23(5 CERTAIN ANTIQUITIES OF EASTERN MEXICO [eth. ann. 25 



The visitor may obtain shelter and food near the ruins at the hospi- 

 table hacienda, Agostadero, owned by Don Firnien Zarete. This set- 

 tlement consists of a collection of primitive cabins of the simplest 

 construction characteristic of the Tierra Caliente, clustering about 

 the house of the owner. Evidences of the older population crop 

 out everywhere in this region, and well-defined rows of rub))lestones 

 mark the remains of foundation walls of old temples that have been 

 appropriated for the same purpose in modern cabins (plate xcv). 

 It would appear that practically the majority of the houses of Agos- 

 tadero are built on walls of the older settlement, and that the present 

 inhabitants cultivate the same fields as their prehistoric predecessors. 

 There arc indications that these fields are still irrigated by water 

 drawn from the Rio Actopan, as in prehistoric times. 



The ruins of Cempoalan are quite extensive, covering a large extent 

 of territory, but, as a majority of the mounds are inaccessible except 

 bv cutting one's way through the underbrush with a machete, the 

 locations of their sites can be only surmised. Mounds belonging to 

 this metropolis were found extending over a territory a mile stjuare, 

 but the main buildings are crowded into a limited area. Wherever 

 one turns in this neighborhood, if vegetation permits he encounters 

 evidences of former human occupation. Not enly mounds and pyra- 

 mids rise on all sides but also plastered walls, and fragments of con- 

 creted road-beds lined with rows of stones set in cement (not unlike 

 curbs) are seen on all sides. It does not take long to discover that 

 Cempoalan was constructed almost entirely of plaster and rubble- 

 stones;" none of its walls were made of adol)e or of cut stones. 



CONSTUUCTION OF BuiLDIXGS 



So far as can be determined, the four buildings of old CVnipoalan 

 now standing are pyramids, the bases of former temijles. They arc 

 constructed of a concrete core made of water-worn stones laid in lines 

 one above another and faced with concrete. Wherever this super- 

 ficial covering has fallen, especially on the stairways, rows of stones 

 are clearly seen. The surfaces of these buildings were originally 

 highly polished, so smoothly that it was supposed b^^ one of the sol- 

 diers of Cortez that the walls were covered with plates of silver. 

 These walls were decorated with yellow and red paintings, traces of 

 which are still visible, especially in places not exposed to the weather. 

 Two typical forms of buildings are represented at Cempoalan. one 

 circular, the other rectangular. Both types have stairways with mas- 

 sive balustrades on one side. Examples of the circular type are not 

 as well preserved as those of the rectangular, but their form is similar 

 to that of the temple now in ruins at Calera near Puente Nacional.* 



<i In this respect unlike the Totonao ruin Tajin, near Papantla. 



I'Uvu BaiKToft, The Native Races, iv (.Xnticinities), San Francisco, 1882. 



