230 PYRAMIDS OF CHOLULA. 



been so often said of the pyramids of Egypt, and 

 may, with equal propriety, be applied to all the 

 works of man : " These monuments must perish, 

 but the grass that grows between their disjointed 

 fragments shall be renewed from year to year." 



Mounds of a similar description have been ob- 

 served in the ancient kingdom of Montezuma, 

 those colossal elevations which rise on the vast plain 

 of Puebla, separated only from the valley of Mexico 

 by a chain of volcanic mountains, extending from 

 Popecatipetl towards the river Trio, and the Peak 

 of Telapon. That fertile plain, although devoid 

 of vegetation, excepting a few scattered aloes and 

 gum- dragon trees, is rich in remembrances connected 

 with the history of Mexico. Generations pass away, 

 and even nations vanish from the earth, but Nature 

 remains unchanged. The aloes and gum-dragon 

 trees flourish as erst they flourished when the first 

 layers of the Pyramids of Cholula rose from the 

 earth, erected by the hands of forgotten men, and 

 witnessed by a crowded population. The Pyramids 

 arose in the neighbourhood of thronged cities, 

 Tlascala, Huexocingo, and Cholula; they were used 

 for purposes of worship, and as burial-places for 

 priests and kings. They preserved, too, a remark- 

 able tradition of the deluge; for, say the Indians, in 

 ancient time, when the waters of a great inundation 

 had retired, one of seven giants, who alone survived, 

 and who was surnamed the Builder, or Xelhua, 

 went to Cholula, where he constructed an artificial 

 hill in commemoration of the mountain which had 

 saved himself and his brethren. It was made of 

 bricks, and would have risen high, but the gods saw 



