believed, with the philosopher Plato, that there was something majestic and royal
in a large nose, and hence may have used it, in their paintings and reliefs, as the
symbol of power and moral worth.”*
With respect to the form and expression of the Toltecan face, we possess
other remains of antiquity that no doubt approach very near to nature, and at least
express what those people considered the beau-ideal of the human physiognomy.
I allude to the heads moulded in 'terra-cotta, which have been so abundantly found
among the Toltecan ruins of Anahuac. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these
effigies have been obtained from the vicinity of the pyramid of Teotihuacan alone:
they are mostly about an inch in length, and the features are admirably proportioned.
They have high and broad foreheads, oval faces, prominent cheek bones,
and rather tumid lips. They are all very much compressed from back to front,
and appear to have been ornamental appendages of clay vessels in common use.
A late traveller has observed, that the arts could not have been very deficient
with a people “ who, with such coarse materials, and for such common purposes,
could fashion heads on so small a scale, and exhibiting so much character and
expression.”!
Dr. Frederick Edmonds, an English gentleman who passed several years in
the Mexican republic, has presented me with a number of these relics, which
were obtained by him from the ruins of the Temples of the Sun and Moon, at
Teotihuacan. Two of these, which are similar to those described and figured by
Captain Vetch,! are represented in the subjoined wood-cuts.
It is thus that we trace the same style of features in the sculpture of the
nations of Anahuac, from the northern provinces of that country to Nicaragua^ in
* Monuments, I, p. 131.
t Vetch, in Trans. Roy. Geog. Soc. of London, VIII, p. 9. X Ibid, plate II.
§ From Herrera’s account, the people of Nicaragua appear to have continued the custom of
moulding the head up to the time of, the Spanish invasion of the country. His words are as follow:
the south, a distance of twelve hundred miles; while over this vast tract was at
the same time diffused a language, institutions and monuments, which all bespoke
a common origin. Humboldt has somewhere remarked that it is not unlikely that
the figures with enormous aquiline noses, observed in the Mexican hieroglyphic
paintings, may point to a race of men already extinct. For this surmise, however,
there appears to be no foundation; for this peculiarity of Toltecan sculpture is to
be regarded as a conventional rule of art, like others in the bas-reliefs and statues
of the Nile.
The practice of artificially moulding the head, varied, it is true, according to
fancy, has been traced from Peru into Venezuela,* and thence into Nicaragua as
matter of fact; and as we also find the Natchez and other tribes originally from
Mexico addicted to the same usage, we may reasonably infer that the Toltecas
and Aztecs, who give evidence of the same custom in their bas-reliefs, and
hieroglyphics, did really practise it as a national usage; and skulls will no doubt
be hereafter found that will place this question beyond controversy.!
We now turn from the physical to the moral and intellectual character of
the Mexican nations. “ The religion, government and economy of a state,”
observes,Clavigero, “ are three things which chiefly form the character of a nation,
and without being acquainted with these it is impossible to have a perfect idea of
the genius, disposition and knowledge of any people whatever.”! The historian
then adds that the religion of the Mexicans was a heap of errors, superstitions and
cruel rites. Their gods were nearly as numerous as those of the Romans, and
their offices and attributes were mystified by the worst inventious of priestcraft.
They worshipped the sun and moon among their principal divinities, and they
personified the seasons and various phenomena of nature, giving to each its place
in their mythological series: they had a god of war, a god of peace, a god of
mirth, and in fact a god for almost every imaginable contingency, together with
household divinities (answering to the penates of the ancients) almost without
“ Los hombres son de buena statura, mas blancos que loros; las cabegas a tolondrones con un lioyo en
medio por hermosura, i por asiento, i por carga.”—Hist, de las Indias, Dec. I ll, Lib. IV.
* See Plate 64.
t Since this paragraph was written I have received a letter from Dr. John Macartney, of the city
of Mexico, who speaks of .the u singular forms” of the skulls in the ancient cemetery of Santiago de
Tlatelolco. I wait with great interest for the facts these relics may develope. The cemetery asserted
to have been lately discovered at Durango, in the Mexican states, m ay also throw much additional
light on this subject.
X Hist, o f Mexico, B. VI. (Cullen.)