160 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



loh # — where it is shown that both the Chinese and the 

 Hindoo records chronicle a certain terrible geological 

 convulsion as occurring in the years 2357 and 2450 be- 

 fore Christ, both of which dates fall within the life of Pe- 

 leg. Moreover, the signification of the name of the 

 patriarch Salah, who was his cotemporary, again fa- 

 vours the same hypothesis, and it must be conceded that 

 many favourite and received theories rest on far worse 

 grounds. 



According to this, the series of convulsions which 

 broke up the surface of the globe will have occurred 

 eight or nine hundred years after the dispersion of man- 

 kind, and consequently after that every part of the surface 

 may have become occupied by both men and animals. 



This is not the place for repeating what others have 

 established with regard to the analogies of the Mexican 

 mythology with that of the Old World. The subject is 

 a tempting one, but I have already stepped over my proper 

 bounds, and in referring you to Humboldt, Faber, Bryant, 

 and other well-known writers, 1 crave your pardon for 

 my digression, and resume my narrative. 



On repairing to the House of the Moon, I found my 

 two companions busily employed in verifying the truth 

 of the information we had received in Mexico, of an en- 

 trance having been discovered. The opening in ques- 

 tion lies in the southern face of the pyramid, at two 

 thirds of the elevation, and possibly about the level of 

 the third terrace from the bottom. It is difficult to deter- 

 mine exactly, for the whole form of this the lesser pyramid 

 is much more indistinct than that of its rival. A number 

 of Indian women and children beset the entrance, which 

 was little larger than that into a fox earth, and after un- 

 dergoing a partial stripping, I proceeded to share in the 

 glory or danger of the enterprise, whichever it might be. 

 As it happened, there was neither to be gained. I laid 

 myself flat upon my face, and ducking into the aperture, 

 squeezed myself blindly forward with my candle, through 



* Researches Philosophical and Antiquarian, concerning the Aborigi- 

 nal History of America, by J. H. M'Culloh, M.D. Baltimore, 1829, 



i 



