268 THE PYRAMIDS. 
CHAP. them\ In America, pyramids were built in 
. this manner by the antient inhabitants of that 
great continent. That those pyramids were also 
temples, is true; because all antient sepulchres 
were objects of worship, and tombs were the 
Mexican Origin of temples^. The Spaniards, when they 
first arrived in Mexico, found pyramids as temples 
there; but they were sepulchres. Gage de- 
scribes one of these': "It was," says he, "a 
square mount of earth and stone, fifty fathoms 
long every way, built upwards like to a pyramid 
of Egypt, saving that the top was not sharp, 
but plain and flat, and ten fathoms square. 
Upon the west side were steps up to the top." 
By the account Gemelli gives'* of the Mexican 
Pyramids at Teotiguacan (signifying, in the 
language of the country, a Place of Gods, or of 
jidoration), they were erected, like the Egyp- 
tian Pyramids, for sepulchres. The first he 
saw was a Pyramid of the Moon, about one 
(1) SeeVol.III. of theseTravels, p. 73. Octavo edit. A rfo^ is often 
represented upon tlie sepulchral StiJlae, as a tvpe of the Egyptian 
Mercury. Tliis Deity appears upon Egyptian monuments, represeuteil 
by a human fij^ure with a dog's head. 
(2) See Vol. II. of theseTravels, p. 7.5. Octavo edit. 
(3) Survey of the TVesl Indies, Chap. xii. Lo7id. 1677. 
(4) Travels, lib. ii. c. 8. Part 6. 
