s of its vanished people. A few ancient
trees ornament the neglected plaza, about which a score of weary burros
were seen cropping the scanty herbage which springs up naturally here
and there. The spot is said to exhibit some life on market-days, but it
was lonely and deserted when we looked upon it, while the dry earth
seemed on fire under the intense heat of the sun. It was difficult,
while looking upon this gloomy area, to realize that the place was once
conspicuous for its trade and manufactures, for its wealth and splendor.
The social and official life of Cholula is reported at one time to have
even rivaled the court of Montezuma. Here religious processions,
sacrifices, and festivals were of continual occurrence, and no other
city had so great a concourse of priests and so incessant a round of
ceremonies.

The church known as the Royal Chapel, and also as the Church of the
Seven Naves, situated at the northeast corner of the plaza, was of
considerable interest. The last named was closed, undergoing radical
repairs; but our curiosity was aroused, and a small fee soon opened a
side door through which entrance was effected. The repairs going on will
greatly change its original appearance. One could not but regret to see
its ancient and delicate Moorish frescoes ruthlessly obliterated, the
colors and designing of which so completely harmonized with the
architecture and with the dim light which struggled in through the deep,
small, mullioned windows. This chapel, with its sixty-four supporting
columns, forcibly recalled the peculiar interior of the cathedral
mosque at Cordova in Spain, which, indeed, must have suggested to Cortez
so close though diminutive a copy, for it was built by his special
orders and after his specified plans.

It is said that the early dwellers in this region excelled in various
mechanical arts, especially in the working of metals and the manufacture
of cotton and agave cloth, to which may be added a delicate kind of
pottery, rivaling anything of the sort belonging to that period.
Examples of this pottery are often exhumed in the neighborhood, and as
we suspect are quite as often manufactured to order, for the present
generation of Aztecs is not only very shrewd and cunning, but also very
able in imitating all given models in earthenware. This sort of work
forms a remunerative industry at the present time in Cholula. As we pass
the open doors and windows of the dwelling-houses, cotton goods are