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MEXICAN HISTORY AND ARCHEOLOGY. 



find the architectural remains which were first made known, partially, by the draw- 

 ings of Don Luis Martin, in 1802, of Dupaix, in 1806, and are now shown in the 

 accompanying pictures, drawn on the spot, in 1837, by Mr. J. G. Sawkins. 



According to the traditions reported by the earlier explorers, the chief object 

 designed in the erection of these edifices was to preserve the remains of Zapotec 

 princes ; and it is alleged, that at the death of a son or brother, the sovereign 

 retired to this place, and taking up his residence in a portion of the building which 

 was calculated for habitation, performed religious services and gave vent to cere- 

 monious sorrow. Other reports, of the same period, say that these solitary and 

 dreary abodes were inhabited by an association of priests who devoted their lives 

 to expiatory services for the dead. It must be confessed that the site is admirably 

 calculated for any one, or all, of these gloomy purposes ; for, according to the 

 accounts of travellers, the silence of the lonely valley, which is reached conve- 

 niently but by one approach, is unbroken even by the songs of birds. Perhaps it 

 was — not only in location, but destination — an aboriginal Escorial, where life, death, 

 and religion mingled their austere but courtly pageants. 



Plate No. 1 presents a general picture of the ruins ; while the following cut, A, 

 taken from a drawing by Martin, in 1802 (and, perhaps, not strictly accurate, 

 except as to parts of the main edifice), shows a ground-plan or sketch of the 

 Avhole group, so as to make the scene intelligible to the reader. 1 



Fig. A. 



A large portion of the valley in the neighborhood of the three mountains, seen 

 in Plate 1, is said to be still covered with heaps indicating the sites of ancient 

 architecture ; but, as most of the ground is under cultivation, every relic of the 

 architecture itself is destroyed, and even the ground-plans have become so indistinct 



1 Martin, for instance, seems to indicate five remains, while there are only four ; and gives two 

 columns at the entrance of the remaining building, while there are three. 



