26 



MEXICAN HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 



consists in the style of building, and the mingling of worship and civic defences. 

 There does not appear, however, to be any similarity between these ruins and the 

 remains found in Yucatan and Chiapas, where the designs are much carved and 

 ornamented, denoting, perhaps/a higher degree of luxury, taste, and civilization. 

 The temples of Quiotepec, and that of Chicocomoc, or Quemada, are both pyra- 

 midal, like most of the Mexican structures ; but the architectural style generally, 

 at the former place, is rather more sumptuous than that at Quemada. 1 



Remains near Tehuantepec, Oajaca. 



The most interesting, perhaps, of the architectural remains within the present 

 bounds of Mexico, in Oajaca, are those of Mitla ; and, as it was not until the year 

 1494 that the Aztecs finally subdued the people of Mictla, in the province of 

 Huaxaca, 2 it is not likely that the constructive talent or tastes of that region were 

 modified or controlled by the inhabitants of the Valley of Anahuac. The same 

 remark applies to all the other districts, in every quarter outside the valley, where 

 the aborigines became subject to the Aztecs, either by alliance or conquest. It is 



1 See Museo Mejicano, Vol. Ill, p. 329, for drawings of these monuments. See, also, Vol. I, p. 

 401, of the same work, and Vol. Ill, p. 135, for accounts of Zapotec remains ; and Vol. I, p. 246, for 

 an imperfect notice of military fortifications, &c. &c, uear Guengola, Tehuan tepee. 



a Gama; Gallatiu, Eth. Soc. Trans., Vol. I, 137. Mexican Chronology. Clavigero, Lond. ed., 

 Vol. I, p. 185. 



