96 
already recorded in a manuscript of Pedro de 
Los Rios, a Dominican monk, who, in 1566, 
copied on the very spot all the hieroglyphical 
paintings he could procure. Before the great 
inundation, which took place four thousand 
eight hundred years after the creation of the 
World, the country of Anahuac was inhabited 
by giants (tzocuillixeque). All those who did 
not perish were transformed into fishes, save 
seven, who fled into caverns. When the waters 
subsided, one of these giants, Xelhua, surnamed 
the architect, went to Cholollan ; where, as a 
memorial of the mountain Tlaloc, which had 
served for an asylum to himself and his six 
brethren, he built an artificial hill in form of a 
pyramid. He ordered bricks to be made in the 
province ofTlamanalco, at the foot of the Sierra of 
Cocotl, and to convey them to Cholula he placed 
a file of men, who passed them from hand to 
hand. The gods beheld with wrath this edifice, 
the top of which was to reach the clouds. Irri- 
tated at the daring attempt of Xelhua, they 
hurled fire on the pyramid. Numbers of the 
workmen perished ; the work was discontinued, 
and the monument was afterwards dedicated to 
Quetzalcoatl, the god of the air.” 
This history reminds us of those ancient tra- 
ditions of the East, which the Hebrews have re- 
corded in their sacred books. The Cholulans 
preserved a stone, which, enveloped in a ball 
