" This circumstance did
not escape the attention of Humboldt, who says, "I am astonished at
finding a palm-tree near this teocalli. This tree certainly does not
indicate a northern origin. . . . The possibility that an unskilful
artist should unintentionally represent a tree of which he had no
knowledge is so great, that any argument dependent on it hangs upon a
slender thread." ("North Americans of Antiquity," p. 266.)
The Miztecs, a tribe dwelling on the outskirts of Mexico, had a
tradition that the gods, "in the day of obscurity and darkness," built
"a sumptuous palace, a masterpiece of skill, in which they male their
abode upon a mountain. The rock was called 'The Place of Heaven;' there
the gods first abode on earth, living many years in great rest and
content, as in a happy and delicious land, though the world still lay in
obscurity and darkness. The children of these gods made to themselves a
garden, in which they put many trees, and fruit-trees, and flowers, and
roses, and odorous herbs. Subsequently there came a great deluge, in
which many of the sons and daughters of the gods perished." (Bancroft's
"Native Races," vol.
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