CHAPTER VI.
Palpan and the Toltecs.
Aspect of the Hill—Mogotes—The Toltecs and their Building Propensities—A Toltec House—Antiquities—Fragments—Malacates—Toltec Palace—Toltec Organisation—Dress—Customs—Education—Marriage—Orders of Knighthood—Philosophy—Religion—Future Life—Pulque—End of the Toltec Empire—Emigration.
The plateau on the Palpan hill, of which we give a ground plan, was occupied by a royal park, and maybe those of a few notables. Its direction is south-west, north-west, about a mile in length and half-a-mile in breadth, growing to a point towards the south-west, and fenced on two sides by a natural wall of perpendicular rocks overhanging the river. The plateau is covered with mounds, pyramids, and esplanades, showing that here were the royal villas, temples, and public edifices, but no trace of building, wall, or ruin, is visible, for the whole area is shrouded with immense cactuses, nopals, gorambullos, gum-trees, and mesquites, amongst which towers the biznaga, a cactus which grows here to nearly 10 ft. high by 6 ft. wide. I was shown a plant of this kind near Pachuca, in which an Indian couple have established themselves.
The summits of pyramids, called mogotes by the natives, were always occupied by temples and palaces; the largest here, No. 4
GROUND PLAN OF FIRST TOLTEC HOUSE UNEARTHED AT TULA (FROM LEMAIRE).
A, Cisterns. B, Various Apartments. C, Kitchen. D, Seats. E, Entrance. and No. 5 in our cut, must have served as basements for the temples of the Sun and Moon. Unfortunately they have been opened and ransacked by treasure-seekers, and half-demolished by brick-layers, who found here materials ready to hand for their constructions.
I began my excavations by sounding the small mound No. 1 to the northeast, where the side of a wall was visible; and I found everywhere the ground connecting houses, palaces, and gardens, thickly coated with cement: but in the inner rooms the flooring was of red cement. The rubbish was cleared away, and in a few days a complete house was unearthed, consisting of several apartments of various size, nearly all on different levels; having frescoed walls, columns, pilasters, benches, and cisterns, recalling a Roman impluvium, whilst flights of steps and narrow passages connected the various apartments. We had brought to light a Toltec house!
