28 A N T 1 Q U 1 T 1 E S 1 N T E N JS" E S S E E . 



of those whose bodies were buried entire, agreeably to the testimony of the Anony- 

 mous Conqueror who saw them, were deep ditches, walled with stone and mortar, 

 within which they placed the bodies in a sitting posture upon iciJcUli, or low seats, 

 together with tlie instruments of their art or profession. If it was the sepulchre of 

 any military person, they laid a shield and sword by hhn ; if of a woman, a spmdie, 

 a weaver's shuttle, and a xicalli, which was a vessel fashioned of a fruit similar to 

 gourds, large and perfectly round. In the tombs of the rich they put gold and 

 jewels, but all were provided with eatables for the long journey which they had 

 to make. Tlie Spanish conquerors, knowing of the gold which was buried with 

 the Mexican lords, dug into several of their tombs and found considerable quanti- 

 ties of that precious metal. Cortes says, in his letters, that at one entry which he 

 made into the capital, when it was besieged by his army, his soldiers found fifteen 

 hundred castiUanos, that is, two hundred and forty ounces of gold, in one sepul- 

 chre, which was in the tower of a temple. The Anonymous Conqueror says, also, 

 that he was present at the opening of another sepulchre, from which they took 

 about three thousand castillanos. 



The caves of the mountains were the sepulchres of the ancient Chichimecs, who, 

 as they grew more civilized, adopted, in this and other rites, the customs of the 

 Acolhuan nation, which were nearly the same with those of the Mexicans, 



The Miztecs retained in part the ancient usage of the Chichimecs, but in some 

 things they were singular in their customs. When any of their lords fell sick, 

 they offered prayers, vows, and sacrifices for the recovery of his health. If he 

 was restored, they made great rejoicings. If he died, they continued to speak 

 of him as if he was still alive, and conducted one of his slaves to the corpse, dressed 

 him in the clothing of his master, put a mask upon his face, and for one whole day 

 paid him all the honors which they had formerly rendered to the deceased. At 

 midnight, four priests carried the corpse out and buried it in a wood, or in some 

 cavern, particularly in that one where they believed the gate of paradise to be ; on 

 their return they sacrificed the slave, and laid him with all the ornaments of his 

 transitory dignity in a ditch, but without covering him with earth. Every year 

 they held a festival in honor of their last lord, on which they celebrated his birth, 

 not his death, for of it they never spoke. 



The Zapotecs, their neighbors, embalmed the body of the principal lord of their 

 nation after death. Even from the time of the first Chichimecan kings, aromatic 

 preparations were in use among those nations to preserve dead bodies from speedy 

 corruption ; but it is not known that these were very frequently used.' 



It appears to be established by the researches of several antiquarians- that the 

 small pyramids disposed in rows upon the parallels and meridians which bound 

 the four faces of the two great pyramids of the sun and moon of Teotihuacan, 

 Mexico, served as burying places for the chiefs of tribes. 



Many years ago, in cutting a new road toward Puebla from Mexico, it became 

 necessary to cross a portion of the base of the ancient Indian pyramid of Cholula.'' 



* History of Mexico, etc., vol. ii, pp. 103-110. 



' Political Essays on the Kingdom of New Spain, etc., by Alexander von Humboldt, vol ii, p. Gl 



' Mexico as It was and as It is, by Brantz Mayer, p. 26. 



