96 



already recorded in a manuscript of Pedro de 

 Los Rios, a Dominican monk, who, in 1566, 

 copied on the very spot all the hieroglyphical 

 paintings he could procure. " Before the great 

 inundation, which took place four thousand 

 eight hundred years after the creation of the 

 World, the country of Anahnac was inhabited 

 by giants (tzocuillixeque). All those who did 

 not perish were transformed into fishes, save 

 seven, who fled into caverns. When the waters 

 subsided, one of these giants, Xelhua, surnamed 

 the architect, went to Cholollan ; where, as a 

 memorial of the mountain Tlaloc, which had 

 served for an asylum to himself and his six 

 brethren, he built an artificial hill in form of a 

 pyramid. He ordered bricks to be made in the 

 province ofTlamanalco, at the foot of the Sierra of 

 Cocotl, and to convey them to Cholula he placed 

 a file of men, who passed them from hand to 

 hand. The gods beheld with wrath this edifice, 

 the top of which was to reach the clouds. Irri- 

 tated at the daring attempt of Xelhua, they 

 hurled fire on the pyramid. Numbers of the 

 workmen perished ; the work was discontinued, 

 and the monument was afterwards dedicated to 

 Quetzalcoatl, the god of the air." 



This history reminds us of those ancient tra- 

 ditions of the East, which the Hebrews have re- 

 corded in their sacred books. The Cholulans 

 preserved a stone, which, enveloped in a ball 



