PONDS LAKES ARBORS TEOTIHUACAN. 279 



tank, neatly walled and filled with water. From the soft spongy 

 character of the soil in the centre of the great quadrangular grove — 

 which it is impossible for any one to cross without danger of being 

 mired in the unsubstantial morass, — it is supposed that the vast 

 area was once occupied by a lake, whose waters were probably for- 

 ever renewed by the hydraulic works we have already described in 

 the neighborhood of Tescocingo. Along the raised banks, and 

 beneath the shadows of the double line of majestic trees, were the 

 walks and arbors in which Nezahualcoyotl and his courtiers amused 

 themselves. The ponds and lakes were filled with fish and fre- 

 quented by the wild fowl that now cover the margins of the Mexi- 

 can lakes ; while the same benignant sky and delicious climate that 

 bless the descendants of the Spaniards, reigned then, as now, over 

 the dusky children of the soil. 1 



PYRAMIDS OF TEOTIHUACAN. 



A ride on horseback of about three hours at a pleasant pace, will 

 bring the traveller from Tezcoco to the village of St. Juan, lying in 

 an extensive level bordered on all sides by ridges and mountain 

 spurs, except towards the east, where a depression in the chain 

 leads into the plains of Otumba, upon which Cortez fought so re- 

 markable a battle when pursued by the victorious Aztecs. In the 

 centre of the levels of St. Juan are the two remarkable pyamids of 

 Teotihuacan, — the Tonatiuh-Ytzagual, or "house of the sun," 

 and the Meztli-Ytzagual, or "house of the moon." These vast 

 mcicses first break upon the sight as the ridge is crossed. At that 

 distance the foliage and bushes that cover them are not easily dis- 

 cerned, and the perfect figure of the original structure seems to be 

 revealed in all its freshness. As the objects are approached, how- 

 ever, the work of time upon the monuments becomes evident. The 

 sharp pyramidal lines are all broken. Aloes, nopals, magueys, 

 mesquite and parasites crawl and cling over every part of the ruined 

 heaps ; and the whole mass resembles a crumbling but gigantic pile 

 of rocks and earth, which is scarcely distinguishable from the adja- 

 cent hills until its structure is closely examined. 



1 The reader will find an interesting account in Spanish, of the residence of Neza- 

 hualcoyotl at Tescocingo, extracted from Ixtlilxochitrs history of the Chichimecas, 

 in the third volume of Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico, page 430. The 

 hill or mountain described in this section, is doubtless the same one referred to by 

 the Indian historian ; and it is to the Vandalism of Fray Zumarraga, the archbishop, 

 that we are indebted for the destruction of one of the most graceful and elegant monu- 

 ments of Indian civilization. 



