MANUSCRIPTS OF MEXICO SPINDEN 



439 



passages it becomes apparent that Twelve Vulture and Twelve Liz- 

 ard lost their lives in a catastrophe which took a heavy toll. In 

 figure 7, b-d, we see the royal couple wrapped up for burial. 



The general event refers in some way to the woman with a skull 

 for a head, living at Skull Temple and named Nine Herb, whom 

 we have already met as the champion of Lady Six Monkey and to 

 whom her son Four Wind in still later times is pictured as paying 

 tribute. In one place (fig. 7, b) tliis old woman has the hieroglyph of 

 a deer's foot. I think it probable that she represents CholuLa, the city 

 which inherited more than any other place the prestige of the Toltecs. 

 First the deer's foot is the usual hieroglyph of Cholula. Secondly, 

 the skull motive is particularly prominent in the art of that city, 

 perhaps because it was the ceremonial center for the great warriors' 

 societies. The purpose of these societies was to achieve immortality 

 through apotheosis and in connection with the cult, skulls, cross 



©£3i 



B CD 



FiGUKB 7. — A, the marriage of Twelve Vulture and Twelve Lizard unites two cities ; 

 B, a gruesome woman malies war on them with fatal results (Bodley codex) ; C and 

 D, the same matter in the Zouche codex. 



bones, shields, knives, severed hands, etc., are regularly shown. 

 Thirdly, we see men with the peculiar knobby markings of mountains 

 and stones taking part in the war against Twelve Vulture and Twelve 

 Lizard. These may represent Toltecs, especially sint-e the Mexican 

 word for conqueror, applied par excellence to Toltecs, is tepehuani, 

 which is allied to the linguistic root meaning stone and mountain. 

 Lastly, Nine Herb as an individual could not have lived long enough 

 to span the chronological interval between her first and last appear- 

 ances in the narrative. 



DESIGNATIONS OF OFFICE 



Women are rarely pictured holding religious oflices, whereas 

 nearly all the historically important men are pictured in the habili- 

 ments of military and religious oflices. Sometimes we are given the 

 various stages whereby great leaders rise to the highest honors. 



