97 
t)f fire; had fallen from the clouds on the top of 
the pyramid. This aeorolite had the figure of a 
toad. RioS; to prove the high antiquity of this 
fable of Xelhua, observes; that it was contained 
in a hymn; which the Cholulans sung at their 
festivals; dancing round the teocalli ; and that 
this hymn began with the words Tulanian hulu- 
lae%, which are words belonging to no dialect at 
present known in Mexico. In every part of the 
Globe, on the ridge of the Cordilleras, as well as 
in the isle of Samothrace in the Egean sea, frag- 
ments of primitive languages are preserved in 
religious rites. 
The size of the platform of the pyramid of 
Cholula, on which I made a great number of 
astronomical observations, is four thousand two 
hundred square metres. From it the eye ranges 
over a magnificent prospect ; Popocatepetl, 
Iztaccihuatl; the peak of Orizaba, and the 
Sierra de Tlascalla, famous for the tempests 
which gather around its summit. We view at 
the same time three mountains higher than 
Mount Blanc, two of which are still burning vol- 
canoes. A small chapel, surrounded with cy- 
press, and dedicated to the Virgin de los Re- 
medies, has succeeded to the temple of the god 
of the air, or the Mexican Indra. An ecclesias- 
tic of the Indian race celebrates mass every day 
on the top of this antique monument. 
VOIi. XIII. H 
