,222 MEXICO. 
ately after its reception, and I scarcely regret the occurrence now, as one 
of the best antiquarians of Mexico cast considerable doubt on its genuine- 
ness. It is the fashion here, as in Italy, to manufacture antiquities by 
the gross, and it requires a keen eye to detect the imposture. 
As we left the Pyramids of Tezcoco, after our morning's examina- 
tion, we were beset by several of the burghers who professed to sell 
large collections of interesting fragments and statues. Among these 
worthies was an old Indian who lived directly opposite the largest of the 
pyramids, and spent his leisure hours in groping among the ruins. We 
accompanied them, one after the other, to their houses, but found scarcely 
anything worthy of purchase except a few small idols of serpentine, and 
some personal ornaments cut from an exceedingly hard and brittle stone. 
As to the Indian — his idols were the dolls of all his progeny, and had 
been pounded about the yard of his mud hovel for so many years, that 
their features were entirely obliterated. 
In the evening, the person who was to be our guide in the neighbor- 
hood, came into town and immediately visited us. I found him to be an 
honest; open-hearted, rollicking fellow ; who passed his time in catching 
cattle — looking after a small milpa, or corn-field — and hunting in the 
neighboring mountains. His hands and face were scarred by his numer- 
ous encounters with the beasts ; yet before he left us he made one of the 
girls of the family tune her guitar, and leading out another, danced a 
fandango, while he chanted a song in a patois that I could not under- 
stand, but which seemed highly amusing from the merriment of the 
company. 
9th October. — Sunday. A night passed in Jieadom ! We were, con- 
sequently, abroad early — and the day was beautiful. At half-past nine 
we were in our saddles, and on our way to the 
PYRAMIDS OF ST. JUAN TEOTIHUACAN. 
On leaving the town our road lay in a northeasterly direction, through 
a number of picturesque villages buried in foliage, and fenced with the 
organ cactus, lifting its tall pillar-like stems to a height of twenty feet 
above the ground. The country was rolling, and we passed over several 
elevations and a stream or two before we turned suddenly to the right, 
and saw the village of St. Juan with an extensive level beyond it, bor- 
dered on all sides by mountains, except toward the east, where a deep 
depression in the chain leads into the plains of Otumba. In the centre 
of this level are the Pyramids of Teotihuacan, and the opposite engra- 
