368 VIEWS OF THE CORDILLERAS. 



intended to represent a few of tlie grand scenes which 

 nature presents in the lofty chain of the Andes, and at 

 the same time to throw some light on the ancient civili- 

 zation of the Americans, through the study of their 

 monuments of architecture, their hieroglyphics, their 

 religious rites, and their astrological reveries. I have 

 given in this work a description of the ieocaUi, or Mexi- 

 can pyramids, and have compared their structure with 

 tliat of the temple of Belus. I have described the ara- 

 besques which cover the ruins of Mitla, the idols in 

 basalt ornamented with the calantica of the heads of Isis ; 

 and also a considerable number of symbolical paintings, 

 representing the serpent woman (the Mexican Eve,) the 

 deluge of Coxcox, and the first migrations of the natives 

 of the Aztec race. I have endeavoured to prove the 

 striking analogies existing between the calendar of the 

 Toltecs and the catasterisms of their zodiac, and the divi- 

 sion of time of the people of Tartary and Thibet, as 

 well as the Mexican traditions on the four regenerations 

 of the globe, the pralayas of the Hindoos, and the four 

 ages of Hesiod. In this work I have also included (in 

 addition to the hieroglyphical paintings I brought to 

 Europe,) fragments of all the Aztec manuscripts, col- 

 lected in Rome, Yeletri, Vienna, and Dresden, and one 

 of which reminds us, by its lineary symbols, of the kouas 

 of the Chinese. Together with the rude monuments of 

 the aborigines of America, this vo/ume contains pictu- 

 resque views of the mountainous countries which those 

 people inhabited ; for example, the cataract of Tequen- 

 dama, Chimborazo, the volcano of Jorullo, and Cay- 

 ambe, the pyramidal summit of which, covered with 

 eternal ice, is situated directly under the equinoctial line 



