364 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



This slab, or altar, as it has been called, is of artistic concept, design, 

 and finish; it hiis been referred to as representing a ''Maya rain god, 

 Tlaloc, blowing the winds from his mouth." He is figured "with the 

 eagle in his headdress; the jaw with grinders; the j^eculiar eye; the 

 snake between his legs, and a leopard skin over his back." This glyph 

 represents the official, whether priest or other functionary, standing in 

 an upright position, his arms extended, with the palms of the hands 

 held together, forming a trough at a level with the mouth; lying in this 

 trough of the hands is a tubular object, through which he appears to 

 be blowing a visible something, as indicated by the ascending -and 

 descending part of the glyph. The posture is such as may be seen 

 to-day when the Moki priest thus holds the pipe at a ceremonial dance 

 and blows the smoke to the four wiuds, as well as to the upper and the 

 lower world. The implement upon the slab has the exact shape of the 

 ceremonial pipe of the Moki, as represented by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes. 

 This, moreover, appears to be the type of the most primitive pipe found 

 in America, and the one which is distributed over a greater geograi)h- 

 ical area than any other found on the continent, and is, in fact, the only 

 type which appears common to the whole country. This opinion is 

 sustained by the pipes found by arch.xjologic excavations in many 

 States, which suggest the tube similar in shape to that pictured on the 

 Palen(j[ue tablet as the most iirimitive pipe of which we have knowl- 

 edge. "The leopard skin on the back, the beak and eyes of the bird 

 on the headdress of Tlaloc," says Stevens, "was all a mystery, silent, 

 defying the most scrutinizing gaze and reach of the intellect." 



The snake so prominent on this slab appears as a garment of snakes 

 on the statue of the bloody Huitzilopotchli, the war god of the Mexi- 

 cans, who is represented as holding in each of his claw-like hands a 

 human heart. To find a snake carved u^wn the pipe is by no means an 

 unusual feature, it being one of the most common totems of the North 

 American Indian tribes. The bird, either a hawk or an eagle, on the 

 Palenqne tablet represents, very likely, one of the totems. Paleuque 

 is in the State of Chiapas, Mexico, in latitude 17° 30' north, longitude 

 92° 26' west, and is suiiposed to have been in ruins before the invasion 

 of Mexico by Cortez. The smoker, if such he be, on the slab, invests 

 it with unusual interest, for in addition to its being of pre-Columbian 

 origin, its location appears to be that of the extreme southern limit of 

 the pipe in America, so far as we know from records or reliable antiqui- 

 ties. 



While the writer is convinced that the tube is the primitive form of 

 the pipe both in Palenqne and in the City of Mexico, pipes have been 

 found having their bowl at right angles to the stem. ' The latter, how- 

 ever, are made from a glazed, red or gray pottery which there is reason 

 to suspect are of Spanish origin and manufacture. While early Span- 

 ish writers refer but casually to the habit of smoking among the natives, 

 they constantly speak of the use of incense, and there is reason to 



