98 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



make the comparifon of the cuftoms of the Americans 

 with thofe of the firft Egyptians, not of their defcendants 

 who dwelt in Egypt many years after, and from whom 

 the Americans are not believed to be defcended. But 

 who can imagine that the Egyptians, immediately after 

 the difperfion of the people, began to build pyramids, 

 and make ufe of hieroglyphics, and that from thence- 

 forward they ordered and arranged their years and 

 months in the form they had afterwards? All thole 

 things were certainly pofterior to that epoch, nor was 

 it neceffary to have feen the pyramids of Egypt to make 

 the Americans think of building fuch kind of edifices; 

 for the mountains alone were fufficient to fuggeft them: 

 whoever defires to build an edifice to immortalize his 

 name, will eafily think of making it in the form of a 

 pyramid ; becaufe no other fort of building can be raif- 

 ed to the fame height with fo little expenfe and trouble, 

 as the higher it rifes the fewer materials in proportion 

 are required. Belides, the Mexican edifices were en- 

 tirely different from thofe of Egypt. The latter were 

 truly pyramidal, the former not; they were compofed of 

 three, four, or five fquare or oblong bodies, of which 

 the higher was lefs in amplitude than the lower; thofe 

 of the Egyptians were in general hollow, thofe of the 

 Mexicans folid ; thefe ferved for the bafis of their fanc- 

 tuaries, thofe for the fepulchres of their kings. The 

 temples of the Mexicans and other nations of Anahuac, 

 were of a fpecies fo fingular, that we do not know they 

 were ever ufed by any other people of the world : on 

 which account they ought to be confidered as an original 

 invention of the Toltecas or fome ocher people more 

 ancient than them. 



In 



