154 
traction of the word Miguitlan^ which signifies^ 
in the Mexican language, place of desolation^ 
place of ICO, This term appears to have been 
well chosen for a site so savage and lugubrious, 
that, according to the narrative of travellers, the 
warbling of birds is there scarcely ever heard. 
The Tzapoteck Indians call these ruins Leoha^ 
or Luiva, hurial^ alluding to the excavations 
found beneath the^ walls covered with arabes- 
ques. I have had occasion to speak of this mo- 
nument in my Political Essay on the Kingdom of 
New Spain*. 
According to the traditions that have been 
preserved, the principal purpose of these build- 
ings was to mark the spot where the ashes of the 
Tzapoteck princes reposed. The sovereign, at 
the death of a son or a brother, withdrew into 
one of these habitations, which were erected over 
the tombs, to deliver himself up to grief and re- 
ligious rites. Others assert, that a family of 
priests, charged with the expiatory sacrifices 
which were made for the repose of the dead, 
lived in this solitary abode. 
The plan of the palace drawn by a very dis- 
tinguished Mexican artist, Don Luis Martin, 
.‘shows, that originally there existed at Mitla five 
Vol. first, page 263. 
t Fliite49. 
