802 M E X 
tliat they appeared to the Spaniards, when at a diftance, 
to have been conftru&ed of diver. The floor was paved 
with plafter, perfectly level, piain, and fmooth. Many of 
their houfes were crowned with battlements and turrets; 
and their gardens had filh-ponds, and the walks of them 
fymmetrically laid out. The large houfes had in general 
two entrances, the principal one to the ftreet, the other 
to the canal: they had no wooden doors to their houfes, 
but covered the entrance with fmall reeds, from whence 
they fufpended a firing of cocoa-fhells, or l'ome other 
materials which would make a noife, fo as to awake the 
attention of the family when any perfon lifted up the 
reeds to enter the houle. The houfes of the poorer fort 
were conftrucled of reeds, unburnt bricks, ftone, or mud; 
and the roofs made of a kind of long hay which grows 
plentifully in the fields, particularly in the warm parts of 
the country. For this purpofe they ufed alfo the leaves 
of the aloe placed in the manner of tiles, to which they 
bear fome referriblance both in thicknefs and fliape. One 
of the columns or lupports of thefe houfes was generally 
a tree in the vigour of its growth ; by which means, be- 
fides the pleafure derived from its foliage and fhade, they 
f'aved themfelves fome labour and expenfe. Thefe houfes 
had one or more apartments according to the circum- 
flances of the family. 
The ancient Mexicans underflood the method of con- 
ftrudiling arches or vaults, as appears from fome remains 
of their buildings, as well as from their paintings. They 
had likewife cornices and other ornaments of architecture. 
They had alfo fquare or cylindrical columns; but it is 
not known whether they had any capitals or not. They 
frequently adorned them with figures in buffo relievo; but 
their great ambition was to have them all made out of 
one ftone. The foundations of the large houfes in the 
capital were laid upon beams of cedar driven into the 
ground, on account of its want of folidity ; and the fame 
method is flill pra&ifed by the Spaniards. The roofs of 
fehefe were made of cedar, fir, cyprefs, pine, &c. Jn the 
royal palaces the columns were of marble, or even of ala- 
bafter, which the Spaniards miflook for jafper. In the 
reign of Ahuizotl a new kind of ftone, named tetzontli, 
was dilcovered in the Mexican lake, which was ever af¬ 
terwards made ufe of for building. It is hard, light, 
and porous like a fponge; by which means the lime ad¬ 
heres very firmly to it. It is valued likewife on account 
of its colour, which is a blood red. Some of the pave¬ 
ments were chequered with marble and other valuable 
ftones. 
All thefe advances tow r ards civilization, however, in 
the ancient Mexicans, were much more than counterba¬ 
lanced by the horrible barbarities they committed in their 
peligious ceremonies, and in which they exceeded every 
nation on earth. Human f'acrifices were indeed in ufe 
among all the ancient heathens ; but fuch prodigious 
maffacres at the dedication of their temples areunheard of 
in hiftory. Molt of thofe unhappy creatures perifhed by 
having their breafts opened, and their hearts pulled out; 
home were drowned, others liarved to death; and fome- 
times they were burnt. Prifoners of high rank were al¬ 
lowed to die by wluft Clavigero calls the gladiatoriuu Jci- 
crijice, which was performed in the following manner : 
Near to the greater temple of large cities, in air open fpace 
of ground lufficient to contain an immenle number of 
people, was a round terrace eight'feet high, upon which 
was* placed a large round ftone refembling a millftone in 
ihape, but much larger, almoft three feet high, well po- 
lifhed, and having figures cut upon it. On this ftone, 
which was called temuleatl, the prifoner was placed, armed 
with a fhield and fhort fword, and tied by one foot. Here 
he was encountered by a Mexican officer or foldier better 
armed than himlelf. If the prifoner. was vanquifhed, he 
was carried, dead or alive, to the temple, where his heart 
was taken out and offered in the ulual manner; but, if he 
conquered fix combatants, he gained his life and liberty. 
Biftorians differ concerning the number of victims who 
ICO. 
periflaed annually in thefe facrifices: Clavigero inclines 
to think it was 20,000, but others make it much more. 
