Note 771 — Chapter XVIII · ARCHITECTURE AND DWELLINGS OF THE NAHUAS.

'In alto dieci, ò dodici stature d'huomo.' Relatione fatta per vn gentil'huomo del Signor Fernando Cortese, in Ramusio, Navigationi, tom. iii., fol. 307. This is followed by Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 29, who says 56 feet, or about 9 perches. No other dimensions are mentioned by the old chroniclers; Brasseur de Bourbourg, however, gives them a base of 20 feet square, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., pp. 659-60, but this becomes absurd when we consider the height of the buildings, and the accommodation required for the gigantic idols they contained. This author hazards the opinion that the chapels were placed close to the edge, to enable the people to see the idols from below, but there is no mention of any doors on the east side, and it is stated that the chapels were placed at this end so that the people in praying might face the rising sun. Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 119; Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. li.