HUEJUTLA. 



139 



The Indian remains are various in their character ; 

 but for the most part heaps of rubbish. The wall of the 

 palace is, however, one of the greatest curiosities in the 

 country. It is still of considerable extent ; and, where 

 uninjured, seems to have been between twenty and thirty 

 feet in height, and of six to eight feet in thickness. It 

 is not built in a uniform manner, but varies in the form 

 and distribution of the masonry at different points of ele- 

 vation. About the mid height there is a layer of com- 

 pact stonework, composed of long cylindrical masses, 

 disposed w 7 ith the circular ends outward. In following 

 this wall for some distance to the eastward, it is found to 

 abut suddenly upon a deep fissure or barranca, running 

 east and west, and forming a natural defence on that 

 side. The road crosses it by the celebrated arched 

 bridge, concerning which antiquaries are divided in 

 opinion ; the sanguine and hot headed insisting that, how- 

 ever improbable, it is of genuine Indian construction, 

 and formed a part of the original erections in its vicinity; 

 at the same time that the cool and plodding deny the 

 probability, and even assert the impossibility. It cer- 

 tainly would be a singular anomaly, to find in this single 

 instance, the principle of the arch so well developed, 

 while in every part of the continent to the northward, 

 and on the plateau of Mexico, you evidently see that the 

 ancient architects were ignorant of the science and prin- 

 ciple : but for all that, my impression after I had studied 

 it in every part was, that there was as much to be said 

 on one side as upon the other. It is of the rudest con- 

 struction, far too much so to be Spanish in its origin ; and 

 precisely of that acute form which, as it appears to me, 

 would be the most natural for a timid architect, upon 

 whose mind the truth of the principle had just dawned, 

 to adopt in his first trials. The height above the bed of 

 the barranca is about forty feet. A hunt after portable 

 antiquities among the Indian huts was rewarded by the 

 acquisition of an ugly monster of an idol in a sitting 

 posture, delftly carved in a hard volcanic substance. 

 He was perfect, with the exception of a corner of his 

 mouth, into which the Indian who unearthed him had 



