The construction of these pyramids is ascribed to the _Tolteck_ nation, in which event they were built in the eighth or ninth century.[7] It has been asserted that these and the other Mexican Pyramids are hollow; but as far as investigations have been carried, their solidity seems established. Constructed as they are, if they were hollow the destructive influence of so many centuries which have elapsed since their erection, would have discovered it. The supposition is equally ill-founded that they are mere casings or crusts to natural eminences. So far as rains have laid them open, or the hand of man exposed to view their interior, all is artificial. It is idle to argue that if they were completely artificial, the materials which form them must have been dug from some contiguous spot, and that this has no where been discovered. Places are seen from which the materials have been collected; and the circumjacent plain is strewed thickly with _tetzontli_, quite abundant enough to build other pyramids, without being reduced to the necessity of digging into the earth. [Footnote 7: Humb. T. 2. l. 3. c. 8. p. 67.] At _San Juan_, about half a league from the pyramids, we rejoined our carriage, and at 11 A. M. set out for Mexico, distant ten leagues. We travelled rapidly over a dreary but not a bad road, and passing _Tololcingo_, crossed the dry bed of the lake of _Tescuco_, shortening our ride a league or so. At a _venta_, or small inn, near _Santa Clara_, we had the good fortune to meet with an idol, dug up in the vicinity, which we bought; it represents a naked female, her hands crossing her breast, her nose of prodigious size, and hair plaited down the back. The figure is about two feet high.[8] [Footnote 8: This idol was sent to the museum of the college at Charleston, S. C.] We arrived at _Guadalupe_ at 3 P. M. and an hour's ride over a good _calzada_, bordered with pretty aspins, brought us to the capital. Our jaunt has been very delightful, and we have met with great kindness. From what we have seen of the antiquities of Mexico, we are impressed with a far more favorable opinion than we had entertained of the civilized state of the Indians before the Conquest. For the Southern Literary Messenger. MR. WHITE: The subjoined copy of an old Scotch ballad, contains so much of the beauty and genuine spirit of by-gone poetry, that I have determined to risk a frown from the fair lady by whom the copy was furnished, in submitting it for publication. The ladies sometimes violate their promises--may I not for once assume their privilege, in presenting to the readers of the Messenger this "legend of the olden time," although _I promised not_? Relying on the kind heart of the lady for forgiveness for _this breach of promise_, I have anticipated the pardon in sending you the lines, which I have never as yet seen in print. SIDNEY. BALLAD.