196 AT LA TRINIDAD SMALL FIGURES PAPANTLA. 



those of La Trinidad, about six leagues in nearly the same direc- 

 tion. Besides these, there are other ruins of which the traveller 

 was informed, situated at a still greater distance, all of which pre- 

 sent the same general features as those already described, and pro- 

 bably belonged to the same period, or were built by the same race. 

 The whole region is alleged to to be full of these memorials of the 

 number, power and wealth of the ill-fated nations that once dwelt 

 and worshipped on the eastern slopes of the Mexican Cordilleras. 



Domestic utensils made of the ordinary pottery of the country, 

 but skilfully and even artistically formed, have been exhumed from 

 among these ruins of ancient cities ; and in the course of Mr. Nor- 

 man's explorations he unearthed two singular and grotesque images 

 which probably figured in the idolatrous worship of the Indians. 

 Our traveller found that similar images were used by the Indian 

 women of the present day, who suspended them about their necks as 

 talismans, and especially relied on them in seasons of sickness and 

 danger. The images referred to are hollow, with a small aperture 

 near one of the shoulders, and are filled with balls as large as a pea, 

 which are supposed to have been made of the ashes of victims sacri- 

 ficed in former days to the gods. We have ourselves seen numbers 

 of these earthern figures in the valley of Mexico, where they are 

 vulgarly known as "Mexican's Idols." Travellers have usually 

 classed them among the Dii Penates or household gods of the Az- 

 tecs or Toltecs, but we have regarded them either as the ornaments 

 of a primitive people or as the dolls and playthings of their chil- 

 dren. In our plates of antiquities discovered in the valley, several 

 figures are to be found which we think belong unquestionably to 

 this class. 



Pyramid of Papantla. 



Sixteen leagues from the sea and fifty-two north of Vera Cruz, 

 on the eastern slope of the Cordilleras, lies the village of Papantla, 

 in the midst of plains which are constantly fertilized by streams that 

 descend from the mountains. It is the centre of a remarkably rich 

 agricultural district, capable of producing the most luxuriant crops 

 of pepper, coffee, tobacco, cotton, vainilla, sugar and sarsaparilla, 

 and abounding in all varieties of valuable woods ; but the heat and 

 maladies of the burning climate prevent the whites from venturing 

 to till so dangerous a district. Accordingly we find that this In- 

 dian village has hardly a single Spanish inhabitant or visiter except 

 the priest and the traders who come from the coast to traffic their 

 foreign goods for the products of the aborigines. Two leagues 



