It was found lying on the side of a ravine, resting upon the dilapidated walls of an ancient sepulchre, of which nothing now remains but a loose pile of hewn stones. It was more than four feet beneath the present surface of the ground, and was brought to light in the course of excavating which revealed a corner of the slab, and the loose adjacent stones that had been bared by the rush of waters in the rainy season, while breaking a new and deep channel to the river. The earth that covered the slab and sepulchre had not been heaped by the hand of man; but was the natural accumulation of time, and many years must have been requisite to bury it so deeply. * * * * * Three leagues south of Panuco, there are other ancient Indian remains which are known as the ruins of Chacuaco, and are represented as covering an area of three square leagues, all of which were comprised within the bounds of a large city; we should mention also the ruins of San Nicolas, five leagues south-west; and [Illustration: AZTEC FIGURES IN CLAY.] those of La Trinidad, about six leagues in nearly the same direction. Besides these, there are other ruins of which the traveller was informed, situated at a still greater distance, all of which present the same general features as those already described, and probably belonged to the same period, or were built by the same race. The whole region is alleged to be full of these memorials of the number, power and wealth of the ill-fated nations that once dwelt and worshipped on the eastern slopes of the Mexican Cordilleras. Domestic utensils made of the ordinary pottery of the country, but skilfully and even artistically formed, have been exhumed from among these ruins of ancient cities; and in the course of Mr. Norman's explorations he unearthed two singular and grotesque images which probably figured in the idolatrous worship of the Indians. Our traveller found that similar images were used by the Indian women of the present day, who suspended them about their necks as talismans, and especially relied on them in seasons of sickness and danger. The images referred to are hollow, with a small aperture near one of the shoulders, and are filled with balls as large as a pea, which are supposed to have been made of the ashes of victims sacrificed in former days to the gods. We have ourselves seen numbers of these earthern figures in the valley of Mexico, where they are vulgarly known as "Mexican's Idols." Travellers have usually classed them among the _Dii Penates_ or household gods of the Aztecs or Toltecs, but we have regarded them either as the ornaments of a primitive people or as the dolls and playthings of their children. In our plates of antiquities discovered in the valley, several figures are to be found which we think belong unquestionably to this class. PYRAMID OF PAPANTLA.