COMMERCE OF THE MAYA BLOM 431 



monetary units of trade. The Conquerors soon accepted this unit 

 and claimed their tribute in this standard. The friars, voracious as 

 of custom, tried to force the Indians to produce " bigger and better " 

 cotton cloaks, meanwhile valuing them at the given standard. 



Cotton garments were often woven with colored designs, and this 

 indicates a trade in dyes. The loin clouts of the men were em- 

 broidered with the multicolored feathers of the toucan, the parrot, 

 and the macaw, and the chiefs, nobles, and priests wore the gorgeous 

 tail feathers of the quetzal (Nahuatl) or kukul (Maya) in their elab- 

 orate headgears. Now the macaw is scarce in Yucatan, and the 

 quetzal is limited to a certain part of southern Mexico and Guate- 

 mala. The feathers of these birds could therefore be procured only 

 by trade. 



I can thank Charles Upson Clark for an extract from a manuscript, 

 now in the Vatican library, by an unknown author, wherein it is 

 said: 



In the province of Verapaz they punish with death he who killed the bird 

 with the rich plumes (trogon resplendens) because it is not found in other 

 places, and these feathers were things of great value because they used them 

 as money * * *" (MS. Vatican Library). 



Feathers were used for personal adornment, as was also jade and 

 gold. The brilliant green tailfeathers of the " trogon resplendens ", 

 the vivid green of jade, were rare and therefore commanded a high 

 price. The maize plant was green, the forest was green. All good 

 as well as rare things were green, and therefore the Maya considered 

 green a sacred color, attached special value to green things; just as 

 the Spaniards, and we to this day, express wealth, abundance, and 

 luxury in gold, and more frequently in gilt. 



Jade was precious to the Maya. Landa (1864) mentions " this jade 

 beads of fine stone of the kind the Indians used for money." 



Even small slivers of jade were polished and perforated for sus- 

 pension, and large pieces were carved in the shape of human faces, 

 animals, or as the beautiful piece in the Middle American Kesearch 

 collection at Tulane University, shaped like a hand. 



The American jade is chemically quite distinct from Chinese jade 

 and the knowledge of the ancient jade mines has been lost. There is 

 an indication that these mines were already lost or exhausted in 

 Maya times. In caches or burials of the southern or oldest area we 

 find comparatively large chunks of carved jade, whereas reworked 

 pieces — i. e., larger objects that have been cut into smaller pieces and 

 recarved — are often found in graves or with sacred offerings of 

 later times, in Yucatan. 



Gold was secondary in value and was brought in through trade 

 from Oaxaca, Mexico, and the Chiriqui region in Panama. Gold 

 figurines and bells of indisputable Chiriqui origin were found in the 



