Solis, royal historiographer, speaks of "a
quantity of plumes and other curiosities made from feathers," by the
Aztecs, "whose beauty and natural variety of colors, found on the native
birds of the country, were placed and combined with wonderful art,
distributing the several colors and shadowing the light with the dark so
exactly, that, without making use of artificial colors or of the pencil,
they could draw pictures, and would undertake to imitate nature." One is
constantly importuned, in the patio of the Iturbide Hotel, to purchase
figures and small landscapes newly made of these brilliant feathers,
offered at a very moderate price. Indeed, their production forms quite
an industry among a certain class of Indians. So it seems that this art
has been inherited; there being no present market for such elaborate
examples as used to be produced, the fine artistic ability of centuries
past is neither demanded, nor does it exist. According to one Spanish
authority (Clavigero), so abundant were sculptured images that the
foundation of the cathedral on the Plaza Mayor is entirely composed of
them! Another writer of the same nationality (Gama) says that a new
cellar cannot be dug in the capital without turning up some of the
mouldering relics of barbaric art. As cellars cannot be dug at all on
account of the mere crust of earth existing above the water, this
veracious historian could not have written from personal knowledge, or
have visited the country. It is these irresponsible writers who have
made "history" to suit their own purposes. Father Torquemada surpasses
Baron Munchausen when he tells us that, at the dedication of a certain
aboriginal temple, a procession of persons two miles long, numbering
seventy-two thousand, perished on the sacrificial stone, which is now
exhibited in the National Museum of Mexico. This stone, by the way, is
to our mind clearly Toltec, not Aztec. Examination shows it to be
identical with the stone relics of Tula, the original capital of the
Toltecs. The same may be said of the "Calendar Stone," placed in the
outer walls of the cathedral.

The National Conservatory of Music, dating from January 25, 1553, is
near at hand; so also is the National Library, where the admirable
collection of books numbers nearly two hundred thousand. The confiscated
convent of Saint Augustine serves as an appropriate building for this
library of choice books. We say of choice books, not only because they
are many of