ge stone statue of this deity was
placed, and that a plate of polished gold upon its front reflected back
the first rays of the rising sun. The name Teotihuacan signifies the
"house of the gods." Doubtless it was, in unknown centuries past, the
centre of a thriving civilisation and busy and extensive agricultural
population. To-day the great pyramid casts its shadow toward a small
village of _jacales_, upon a semi-arid plain.

The pyramid of Cholula is of truncated form, like most of these
numerous structures. Its height is 200 feet and its base measures 1,440
feet, which is greater than that of the pyramid of Cheops, and it forms
the oldest and largest teocalli in Mexico. The presiding deity of this
"house of God" was the mysterious Quetzalcoatl. In company with
Teotihuacan at Texcoco, and Papantla, in the State of Vera Cruz,
Cholula is ascribed to the Toltecs. The elevation above sea-level of
the site of this structure is 7,500 feet, and at the time of Cortes the
surrounding town is said to have contained a population of 150,000
inhabitants. Its summit is more than an acre in extension, and although
partly obliterated and overgrown, the pyramid is crowned to-day with a
Roman Catholic church of Spanish-American type. As has been described,
these Teocallis were for purposes of religious rite and sacrifice, and
upon their upper platforms were the sanctuaries, idols, and
never-extinguished sacred fire, all reached by exterior staircases up
the slope of the structure.

The State of Oaxaca--and part of the adjoining State of Guerrero--is
remarkable for the numerous ruins of prehistoric inhabitants scattered
upon its ridges and mountain crests. Terraces, pyramids, and walls
crown the summits and extend down the slopes, actually clashing in some
cases with the natural profiles of the hills, and causing the natural
and artificial to mingle in a strange, and at first glance, scarcely
distinguishable blend. These numerous ruins, and the small cultivated
terraced patches on the almost inaccessible hill slopes, bring to mind
the similar constructions of the old ruins and the singular "andenes"
of the Andes of Peru.[8] They point to a busy and numerous population
in former times, and in some cases the topography of whole mountain
slopes has been remodelled by the hand of prehistoric man. No place was
too inaccessible, and terrace and temple crown the Andine summits in
Peru at more than 16,000 feet elevation above sea-level, and in