296 GLORY TO C^UETZALCOATL. 



Its streets were picturesque with the long train of their 

 processions, its winds were jubilant with their barbaric 

 music. With noise and pomp they marched to the great 

 pyramid, whose summit was crowned with perpetual 

 flame, that rose from the temple of Quetzalcoatl. Climb- 

 ing the steps that led from terrace to terrace they reached 

 the shrine, and worshipped the image of the god. It 

 was a monstrous idol of stone, holding in one hand a 

 shield covered w r ith hieroglyphics, and in the other a 

 jew r eled sceptre. Upon its head was a mitre with plumes ; 

 its neck was encircled with a collar of gold, while from 

 its ears hung pendants of turquoise. " Glory to Quetzal- 

 coatl! the mighty God of the Air!" 



But to return from the Past to the Present, from Tra- 

 dition to Fact. The perpendicular height of the pyramid 

 when Humboldt and Bonpland saw it, w r as one hundred 

 and seventy-seven feet; the horizontal breadth of its base 

 was one thousand four hundred feet. It had four sides, 

 facing the cardinal points, and as many terraces; alto- 

 gether it covered a space of forty-five thousand square 

 feet. They had a magnificent view from its summit, 

 seeing at one glance four mountains, Popocatepetl, Iztac- 

 cihuatl, the peak of Orizaba, and the Sierra de Tlascala, 

 famous for its tempests. Three of these mountains were 

 higher than Mont Blanc, two were burning volcanoes. 



The Pyramid of Cholula was built of unbaked bricks, 

 alternating w T ith layers of clay. Humboldt w r as assured 

 by the Indians that the inside was hollow. During the 

 abode of Cortez at Mexico, their ancestors, they said, 

 concealed in the body of the pyramid a considerable 

 number of w r arriors, for the purpose of falling suddenly 

 on the Spaniards. The material of which the pyramid 



