81 
PYRAMID OF CeOLULA* 
PLATE VJ I. 
Among those swarms of nations, which, from 
the seventh to the twelfth century of the Chris- 
tian era, successively inhabited the country of 
Mexico, five are enumerated, the Toltecks, the 
Cicimecks, the Acolhuaiis, the Tlascaltecks, and 
the Aztecks, who, notwithstanding their political 
divisions, spoke the same language, followed the 
same worship, and built pyramidical edifices, 
which they regarded as teocallis, that is to say, 
the houses of their gods. These edifices were 
all of the same form, though of very different 
dimensions; they were pyramids, with several 
terraces, and the sides of which stood exactly in 
the direction of the meridian, and the parallel of 
the place. The teocalli was raised in the midst 
of a square, and walled enclosure, which, some- 
what like the of the Greeks, contained 
gardens, fountains, the dwellings of the priests, 
and sometimes arsenals ; since each house of a 
Mexican divinity, like the ancient temple of 
VOL. XIII. 
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