Domestic utensils made of the ordinary pottery of the country, but skilfully and even artistically formed, have been exhumed from among these ruins of ancient cities; and in the course of Mr. Norman's explorations he unearthed two singular and grotesque images which probably figured in the idolatrous worship of the Indians. Our traveller found that similar images were used by the Indian women of the present day, who suspended them about their necks as talismans, and especially relied on them in seasons of sickness and danger. The images referred to are hollow, with a small aperture near one of the shoulders, and are filled with balls as large as a pea, which are supposed to have been made of the ashes of victims sacrificed in former days to the gods. We have ourselves seen numbers of these earthern figures in the valley of Mexico, where they are vulgarly known as "Mexican's Idols." Travellers have usually classed them among the Dii Penates or household gods of the Aztecs or Toltecs, but we have regarded them either as the ornaments of a primitive people or as the dolls and playthings of their children. In our plates of antiquities discovered in the valley, several figures are to be found which we think belong unquestionably to this class.
Pyramid of Papantla.
Sixteen leagues from the sea and fifty-two north of Vera Cruz, on the eastern slope of the Cordilleras, lies the village of Papantla, in the midst of plains which are constantly fertilized by streams that descend from the mountains. It is the centre of a remarkably rich agricultural district, capable of producing the most luxuriant crops of pepper, coffee, tobacco, cotton, vainilla, sugar and sarsaparilla, and abounding in all varieties of valuable woods; but the heat and maladies of the burning climate prevent the whites from venturing to till so dangerous a district. Accordingly we find that this Indian village has hardly a single Spanish inhabitant or visiter except the priest and the traders who come from the coast to traffic their foreign goods for the products of the aborigines. Two leagues
from this secluded hamlet, lie spread over the plain, the massive ruins of an ancient city, which in its palmy days was more than a mile and a half in circuit. It is a matter of great regret that these relics have never been sufficiently explored, drawn and described. The most satisfactory account that we possess of them is that given in the "Voyage Pittoresque et Archeologique" of Monsieur Nebel, who visited them several years ago, and has sketched the beautiful pyramid represented in the plate, which is unquestionably one of the most perfect and symmetrical relics of antiquity within the present limits of the republic. Time has done its work upon this remarkable remain; and trees, plants and vines, which grow so rapidly in this teeming climate, have sprung among its joints and stories.
The Indians of the neighborhood call this pyramid "El Tajin;" it consists of seven bodies, stages or stories, each of which rises at the same angle of inclination, and is terminated by a frieze and cornice. It is constructed of sand-stone beautifully squared, joined and covered with hard stucco, which appears to have been painted. The pyramid measures one hundred and twenty feet on every side at its base, and is ascended by a stair composed of fifty seven steps, each measuring one foot in height, and terminating at the top of the sixth story. This stairway is divided in three places, by square recesses two feet in depth, resembling those which perforate the friezes on each of the stories. The stair ends at the top of the sixth story, and the seventh, which seems to be in ruins, is hollow, and was probably the shrine wherein sacrifices were offered before the image of the god to whom the pyramid was dedicated. Monsieur Nebel does not state the height of this edifice; but as he gives the elevation of each of the fifty-seven steps, we may calculate that the summit of the shrine is at least sixty-six feet above the base.