206 



CHOLULA. 



sacrifice" — whose disappearance is recorded, and return 

 to earth so clearly expected by the Mexicans, has well 

 been termed the " most mysterious and inexplicable per- 

 sonage in the Mexican mythology and the mind be- 

 comes perfectly bewildered in attempting to glean proba- 

 bilities from the scattered traditions concerning his his- 

 tory, or to reconcile his various attributes. 



La Puebla, to which we repaired in the course of the 

 morning, has been called the City of Angels, from the 

 legend which records the assistance given by those beings 

 in the construction of the cathedral. It may with much 

 more reason be termed the " City of Bigots," for in no part 

 of Mexico is hatred against those of another faith so un- 

 disguised, as the stones hurled against many a European 

 traveller testify. And, if an anecdote which w r as related 

 me in the capital was true, it would seem that even the 

 * irresponsible hide of a brute beast might not shield it 

 from lapidation, if the owner was known to have been 

 bred and nurtured without the pale of the church. 



Some time since two English dray horses were pro- 

 cured by a European resident in Mexico, and unshipped 

 at Vera Cruz ; colossal, big-boned, muscular animals, 

 compared with which the Mexican breed were but shel- 

 ties. They may have found their long voyage disagree- 

 able, but they were doomed to find their land journey 

 to the capital yet more so. Wherever they passed, 

 there was a perfect ferment among the populace. The 

 heretical horses ! — there was no possibility of smuggling 

 them through the country, or of concealing their unfortu- 

 nate lineage. They were everywhere regarded with 

 detestation. They and their grooms were loaded with 

 maledictions at Vera Cruz — -pelted at Jalapa — execrated 

 and pelted at Perote— execrated, pelted, and stoned, with 

 might and main, at La Puebla de los Angeles — and 

 hardly escaped with their lives, to be repelted and re- 

 stoned on their arrival at their journey's end. There, 

 however, they arrived ; but for any use they were to the 

 possessor, they might as well have been peaceably em- 

 ployed in starting casks in London among their fellow 

 heretics, biped and quadruped ; for they had to be con- 



