PYRAMIDS OF CHOLULA. 



231 



with anger this edifice, the summit of which was to 

 reach the clouds. Irritated at his audacity, they 

 launched fire against the pyramid; many of the 

 workmen perished, and the work was discontinued. 



PYRAMID OF CHOLULA. 



An altar was subsequently erected on its summit by 

 the chief of an idolatrous sect, who introduced the 

 custom of tattooing by means of the thorns of the 

 aloe. The pyramid was built of unburnt bricks, 

 with four platforms of equal height,' and having the 

 sides placed exactly opposite the cardinal points of 

 the compass. Its base was twice as large as that of 

 the Great Pyramid of Egypt. All that now remains 

 of this most ancient and celebrated monument, the 

 Monte Hecho a Mano, or the mountain made by 



