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MEXICO. 
In the left-hand corner of this sculpture will be perceived the head of 
a monstrous beast, whose bearded and open jaws are armed with sharp 
teeth, from between which protrudes a forked tongue. In front of this is 
a crook or staff, terminated by a plume of feathers, similar to that of the 
head-dress of the figures that will be subsequently described. Beneath 
the mouth of the monster is a square, resembling a hieroglyph, or perhaps 
a Chinese letter • and below this is a rabbit, a figure which will be no- 
ticed again on the corner stone that formed part of the base of the second 
story, as well as on the frieze of the first. 
Nothing of this pyramid remains so uninjured as the northern front; 
and this, with the exception of parts of the frieze and cornice, is still en- 
tire. I present, in the plate marked A, a copy of the drawing made of 
it by Alzate at the period of his visit in 1777. 
It will be perceived, that although the figures at the corners somewhat 
resemble those already described on the western front, yet the lines pro- 
ceeding from the mouths of the monsters' heads fall in a curve ; and it 
was doubtless from these that the story repeated by Humboldt originated, 
that " at the Pyramid of Xochicalco there were representations of croco- 
diles spouting water." They certainly are not crocodiles, but more prob- 
ably, some fabulous monsters fashioned from the imaginations of the un- 
known builders, or compounded, perhaps, of various symbols by which 
they represented their deities. 
On the frieze are constantly repeated the figures represented by Nebel 
in the following drawings : 
