This narrow valley is so completely closed in by perpendicular rocks, that it would be next to impossible to spy it out without a guide; it is fringed half-way up by gloomy pines, but above us the rock is quite bare. Stray cattle graze peaceably at the bottom of the valley, which owes its name to the nearest peak, “Nahualac.” The latter must have been a far more important funeral station than Tenenepanco. Everything favours this assumption, whilst stone foundations make it probable that a temple or a sanctuary dedicated to Tlaloc once stood here, similar to that mentioned by Father Duran, of which no trace has been found by us. We descry, however, to the north-east of the valley, an artificial pond 195 feet in circumference; in the centre rose a monument, the foundations of which are still extant; and round the pond are similar but smaller monuments, pedestals, altars, or chapels, bearing the statue of Tlaloc.
In a few minutes my men unearthed no fewer than forty vases, several plates, goblets, in the same style as those found at Tenenepanco, save that the clay is coarser and the ornamentation more archaic. This beginning was so promising, that notwithstanding the bitter cold at night, only half-sheltered as we were, my dreams were golden; and the next morning, after a hot cup of coffee mixed with a good dose of mezcal, we were eager to set to work again, when our “finds” were if anything more abundant, and similar to those of the previous day: idols, cups, three-footed goblets, pottery with Tlaloc’s image; very few jewels, however, and no precious stones, whilst the total absence of human remains seems to indicate great antiquity for these remains.
It may be well to mention that a small cup, bearing the image of Tlaloc and placed in the centre of the Tenenepanco Plate, belongs properly to Nahualac. It forms a pendant to another cup also in my possession. Both are quite unique in their way, for nothing in the Aztec antiquities recalls either the material, the shape, the ornamentation, or the workmanship. If this cemetery were Aztec, therefore, it must date back to the early establishment of that tribe in the valley; but in all probability it is either Chichemec or Toltec, for had it been Aztec, human remains would have been found, whereas it is well known that the Toltecs offered only birds, feathers, and flowers to their favourite god, and this leads us to suppose that Nahualac was one among the primeval Toltec stations.
Our four days’ explorations produced nearly eight hundred pieces of all kinds. Our sanguine hopes had been more than realised, and with jubilant feelings we bade the mountain adieu; but alas! our treasure, like its predecessor, went to fill up the shelves of the Mexican Museum.
If the ascent had been painful, the descent was even more so. Leaving the Indians to follow with our luggage, Colonel Castro and I went in advance; but we soon lost our way, and rolled rather than walked down the steep, precipitous slopes of the mountain, whilst our horses, which we were leading, came upon us like avalanches, and often threatened our destruction. We reached the plain at last, and a few minutes brought us to Ameca.
Our excavations on the high plateaux are over; we leave for the warm region, to follow the Toltecs in their great migration at the beginning of the eleventh century.
POND OF NAHUALAC.