COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 331 



My study of the question led me to adopt the identification before 

 1596 at a time when the feather piece was complete, and when infor 

 mation concerning its purpose could be obtained at first hand. 



In the United States section of the exhibition a picture, copied from 

 a native manuscript, was exhibited by me. It represented a person 

 age wearing a headdress identical in form and general character with 

 the Vienna original. In the Austrian section the picture of this relic 

 published by Ferdinand von Hochstetter, was displayed in one of the 

 cases. This was the only visible record of the existence of ancient 

 Mexican relics in the imperial museums at Vienna. 



Nevertheless, they possess a larger number of fine specimens of Mexi 

 can and Hispano-Mexican feather work than any other museum in 

 Europe or America. Besides the magnificent headdress and the 

 Ambras shield, the Imperial Ethnographical Museum owns the curious 

 native fan, dating from the time of the Conquest, which I also discov 

 ered at the castle of Ambras (Pis. II and III). Two other contemporary 

 relics, not represented at the exhibition, complete the list of known 

 specimens. The first is the interesting &quot; delantal,&quot; or native apron, 

 intended to be suspended from the neck, belonging to the Royal Ethno 

 graphical Museum at Berlin. This has been described by Dr. Ed. 

 Seler in his valuable contribution published in the Rapport du Congres 

 International des Americanistes, Paris, 1890, p. 401. 



The second is the mantle u of Montezuma,&quot; preserved at the Royal 

 Museum of Armoury at Brussels, where I saw it in 1888. It is chiefly 

 composed of scarlet feathers, and these are attached to a network by a 

 series of knots. This unique specimen has been described by Seuor 

 Nunez-Ortega and Dr. Ed. Seler in their respective publications already 

 cited. 



These relics complete the inventory of all of the specimens of purely 

 indigenous feather work whose existence and whereabouts are known. 

 Unless it should receive unforeseen additions, it shows that of the 

 many hundreds of similar trophies which were sent to Europe by the 

 Conquerors, there survive only: Four shields, 1 headdress, 1 fan, 1 

 apron, and 1 mantle; 8 pieces in all, 5 of which were represented at 

 the Madrid Exposition. 



The age and rarity of these relics undoubtedly render them extremely 

 valuable from an ethnological standpoint. A critical examination 

 reveals, however, that although admirable in workmanship and very 

 etfective, they scarcely testify to such an extraordinary degree of 

 technical skill or artistic taste as to justify the panegyrics bestowed 

 upon this branch of native industry by the Spanish chroniclers. 



Thus, Fray Toribio de Motolinia wrote that newcomers in Mexico 

 from Spain or Italy remained open-mouthed in amazement on seeing, 

 for the first time, the exquisite work of the Amantecas, who reproduced 

 with facility and utmost perfection in feather mosaic, any painting or 

 design given them to copy. 1 



1 Historia de los Iiidios de Nueva EspaTia, ed. Izcabalceta, p. 68. 



