saville] ZAPOTECAN TOMBS 355
forty-five degrees was a covering of cement, which, at one time, probably enveloped the mound; it was in the form of an irregular dome with four square sides.
The attention of the Indians was called to a terra-cotta tub- ing or pipe which ran from under the cement covering, coming downward, and ending a few feet away in the field, perhaps three feet from the surface and ten feet beyond the stone wall. I made an excavation here and followed the tubing upward for thirty-six feet, until it ended near the edge of a cement floor. The character of this singular tube may be seen in plate XXI. It was laid in short sections, of varying length, one end being smaller than the other, the small end of one tube being fitted into the large end of the next. Several of the joints still pre- served the cement with which they were made tight. The ex- plorations did not reveal the use of the pipe. I learned from an Indian who has a milpa on the summit of Monte Alban, of a single section of tubing which he found in digging in the end of a mound near the eastern part of the ruins, which specimen is now in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History. I was informed by Sr Don Francisco Leon, Director of the Museum in the city of Oaxaca, that sections have also been found by the Indians at Zachila. No such terra-cotta tubing has ever been discovered elsewhere in Mexico, and a new problem is therefore presented. Near one of the sections of the tube was the cover of a beautiful portrait funeral urn, placed with the face upward.
The capping of cement covering the mound was traced upward, and was found to be covered by a foot of earth which has gathered there, and upon which is a growth of mesquite and guamuchi trees. About ten feet from the end of the tube, rest- ing directly on the cement floor at the center of the mound, were five large funeral urns, representing seated figures, placed in a row facing the west. The urn in the center has a remarkably well modeled face, undoubtedly a portrait of some ancient
�� �
