82 Geoatapbical IRotes on /iDejico. 



the latter view, as he found the roofs of the houses perfectly preserved, 

 while the interior of the rooms was in every case filled with stones 

 neatly fitted into the spaces, and joined with a clayish cement to form 

 a compact mass. His conclusion as to the pyramids is, that they are 

 two great temples erected to two old Mexican divinities. Each pyra- 

 mid consists of five terraces, which diminished in size until the height 

 of 223 feet was reached. Each has on one of its sides a stairway six 

 and one-half feet in width, which makes five zigzag turns, and leads to 

 the sanctuary or shrine on the summit. The outer surface of the 

 pyramids, and perhaps the interior as well, was plastered over with a 

 mortar of lime, hard and smooth, and decorated with frescoes, repre- 

 senting quasi-historical events and scenes. 



The small mounds scattered over the area occupied by the ruins 

 were, according to Batres, dwellings and small shrines. Each con- 

 tained from six to twelve rooms, quadrangular and rectangular in form. 

 The cornices as well as the walls were beautifully ornamented in colors. 

 On some as many as twenty tints had been used. The doors were rec- 

 tangular, never trapezoidal in form, although the latter style has been 

 erroneously attributed to ancient American architecture. They meas- 

 ure eight feet in height by about three feet in width. The houses had 

 neither windows nor balconies. The city was crossed by subterranean 

 aqueducts constructed of stone, the walls of which were plastered with 

 firm and smooth mortar. Near the Pyramid of the Moon, among the 

 rubbish, there was a monolithic statue of colossal dimensions. It rep- 

 resents a woman with a characteristic head-dress, and wearing a neck- 

 lace of four strings of beads. Travellers in Teotihuacan can find 

 countless miniature heads modelled in clay anywhere on the freshly- 

 plowed stretches of level land that lies across the broad, straight 

 Micoatl, or " Path of the Dead." They vary in length from one to two 

 inches, and invariably have nothing more than a neck attached to 

 them. They may be distinguished by this peculiarity from those that 

 are applied as ornaments to terra cotta vases, and from fragments of 

 "idols." The features and peculiar head-dresses that adorn these 

 little heads of Teotihuacan vary greatly, and this diversity has given 

 rise to, and been quoted in proof of, the migration of tribes, of the mix- 

 tures of widely differing races, or of their succession to each other in 

 the occupation of the Valley of Mexico. Owing to the unfamiliar 

 aspect of some of these head-dresses, it has been asserted that they 

 could not be even " Toltec," but must be relics of still more remote 

 and unknown races of men. Various uses have been assigned to them, 

 the commonest supposition being that they were in some way associated 

 with ceremonies relating to the dead. There is probably no subject 

 connected with Mexican archaeology, except the calendar, that has given 

 rise to more discussion. Dr. E. B. Tylor regarded them as a puzzle, 



