros or Wolf- 

 Eaters, Mescaleros, Moquis, Yubissias, Maricopas, Chiri- 

 caquis, Chemeguabas, Yumayas (the last two, tribes of the 

 Moqui), and the Nijoras, a small tribe on the Gila. All these 

 speak dialects of the same language, more or less approxi- 

 mating to the Apache, and of all of which the idiomatic struc- 

 ture is the same. What relation this language bears to the 



