105 



DETACHED MASS 



PYRAMID OF CHOLULA. 



PLATE VJIl, 



The pyramid of Cholula is so covered with 

 vegetation, that it is extremely difficult to ex- 

 amine the structure of the great terraces. The 

 Spanish historians of the sixteenth century, 

 several of whom visited Mexico in the time of 

 Montezuma, or a few years after his death, 

 assert, that the whole edifice is built with bricks. 

 In looking through the manuscripts of Pedro de 

 Los Rios in the Vatican at Rome*, I found, as 

 I have already stated, that the inhabitants of 

 Cholula believed, according to an ancient tradi- 

 tion, that the bricks with which the teocalli was 

 built were made in the province of Tlalmanalco, 

 at the foot of mount Cocotl ; and that prisoners, 



* Cod. Vat. anonvm. n. 3738, fo!. 10. 



