SRLERi DESCRIPTION OF MITLA 249 



Father Tor(|iieniada writes: " 



When some monks of my order, the Franciscan, passed, preaching and shriv- 

 ing, through the province of Zai)oteca, whose cai)ita] city is Tehuantepec,* they 

 came to a village which was called Mictlan. that is, " underworld { hell ) ". Besides 

 mentioning the large number of ])eople in the village they told of buildings which 

 were prouder and moi-e magnificent than any which they had hitlierto seen in 

 New 8]»ain. Among them was a temple of the evil spirit and living rooms for 

 his demoniacal servants, and among other tine things there was a hall with 

 ornamented panels, which wei-e constructed of stone in a variety of arabesques 

 and other very remarlvable designs. There were dooi'ways there, each one of 

 which was built of but three stones, two upright at the sides and one across 

 them, in such a manner that, although these doorways were very high and broad, 

 the stones sufficed for their entire construction. They were so thick and broad 

 that we were assured there were few lil^e them. There was another hall in 

 these buildings, or rectangular temples, which was erected entirely on round 

 stone pillars, very hlgli and very thick, so thick that two grown men could scarcely 

 encircle them with their arms, nor could one of them reach the finger tips of 

 the other. These pillars were all in one piece and, it was said, the whole shaft 

 of a pillar measured 5 ells from top to bottom, and they were very mucli like 

 those of the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Kome, very skillfully made and 

 polished. 



Father Burgoa gives a more exact description.'' He says: 



The palace of the living and of the dead was built for the use of this one 

 (the high priest of the Zapotecs). * * * They built this magnificent house 

 or pantheon in the shape of a rectangle, with portions rising above the earth 

 and portions I)uilt down into the earth, the latter in the hole or cavity which 

 was found below the surface of the earth, and ingeniously made the chambers 

 of equal size by the manner of joining them, leaving a spacious court in the 

 middle ; and in order to secure four equal chambers they accomplished what 

 barbarian heathen (as they were) could only achieve by the powers and skill of 

 an architect. It is not known in what stone pit the.v quarried the pillars, 

 which are so thick that two men can scarcely encircle them with their arms. 

 These are. to be sure, mere shafts without capital or pedestal, but they are 

 wonderfully regular and smooth, and they are about 5 ells high and in one 

 piece. These served to support the roof, which consists of stone slabs instead 

 of beams. The slabs are about 2 ells long, 1 ell broad, and half an ell thick, 

 extending from pillar to pillar. The pillars stand in a row, one behind the 

 other, in order to receive the weight. The stone slabs are so regular and so 

 exactly fitted that, without any mortar or cement at the joints, they resemble 

 mortised beams. The four rooms, which are very spacious, are arranged in 

 exactly the same way and covered with the same kind of roofing. But in the 

 construction of the walls the greatest architects of the eai-th have been sur- 

 passed, as r have not found this kind of architecture described either among 



" Monarquia Indiana, v. 3. chap. 29. 



" Without doubt this refers to Father Martin de Valencia and his eight companions, 

 who went to Tehuantepec to embark there for China, and who stayed at the former phice 

 seven months. Since they oould obtain no ships, they went back to Mexico. See Moto- 

 linia, Ilistoria de los Indios de la Nueva Espafia, tratado 3, chap. 5; Mendieta, Ilistoria 

 Eccleslastica Indiana, v. 4, chap. 10. In both places a description Is given of the archi- 

 tecture of Mitla, which corresponds in essential points with the description of Torquemada 

 quoted above ; except that Mendieta calls the church in Rome Santa Maria la Redonda, 

 and in Motolina this comparison is wholly wanting. 



<■ Work cited, chap. 53. That which he states, he says, he knows from old papers which 

 have come into his hands and from traditions current among aged Indians. 



