81 



PYRAMID OF CHOLULA. 



PLATE VI I. 



Among those swarms of nations, which, from 

 the seventh to the twelfth century of the Chris- 

 tian era, successively inhabited the country of 

 Mexico, five are enumerated, the Toltecks, the 

 Cicimecks, the Acolhuans, the Tlascaltecks, and 

 the Aztecks, who, notwithstanding- their political 

 divisions, spoke the same language, followed the 

 same worship, and built 'pyramidical edifices, 

 which they regarded as teocallis, that is to say, 

 the houses of their gods. These edifices were 

 all of the same form, though of very different 

 dimensions ; they were pyramids, with several 

 terraces, and the sides of which stood exactly in 

 the direction of the meridian, and the parallel of 

 the place. The teocalli was raised in the midst 

 of a square, and walled enclosure, which, some- 

 what like the mp&okos of the Greeks, contained 

 gardens, fountains, the dwellings of the priests, 

 and sometimes arsenals ; since each house of a 

 Mexican divinity, like the ancient temple of 



VOL. XIII. G 



