150 CRANIA AMERICANA. 



walls, the bas-reliefs and hieroglyphic sculpture, belong obviously to a remote age, 

 and are by pretty general consent attributed to the Toltecas. 



The gigantic monuments of Anahuac are also seen in the pyramids of 

 Cholula, Teotihuacan and Papantla. When the Aztecs took possession of this 

 country in the 12th century, they found these monuments already existing, and 

 referred them to the Toltecas. The pyramid of Cholula has a base twice the 

 breadth of that of Cheops, yet is low in proportion.* It is built of unbaked 

 bricks, is four stories or terraces in height, and is constructed in the direction of 

 the four cardinal points. — The pyramids of Teotihuacan are eight leagues north 

 of the city of Mexico : two of these are dedicated to the Sun and Moon, and these 

 again are surrounded by hundreds of others of smaller size, which form streets in 

 lines from north to south, and from east to west. Lastly in this series of 

 monuments, is the pyramid of Papantla, built of hewn stones of Cyclopean 

 dimensions, and ornamented with hieroglyphics. 



SujSfice it to add, that the year of the Mexicans consisted like our own, of three 

 hundred and sixty-five days, but instead of twelve it was divided into eighteen 

 months, each of twenty days : they possessed a distinct system of hieroglyphic 

 writing, and their annals went back more than eight centuries and a half before 

 the arrival of the Spaniards. 



Their knowledge of arithmetic and astronomy, as we have already noted, was 

 both extensive and accurate. They had constructed considerable aqueducts, of 

 which the remains yet exist, and numerous canals for irrigation, of which one is 

 asserted to have extended a distance of one hundred and fifty leagues. "They 

 were able to extract, separate and fuse metals; to give copper the hardness of 

 steel, for the fabrication of their weapons and instruments ; to make mirrors of 

 this hardened copper, or of hard stone; to form images of gold and silver, hollow 

 within; to cut the hardest precious stones with the greatest nicety; to manu- 

 facture and dye cotton and wool, and work and figure the stuffs in various ways ; 

 and to spin and weave the fine hair of hares and rabbits, into fabrics resembling and 

 answering the purposes of silks."t Such are the people whom certain closet 

 authors in Europe have stigmatised as barbarians, incapable of the arts and 

 refinements of civilised life. 



Clavigero, speaking of the present descendants of the Aztecs, observes that 



* Humboldt, Monuments, I, p. 89.— This traveller states the side of the base to be, 1,423 feet^ 

 while its height is only 177 feet. 



t Carli, quoted in Lawrence's Lect. on Zoology, &c. p. 480. 



