y 
-'48 
idol, had not the bishop of Monterey, Don Fe- 
liciano Marin, who passed through Mexico in 
his way to his diocese, prevailed on the rector 
of the university, at my solicitation, to unbury 
it. I found Mr. Gama’s drawing, which I have 
copied in the 29th plate, very exact. The stone, 
of which this monument is formed, is a bluish 
gray basaltic wakke, cleft, and filled with vitre- 
ous feldspar. i 
The same researches in digging to which we 
are indebted for the sculptures represented in 
plates 21, 23, and 29, led to the discovery, in 
the month of January, 1791, of a tomb two 
metres long, and one broad, filled with very fine 
sand, and containing a well preserved skeleton 
of a carnivorous quadruped. The tomb was 
square, and formed of slabs of porous amygda- 
loid, called tezontle. The animal appeared to be 
a coyote, or Mexican wolf. Clay vases and 
small well cast brass bells were placed near the 
bones. This tomb was no doubt that of some 
sacred animal ; for the writers of the sixteenth 
century inform us, that the Mexicans erected 
small chapels to the wolf, chantico ; to the tiger, 
clatocaocelotl ; to the eagle, quetzalhitexolo- 
quauhtli ; and to the snake. The cou, or sacel- 
lum of the chantico, was called tetlanman ; and 
what is more, the priests of the sacred wolf 
formed a particular congregation, the convent 
I 
