936 A Pilgrimage to Tcotihuacan. [December, 



tempt was once made to remove the monolith to the city of 

 Mexico, but it was found too heavy and was abandoned. The 

 natives relate that soon after the conquest, the Spaniards attempted 

 to cut the stone in two, but after each day's work with chisels, the 

 stone was miraculously restored in the night to a perfect condi- 

 tion, and they finally desisted. The accompanying cut shows the 

 face of the stone as it now appears. 



Near the " Mound of the Sun" may be seen the ruins of the 

 " Palace." Its present magnificence consists in a solid floor of 

 cement, some smoothly plastered walls about three feet in height 

 built at an angle of perhaps fifteen degrees from the vertical, and 

 a stairway of six or seven stone steps leading down into the 



In the ploughed fields in this vicinity we found large numbers 

 of obsidian implements and terra-cotta figures. The arrow-heads 

 are exactly similar in shape and size to those made of flint, by 

 the North American Indians, and of common occurrence. 



The knife-blades are from one and one half to one and three- 

 fourths inches long, from three-eighths to five-eighths of an inch 

 wide and only one-eighth of an inch thick in the center. 



One figure apparently represents a horned animal, and is the 

 only one of the kind which has come under the writer's obser- 

 vation. It measures one and three-fourths inches in length and 

 the same in height, from tip to tip. In the group of terra-cotta 

 figures, two have a decidedly Egyptian appearance, while one is 

 as certainly African, and another shows a strong suspicion of the 

 Turk. Many of the figures of heads seem to be wanting the left 

 ear; whether it was purposely omitted or has been easily knocked 

 off in consequence of having been molded separately and after- 

 ward attached to the head, it is difficult to determine. Two 

 images represent the heads of animals, while another is a perfor- 

 ated disc, one and three-sixteenths inches in diameter, and half an 

 inch thick, with a depression on one side eleven-sixteenths of an 

 inch in diameter. There is a great variety of countenance ex- 

 hibited on these figures. The material also seems to vary, to a 

 certain extent, some of the clay being of a finer grain than the 

 rest, and, therefore, susceptible of a smoother finish. 



In regard to the ruins in general, Bancroft says, " Humboldt 

 speaks of hundreds of these mounds " (such as compose the 

 ' Path of the Dead ") " arranged in streets, running exactly east 



