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, 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 to prove their construction for astronomical purposes. This, however, we have already shown, receives little confirmation from the very complete researches of later times. The fact of their being found only to contain sarcophagi and their mouldering contents; with the grouping alongside of the largest pyramids, of so many of small dimensions, along with catacombs, notoriously constructed as places of sepulture, can hardly justify any conclusion but that the Egyptian pyramids were nothing more than royal tombs ;-an opinion still further confirmed by the great care with which the passages to the sepulchral chambers have invariably been found closed up and concealed. But such is by no means found to be the case on examining, with equal care, other structures corresponding to these Egyptian sepulchres in external form. There are numerous pyramids of various sizes in Nubia. The Temple of Belus (the Birs Nimroud) and the Mujelibè at Babylon, have already been amply described as pyramidal buildings of large dimensions, chiefly constructed of brick. India, in like manner, furnishes examples of pyramidal buildings still standing in the neighbourhood of Benares. But next to the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, those of Spanish America are most calculated to excite attention. Like those of Babylon, the Mexican pyramids are chiefly constructed of bricks. The Great Pyramid of Cholula covers an area more than three times the base of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh; but it is built in the usual form of the Mexican pyrainids, consisting of four receding platforms, each of which is subdivided into a number of small steps, and the top is left as a large open platform, so that the height of the whole is small when compared with the base. Here, however, nearly all resemblance to the pyramids of Egypt ceases, though internal chambers have been discovered in some of them, containing skeletons and having perhaps a monumental character. The pyramids of Cholula appear to have been chiefly designed by the ancient Mexicans as pedestals for the statues of their gods. When Cortez first beheld them, a colossa, statue occupied the summit of each, covered with plates of gold; but the Spaniards stripped them of their costly coverings, and broke them in pieces. Cupidity and blind superstition were the ruling passions of the conquerors, and their proceedings with these native monuments are sufficiently characteristic of their whole course of conquest and dominion. The lofty terrace of the Great Pyramid of Cholula was chosen as the site of a church, dedicated to the Lady de los Remedios, and mass is now daily celebrated in it by a priest of the Indian race, whose ancestors practised there the rites of a scarcely more idolatrous worship. Some of the pyramids of Mexico, though known to the natives, have only recently been discovered by Europeans, and it is a curious fact, consistent with the reverence which we have already observed them to retain for the barbarous idols of their ancestors, that they seem anxious to hide from the strangers the monuments of their forefathers. It is to be noted, however, that no such feeling appears to have been manifested towards Mr. Stephens, when he explored the ancient cities of Yucatan. "On the east of the group of the pyramids of Teotihuacan,” says Humboldt, " on descending the Cordillera towards the Gulf of Mexico, in a thick forest, called Tajin, rises the pyramid of Papantla. This monument was by chance discovered scarcely thirty years ago, by some Spanish hunters; for the Indians carefully conceal from the Whites whatever was an object of ancient veneration. The form of this teocalli, which had six, perhaps seven stories, is more tapering than that of any other monument of this kind: it is nearly eighteen metres in height, while the breadth of its basis is only twenty-five, and consequently about half as high as the pyramid of Caius Cestius at |