INDIAN IDOLS 
85 
birds, serpents, all in seemingly inextricable confusion and utter neg. 
lect. 
As you enter the gate of the inclosure, the stone that first strikes your 
view is represented in the following sketch. 
It is a huge mass of serpentine, a stone now rarely found in the Re- 
public. This curious head* was discovered in the year 1837, in the 
street of St. Teresa, on the site of an old Indian Palace, the tradition of 
which records it to have been the residence of Montezuma's father. It is 
a yard broad and twenty-nine inches high. The carving is admirably well 
executed, and strangers are struck with the strong resemblance it bears, 
both in its massiveness and demure style, to the statues of ancient Egypt. 
Bustamante, one of the most learned of the modern antiquarians of Mex- 
ico, asserts it to be the god of Baths. Gondra, the director of the Na- 
tional Museum, on the other hand, alleges it to be the god of Night — ^the 
half shut eyes, and sealed mouth, bearing him out in his. hypothesis. 
Next to this are the " Sacrificial Stone," and the idol " Teoyaomiqui," 
of which I shall treat in a separate letter. Beyond them k the following 
curious figure, 
* Sometimes called " CenteotI," gometiinei " Temozcalteoi." 
