INDIAN PAINTINGS AND CARVINGS. 283 



and Mariana islands, the natives of the Malay race have 

 incorporated them with the ceremonies which are peculiar 

 to themselves ; and in the province of Pasto, on the ridge 

 of the Cordillera of the Andes, Humboldt saw Indians, 

 masked and adorned with small tinkling bells, perform 

 savage dances around the altar, while a monk of St. 

 Francis elevated the host. 



The Indians were fond of painting, and carving on wood 

 or stone. Humboldt was astonished at what they were 

 able to execute with a bad knife on the hardest wood. 

 They were particularly fond of painting images, and 

 carving statues of saints. They had been servilely imi- 

 tating for three hundred years, the models which the 

 Europeans imported with them at the conquest. This 

 imitation was derived from a religious principle of a yery 

 remote origin.' In Mexico, as in Hindostan, it was not 

 allowable in the faithful to change the figure of their 

 idols in the smallest degree. Whatever made a part of 

 the Aztec or Hindoo ritual was subjected to immutable 

 laws. The Christian images had preserved in Mexico a 

 f)art of that stiffness and harshness of feature which cha- 

 racterized the hieroglyphical pictures of the age of Mon- 

 tezuma. 



Eeturning from Moran and Real del Monte in July, 

 Humboldt projected a visit to the mines of Guanaxuato. 

 These celebrated mines, which were among the richest 

 in the country, lay to the north of the capital. On his 

 way thither he stopped to examine the canal of Huehue- 

 toca. 



From the valley of Tula, through which this great 

 canal ran, he proceeded to the plain of Queretaro, pass- 

 ing the mountain of Calpulalpan, and the town of San 



