596 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



Professor Kollman^ figures and describes iustruments of this and 

 other Mexican types in a paper entitled "Floteu und Pfeifen aus Alt- 

 Mexiko" (in the Festschrift published by Riemer in Berlin in commemo- 

 ration of the seventieth birthday of Adolf Bastian.) These instru- 

 ments form part of a series of Mexican antiquities belonging to the 

 ethnographic collection in Basel. They were obtained in Mexico by 

 Henri Lukas Vischer during the years 1828-1837. A translation, most 

 kindly furnished by Mr. H. von Bayer, of Professor Kollmau's descrii^- 

 tiou of the double-headed bird whistles, is as follows : 



On the fife (fig. 4) there 

 is an imitation of a prairie 

 hen {Bonasa ciqnclo). An- 

 other fife of our collection 

 shows a pair of these hens 

 united similar to the dou- 

 ble eagle, as shown iu fig. 5. 

 The animals are represent- 

 ed iu a live attitude; the 

 wings are spread, the head 

 and tail held up, as if pre- 

 pariiig to rise. Regarding 

 the significance of these 

 representations, both of the 

 single and double bird, I 

 fail to find any clow for ex- 

 planation. Perhaps it is in- 

 tended to indicate the true 

 wedded life of men or of 

 gods, since those hens live, 

 as is known, monogamous, 

 as do uiauy other species 

 of wild fowl. Perhaps 

 they express some motives, 

 which render the birds so 

 important in the minds of 

 other peoples. This I will 

 explain below. 



Fig. 5 [our fig. 240], A 

 double eagle on the fife 

 spreading the wings, with the tail raised, as if preparing for a downward flight to 

 the earth, in contrast to the prairie hen (fig. 4), which, beyond doubt, aims to rise. 

 The double eagle has but one body and one pair of wings ; the tail, however, is quite 

 broad and shows a slightly marked division. In neither of the two figures are the 

 legs plainly shown, as the former are attached to the fife by a rudely iorraed connec- 

 tion of clay. The double figure has a sharply curved eagle-like beak. The entire 

 shape of the head reminds one of the ancient Mexican representations of the white- 

 headed eagle iu Central and South America. Our collection possesses several of 

 these figures in clay. It is therefore very probable that the pre-Columbian Mexicans 

 connected a certain significance with a double eagle, which also became an im- 

 portant symbol of power with many civilized nations. 



Fig. 242 represents one of a series of pear or gourd-shaped whistles, 



Fig. 242. 

 POTTERY WHISTLE, PEAR OR GOURD SHAPED. 



Valley of Mexico. 

 Received from Museo Nacional, Mexico. 



Cat. No. 27S69, U.S.N. M. fe natural size. 



1 Adolf Bastian, Festschrift zum 26 Juni, 1896, p. 563. 



