86 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1883. 



AZTEC MUSIC. 

 BY H. T. CRESSON. 



Primitive music seems to have been limited to a few sounds, 

 produced either by percussion or by means of rude instruments ; 

 these sounds or notes in most cases, as musical authorities unite 

 in asserting, represented five tones of the diatonic scale, viz., the 

 tonic or prime note, second, third, fifth and sixth. This would 

 indicate that most barbarous nations were ignorant of the fourth 

 and seventh tones of the scales as known to us. Among the 

 Aztecs, whose remains show superior advancement in the arts, a 

 more thorough appreciation of music evidently existed. To speak 

 first of their percussive music, the huehuetl or large drum of the 

 great temple, at the ancient pueblo of Tenochtitlan, was covered 

 by the skins of serpents, and when beaten could be heard at a 

 distance of several miles. They had clay balls or rattles placed 

 inside of their grotesque clay images, also within the handles 

 attached to their earthenware vessels, which are generally hollow, 

 and contain pebbles or small pellets of clay. 



The Poinsett collection possesses several objects among its 

 interesting and valuable specimens of ancient Mexican art, which, 

 unfortunately, are much injured or almost destroyed ; these are in 

 th>' form of a serpent's head, with protruding forked tongue, and 

 have a ball of clay placed within the mouth. The first-named 

 portion is attached to a handle of terra-cotta, to which, after an 

 examination of several specimens, I am inclined to think, were 

 joined large hollow cylinders of the same material. A portion of 

 these still remain united to the handle, suggesting that they must 

 have been concave. When shaken to and fro, the ball within the 

 head of this terra-cotta serpent rebounds from side to side, thus 

 producing a clear sound resembling that given by our American 

 rattlesnake {Crotalus horridiis) when irritated. A series of these 

 instruments may have been used in their religious ceremonies, and 

 were no doubt placed upon cylinders of large size, balanced so as 

 to regain the perpendicular when set in motion, and in swa^'ing 

 from side to side produced a rattling sound, suggesting that of 

 the serpent above named, which was esteemed a sacred animal by 

 these peoi)le. 



