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be acquired from these figures, respecting the gaudy costumes of the ancient warriors, than can be obtained elsewhere. During the time (and it occupied several days) the operation of taking the casts was going on, the populace surrounded the place, and, although they behaved with great order and civility, would frequently express their surprise as to the motives that could induce me to take so much pains in copying these stones; and several wished to be informed whether the English, whom they consider ed to be non-Christians, worshipped the same gods as the Mexicans did before their conversion. I availed myself of the publicity which this operation gave to my pursuits, to offer to purchase any articles of curiosity from the Indians, or to reward those who could procure me intelligence of such. The consequence was, that various articles which had been carefully concealed were brought to light. Such as were portable I purchased, and of others I took casts and drawings, to enable me to make fac-similes on my return to England.

Mr. Bullock brought home with him to England, a most singular and highly interesting collection of Mexican antiquities, and also numerous fac-similes and casts of such objects as were either too bulky to be brought away, or could not be removed. These were exhibited in the Egyptian Hall London, and excited a lively interest about the country from whence they were brought. This curious collection was afterwards dispersed; and the casts of the singular native groups which adorn the sacrificial stone of Mexico, as well as other and still more remarkable relics afterwards referred to, now form part of the valuable collection of antiquities preserved at Edinburgh, in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries.

But still more remarkable is the evidence called forth by another incident during Mr. Bullock's residence in Mexico, which suffices to show that the endurance of Spanish domination, and the enforced uniformity of creed

among the native Indians by their conquerors, have failed to obliterate entirely their veneration for the faith of their fathers. Pursuing his researches, Mr. Bullock remarks: "The largest and most celebrated of the Mexican deities was known to be buried under the gallery of the university. With some difficulty the spot was ascertained. Application was made to the heads of the college through the politeness of Senor Del Rio, professor of Mineralogy, and the great goddess was disinterred at the expense of the university. It was the labour of a few hours only, and I had the pleasure of seeing the resurrection of this horrible deity, before whom tens of thousands of human victims had been sacrificed, in the religious and sanguin ary fervour of its infatuated worshippers.

"Those who have read the relation of Cortez of the transactions of the siege of Mexico must have shuddered at the horrid recital of the enormities committed on those who were unfortunately made captives by the natives. The heart, still panting with life, was taken by the priest from the breast, and deemed the more acceptable to the deity if it smoked with life: and the mangled limbs of the victim were then divided amongst the crowd as a feast worthy of the goddess.

"In the night of desolation, called by the Spaniards Noche Triste, in which many were made prisoners by the Mexicans, the adventurous Cortez, and his few remaining companions in arms, were horror struck by witnessing the cruel manner in which their captive fellow-adventurers were dragged to the sacrificial stone, and their hearts, yet warm with vitality, presented by the priests to the gods; and the more the separated seat of life teemed with animation, the more welcome was the offering to the goddess, the more heart-rending the cries of the victims, the more grateful the sacrifice to this monster representative of deformity and carnage.

"Some writers have accused the Spanish authors of ex

aggeration in their accounts of the religious ceremonies of this, in other respects, enlightened people; but a view of the idol under consideration will of itself be sufficient to dispel any doubt on the subject. It is scarcely possible for the most ingenious artist to have conceived a statue better adapted to the intended purpose; and the united talents and imagination of Brughel and Fuseli would in vain have attempted to improve it.

"This colossal and horrible monster is hewn out of one solid block of basalt, nine feet high, its outlines giving an idea of a deformed human figure, uniting all that is horrible in the tiger and rattle-snake. Instead of arms it is supplied with two large serpents, and its drapery is composed of wreathed snakes, interwoven in the most disgusting manner, and the sides terminating in the wings of a vulture. Its feet are those of the tiger, with claws extended in the act of seizing its prey, and between them lies the head of another rattle-snake, which seems descending from the body of the idol. Its decorations accord with its horrid form, having a large necklace composed of human hearts, hands, and skulls, and fastened together by the entrails,-the deformed breasts of the idol only remaining uncovered. It has evidently been painted in natural colours, which must have added greatly to the terrible effect it was intended to inspire in its votaries.

During the time it was exposed, the court of the university was crowded with people, most of whom expressed the most decided anger and contempt. Not so, however, all the Indians :-I attentively marked their countenances; not a smile escaped them, or even a word-all was silence and attention. In reply to a joke of one of the students, an old Indian remarked, 'It is true we have three very good Spanish gods, but we might still have been allowed to keep a few of those of our ancestors!' and I was informed that chaplets of flowers had been placed on the

figure by natives who had stolen thither, unseen, in the evening for that purpose; a proof that, notwithstanding the extreme diligence of the Spanish clergy for three hundred years, there still remains some taint of heathen superstition among the descendants of the original inhabitants. In a week the cast was finished, and the goddess again committed to her place of interment, hid from the profane gaze of the vulgar."

This interesting narrative gives a melancholy picture of the wretched substitute of the "Three Spanish Gods," for such bloody idols. Had the Spanish conquerors been the means of introducing the pure light of Christian truth among the benighted Indians, it would indeed have proved a recompense for the sufferings and wrongs which their fathers endured; but all modern travellers concur in describing the Spanish American priests as openly abandoned to the grossest vice, while their religious services, though devoid of the bloody sacrifices of the old native rites, are not a whit less idolatrous and puerile than those which they superseded.

CHAPTER II.

MEXICAN ARCHITECTURE.

Build on in hope, with pillar, dome, and tower,
Not for the present, but a distant hour.
Brief is the span of life; the builder eyes
His deep-thought plan, and sees the walls arise;
Anticipates the whole, and then expires
Ere half accomplished. Yet his genius fires
The lasting pile. Not men but nations too
By such defy oblivion.

ANON.

THE curiosity naturally excited by the discovery of powerful and comparatively civilized nations, occupying a continent separated by vast and seemingly impassable oceans from the Old World, has naturally led to a most anxious investigation of whatever seemed to present an appearance of affinity and legitimate ground of comparison with works of the Old World. Two of the most noted of these have been, the pyramids and the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the Aztec monuments. To the superficial reasoner it might seem to settle the question of the origin of the Aztecs, Tolteckans, or by whatever name the American pyramid builders are known, to learn that they built pyramids and used a hieroglyphic mode of inscribing them. Pyramids, however, we have already shown, are found to have been erected by many ancient people, and are in themselves among the most primitive of all defined architectural forms.

The probable use for which the vast structures of the earlier Pharaohs were designed has been the subject of much discussion, and repeated attempts have been made

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