154 



traction of the word Miguitlan, which signifies, 

 in the Mexican language, place of desolation, 

 place of wo. This term appears to have been 

 well chosen for a site so savage and lugubrious, 

 that, according to the narrative of travellers, the 

 warbling of birds is there scarcely ever heard. 

 The Tzapoteck Indians call these ruins Leoba, 

 or Luiva, burial, alluding to the excavations 

 found beneath the walls covered with arabes- 

 ques. I have had occasion to speak of this mo- 

 nument in my Political Essay on the Kingdom of 

 New Spain*. 



According to the traditions that have been 

 preserved, the principal purpose of these build- 

 ings was to mark the spot where the ashes of the 

 Tzapoteck princes reposed. The sovereign, at 

 the death of a son or a brother, withdrew into 

 one of these habitations, which were erected over 

 the tombs, to deliver himself up to grief and re- 

 ligious rites. Others assert, that a family of 

 priests, charged with the expiatory sacrifices 

 which were made for the repose of the dead, 

 lived in this solitary abode. 



The plan of the palace *f~, drawn by a very dis- 

 tinguished Mexican artist, Don Lais Martin, 

 shows, that originally there existed at Mitla five 



* Vol. first, page 263. 

 t Plate 49. 