Zumarraga, the firft bifhop of Mexico, fays in a letter of 
the 12 th of June, 1531, addreffed to the general chapter of 
his order, that in that capital alone there were above 20,000 
vi&ims annually facrificed. Some authors, quoted by 
Gomara, fay that 50,000 were annually facrificed in the 
various parts of the empire. Acofta fays, that there was 
a certain day of the year on which they facrificed 5000 
viClims, and another on which 20,000 were facrificed. 
According to others they facrificed, on the mountain 
Tepeyacac only, 20,000 annually to one of their female 
deities. On the other hand, Bartholomew de las Cafas 
reduces the number of human vidtims to jo, or at moft to 
100, annually. “ We are ftrongly of opinion (fays Cla¬ 
vigero), that all thefe authors hav.e erred in the number; 
Las Cafas by diminution, and the reft by exaggerating the 
truth.” On the other hand, Las Cafas accufes his country¬ 
men, the Spaniards, of having deftroyed about 15,000,000 
of Mexicans. 
The temples of the ancient Mexicans were called teo- 
calli ; i. e. “ the houfe of the god.” Thefe edifices were 
all of the fame form, though of very different dimenfions; 
they were pyramids, with feveral terraces, and the Tides 
of which flood exadlly in the diredlion of the meridian, 
and the parallel of the place. They were raifed in the 
midft of a fquare and walled enclofure, which, fomewhat 
like the of the Greeks, contained gardens, foun¬ 
tains, the dwellings of the priefts, and fometimes arfenals ; 
ftnce each houfe of a Mexican divinity, like the ancient 
temple of Baal Berith, burnt by Abimeiech, was a ftrong 
place. A great flaircafe led to the top of the truncated 
pyramid, and on the fummit of the platform were one or 
two chapels, built like towers, which contained the co- 
loffal idols of the divinity, to whom the teo-calli was de¬ 
dicated. This part of the edifice mull be.confidered as 
the moft conlecrated place, and it was here that the priefts 
kept up the facred fire. From the peculiar conftruCtion 
of the edifice we have juft defcribed, the prieft who of¬ 
fered the facrifice was feen by a great mafs of the people 
at the fame time ; the proceftion of the teopixqui, or priefts, 
afcending or defcending the flaircafe of the pyramid, was 
beheld at a confiderable diftance. The infide of the edi¬ 
fice was the burial-place of the kings and principal per- 
fonages of Mexico. It is impoflible to read the defcrip- 
tions, which Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus have left 
us, of the temple of Jupiter Belus, without being ftruck 
with the refemblance of that Babylonian monument to 
the teo-callis of Anahuac. The teo-calli of Mexico was 
dedicated to Tezcatlipoca, the firft of the Azteck divini¬ 
ties after Teotl, who is the fupreme and invifible being ; 
and to Huitziiopochtli, the god of war. It was built by 
the Aztecks, on the model of the pyramids of Teotihua- 
can, fix years only before the dilcovery of America by 
Columbus. This truncated pyramid, called by Cortes the 
principal temple, was a hundred yards in breadth at its 
balls, and nearly fifty-eight in height. 
But the greateft, moft ancient, and moft celebrated, of 
the whole of the pyramidal monuments of Anahuac is the 
teo-calli of Cholula, in the province of Tlafcaia. It is 
called in the prefent day the Mountain made by the Hand 
of Man, Monte Hecko a Manus. At a diftance it has the 
afpeCt of a natural hill covered with vegetation. The 
great teo-calli of Cholula, called alfo the Mountain of 
Unbaked Bricks, had an altar on its top, dedicated to 
Quetzalcoatl, the god of the air. This Quetzalcoatl, 
wliofe name fignifies “ ferpent clothed with green fea¬ 
thers,” is the moft myfterious being of the whole Mex¬ 
ican mythology. He was a white and bearded man, like 
the Bochica of the Muyfcus. He vvas high prieft of Tula 
(Tolan), legiflator, chief of a religious left, which, like 
the Sanyaffes and the Buddhills of Hindooltan, inflicted 
on themfelves the moft cruel penances. He introduced 
the cuftom of piercing the lips and the ears, and lacerat¬ 
ing the reft of the body, with the prickles of the' agave- 
3 leaves. 
