Note 47 — Chapter IV · PALACES AND HOUSEHOLDS OF THE NAHUA KINGS.

I have no doubt that this is the basin known to modern travelers as the 'Baths of Montezuma,' of which Ward says that it is neither of the proper shape, nor large enough for a bath, but that it more probably 'served to receive the waters of a spring, since dried up, as its depth is considerable, while the edge on one side is formed into a spout.' Mexico, vol. ii., p. 297. Of late years this excavation has been repeatedly described by men who claim to have visited it, but whose statements it is hard to reconcile. Bullock mentions having seen on this spot 'a beautiful basin about twelve feet long by eight wide, having a well about five feet by four deep in the centre, surrounded by a parapet or rim two feet six inches high, with a throne or chair, such as is represented in ancient pictures to have been used by the kings. There are steps to descend into the basin or bath; the whole cut out of the living porphyry rock with the most mathematical precision, and polished in the most beautiful manner.' Mexico, vol. ii., pp. 125-6. Latrobe says there were 'two singular basins, of perhaps two feet and a half in diameter, not big enough for any monarch bigger than Oberon to take a duck in.' Rambler, p. 187; Vigne's Travels, vol. i., p. 27, mentions 'the remains of a circular stone bath ... about a foot deep and five in diameter, with a small surrounding and smoothed space cut out of the solid rock.' Brantz Mayer, who both saw it and gives a sketch of it, writes: 'The rock is smoothed to a perfect level for several yards, around which, seats and grooves are carved from the adjacent masses. In the centre there is a circular sink, about a yard and a half in diameter, and a yard in depth, and a square pipe, with a small aperture, led the water from an aqueduct, which appears to terminate in this basin.' Mex. as it Was, p. 234. Beaufoy says that two-thirds up the southern side of the hill was a mass of fine red porphyry, in which was an excavation six feet square, with steps leading down three feet, having in the centre a circular basin four and a half feet in diameter and five deep also with steps. Mex. Illustr., p. 195. 'On the side of the hill are two little circular baths, cut in the solid rock. The lower of the two has a flight of steps down to it; the seat for the bather, and the stone pipe which brought the water, are still quite perfect.' Tylor's Anahuac, p. 152.