ple degraded adoration of the reptile itself, or Fetishism, such as is said to exist in some parts of Africa, prevailed in Mexico. The serpent entered into their religious systems only as an emblem. It is nevertheless not impossible, on the contrary extremely probable, that a degree of superstitious veneration attached to the reptile itself. According to Bernal Diaz, living rattlesnakes were kept in the great temple of Mexico as sacred objects. He says: "Moreover, in that accursed house they kept vipers and venomous snakes, who had something at their tails which sounded like morris-bells, and these are the worst of vipers. They were kept in cradles and barrels, and in earthen vessels, upon feathers, and there they laid their eggs, and nursed up their snakelings, and they were fed with the bodies of the sacrificed, and with dogs' meats."* It should be remarked that Diaz was little disposed to look with complacency upon the religion of the Mexicans, or whatever was connected with it, and that his prejudices were not without their influence on his language. His relation, nevertheless, is essentially reliable.

Mr. Mayer has figured several of the monumental serpents of Mexico, one of which is here presented. It will be seen that it represents a feathered rattlesnake coiled, as if encircling a column.†

* Charlevoix (Hist. Paraguay, vol. i. p. 110) relates that Alvarez, in one of his expeditions into Paraguay, found a town in which was a large tower or temple, "the residence of a monstrous serpent which the inhabitants had chosen for a divinity, and which they fed with human flesh. He was as thick as an ox, and seven and twenty feet long." This account seems somewhat apochryphal, although it is not impossible that literal serpent worship may have existed among some of the savage tribes of South America.

In the city of Mexico, says Mr. Mayer, I constantly saw serpents, carved in stone, in the various collections of antiquities. The one represented in the cut exists in the court-yard of the University of Mexico, and is carved with exquisite skill.—(Mayer's Mexico, p. 32.) "The rattlesnake," says Mr. Bullock, was an object of veneration and worship among the Mexicans, and its representations are very commonly met with among the remains of their ancient idolatry.

* * *

The finest that is known to exist is to be seen in the deserted part of the cloister of the Dominican convent, opposite to the palace of the Inquisition. It is coiled up in an irritated erect position, with the jaws extended, in the act of gorging an elegantly dressed female, who appears in the mouth of this enormous reptile crushed and lacerated."

MEXICO.

Vasquez Coronado, Governor of New Gallicia, (as the northern territories of New Spain were then called,) wrote to the Viceroy Mendoza in 1539, concerning the unknown regions still beyond him to the northward. His account was chiefly based upon the fabulous relation of the friar Marco Niza, and is not entirely to be relied upon. In this letter he mentions that "in the province of Topira there were people who had great towers, and temples covered with straw, with small round windows, filled with human skulls, and before the temple a great round ditch, the brim of which was compassed with a serpent made of various metals, which held its tail in its mouth, and before which men were sacrificed."

Mr. Mayer also found other serpents in the same collection with that figured above, in the court-yard of the University of Mexico, which are represented in the following engravings.

Du Paix has given many examples of the carvings representing the snake, which he found in his Antiquarian Explorations in Mexico. FIG. 54, was found near the ancient city of Chochimilco, and represents a snake artificially coiled, carved from a block of porphyry. "Its long body is gracefully entwined, leaving its head and tail free. There is something

showy in the execution of the figure. Its head is elevated and curiously ornamented; its open mouth exhibits two long and pointed fangs; its tongue, which is unusually long, is cloven at the extremity like an anchor; its body is fancifully scaled, and its tail, covered with circles, ends with three rattles. The snake was a frequent emblem with the Mexican artists. The flexibility of its figure rendering it susceptible of an infinite diversity of position, regular and irregular, they availed themselves of this advantage, and varied their representations of it without limit and without ever giving it an unnatural attitude."

Near Quauhquechúla Du Paix found another remarkable sculpture of the serpent, carved in black basalt, and so entwined, that the space within the folds of its body forms a font sufficiently large to contain a considerable quantity of water. The body of the reptile is spirally entwined, and the

head probably served as a handle to move it. It is decorated with circles, and the tail is that of a rattlesnake."

FIG. 55. SERPENT CARVED IN BASALT, MEXICO.

Du Paix also found at Tepeyaca, "In a quarter of the town called St. Michael Tlaixegui (signifying in the Mexican language the cavity of the mountain), the serpent carved in red porphyry, below represented. It is of large dimensions, in an attitude of repose, and coiled upon itself in spiral circles, so

FIG. 56. SERPENT FOUND AT TEPEYACA, MEXICO.

as to leave a hollow space or transverse axis in the middle. The head, which has a fierce expression, is armed with two long and sharp fangs, and the tongue is double, being divided longitudinally. It is to be regretted that the head has been somewhat mutilated. The entire surface of the body is ornamented or covered with broad and long feathers, and the tail terminates in four rattles. Its length, from the head to the extremity of the tail, is about twenty feet, and it gradually