48 



idol, had not the bishop of Monterey, Don Fe- 

 liciano Marin, who passed through Mexico in 

 his way to his diocese, prevailed on the rector 

 of the university, at my solicitation, to unbury 

 it. I found Mr. Gama's drawing, which I have 

 copied in the 29th plate, very exact. The stone, 

 of which this monument is formed, is a bluish 

 gray basaltic wakke, cleft, and filled with vitre- 

 ous feldspar. 



The same researches in digging to which we 

 are indebted for the sculptures represented in 

 plates 21, 23, and 29, led to the discovery, in 

 the month of January, 1791, of a tomb two 

 metres long, and one broad, filled with very fine 

 sand, and containing a well preserved skeleton 

 of a carnivorous quadruped. The tomb was 

 square, and formed of slabs of porous amygda- 

 loid, called tezontle. The animal appeared to be 

 a coyote, or Mexican wolf. Clay vases and 

 small well cast brass bells were placed near the 

 bones. This tomb was no doubt that of some 

 sacred animal ; for the writers of the sixteenth 

 century inform us, that the Mexicans erectec^ 

 small chapels to the wolf, chantico ; to the tiger, 

 clatocaocelotl ; to the eagle, quetzalhuexolo- 

 quauhtli ; and to the snake. The cou, or sacel- 

 lum of the chantico, was called tetlanman ; and 

 what is more, the priests of the sacred wolf 

 formed a particular congregation, the convent 



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