262 



NATURE 



\yan. lo, 1889 



A RELIC OF ANCIENT MEXICO.^^ ^ 

 T^HE appearance of No. i of the Peahody Miisimm Papers 

 ^ marks a new departure in the publications of the Museum 

 of American Archreology and Ethnology. Henceforth, Prof. F. 

 W. Putnam states, the special papers, hitherto published in con- 

 nection w ith the Annual Reports, will be issued in a separate 

 but similar octavo form at irregular intervals, as the means for 

 printing them is obtained. Part i of vol. i. of this new series, 

 just received, consists of an interesting and thoughtful historical 

 essay on a relic of ancient Mexico entitled " Standard or Head- 

 dress," by Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, accompanied by three coloured 

 plates. A quarto German translation by Dr. A. T>. Meyer 

 appeared in the last volume of the Ahhandhingcn titid Berichte 

 des K. Zoologischen ttnd Anthropologisch-Ethnographischen 

 Museums zii Dresden. It treats mainly of a remarkable piece 

 of ancient Mexican feather-work inlaid with gold of the time of 

 Montezuma, which was one of the first presents received and 

 forwarded by Cortes to the Emp.'ror Charles V. It subsequently 

 formed part of the famous Ambras collection of historical armour, 

 figuring in various catalogues of that collection as a " Moorish 

 hat, "an "Indian apron," and a "Mexican head dress," and is now 

 preserved in the Imperial Natural History Museum of Vienna. 

 It was carefully restored by the late Prof. F. von Hochstetter, who 

 published in 1884 a description of it as a "banner" or "fan- 

 shaped standard," basing this identification chiefly upon the 

 resemblance it presented to a "fan-shaped object" depicted 

 behind the portrait of a Mexican warrior in the " Bilimek " 

 collection acquired by the Museum in 1878. In the present 

 essay Mrs. Nuttall adduces abundant testimony that the feather 

 piece in question was a head-dress which formerly presented all 

 the attributes of colour, form, and insignia of the war-god 

 Huitzilopochtli, the hero-god and totemic divinity of the 

 Mexicans. Such head-gear could have been worn only at the 

 time of the conquest by IVIontezuma, " the living representative 

 of the god," as "supreme pontiff and chief warrior." An 

 exactly similar emblematic head-dress, she points out, is depicted 

 on the so-called "sacrificial stone" as worn by Jiz-oc, one of 

 Montezuma's predecessors. It is further maintained that the 

 painting of the " Bilimek " warrior must be regarded as a rebus 

 and not as a portrait. The " fan-shaped object " is the insignia of 

 Quetzal feathers, characterizing the high rank of the warrior, who 

 was also a priest, and is represented as clad in a human skin. 

 The house = ealli, piece of cord =mecatl, and arrows = tlacochtl, 

 s'milarly depicted, yield, togetherwith the Quetzal feather insignia 

 when deciphered with the aid of the associated complementary 

 sign, the phonetic values : (i) the surname Calinecahtia ; (2) the 

 title Tlacochcalcatl = lord of the house of arrows or supreme 

 war-chief; and (3) the tribal designation Quetzalapanecatl, a 

 native of Quetzalapan, a locality near Mexico conquered by the 

 Mexicans in 15 12. This renders probable the identification of 

 the individual as that Calmecahua, or lord of the ca'mecac, who, 

 as Diaz relates, " fought like a lion on the side of the Spaniards " 

 at thi battle of Otumba against his natural foes the Mexicans, 

 and was afterwards baptized as Don Antonio, and is cited by 

 Txtlilxochitl as the author of a history of Tlaxcala, written in 

 1548. However this may be, it is evident that he was z. pillnta, 

 or head of a large family, as Mrs. Nuttall shows that the heads, 

 surmised by Dr. Hochstetter to be those of "decapitated 

 enemies," painted at his feet, are the usual signs for enumerating 

 individuals, by reference to other Mexican manuscripts extant, in 

 which similar heads under a figure are accompanied by the 

 Nahualtl word for genealogy, and in the case of a manuscript 

 dating about 1520, in the possession of Mr. Bernard Quaritch, 

 by the Nahuatl text in Spanishjetters = " Tenancacaltzin these 

 his sons' heads." In an appendix to this suggestive paper Mrs. 

 Nuttall discusses the complementary signs of the Mexican 

 graphic system. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Bulletin de V Academie Royale de Belgique, October 1888. — On 

 the influence of diurnal nutation in the discussion of the obser- 

 vations of o LyrtE, made at the Washington Observatory, by L. 

 Niesten. In these researches, which are somewhat analogous to 

 his previous observations on 7 Draconis made at Greenwich, the 

 author adduces a fresh proof of the existence of diurnal nutation. 

 The coefficient resulting from his determination is 0-095", g'ving 

 69° east of Paris as the longitude of the first meridian. — On anew 

 registering process by means of photography, by Eric Gerard. 

 In th's ingenious apparatus, instead of using the voltaic arc as 

 the source of the light falling on the concave mirror whose 



movements have to be recorded, the inventor employs thft 

 secondary spark supplied by the Ruhmkorff bobbin. This spark 

 being periodical, owing to the elasticity of the check-spring of 

 the bobbin, naturally gives the division of time in equal intervals 

 inscribed on the registering curve. In this way the use of all 

 special chronographs may be dispensed with. The author has 

 applied the method to the study of the variable currents 

 supplied by dynamos with alternate currents, and has obtained 

 excellent results. — Jean Masius contributes a memoir on the 

 genesis of the placenta in the rabbit, with a view to the elucida- 

 tion of the difficult questions connected with the origin and 

 purpose of various elements present in the fully developed 

 placenta. 



Kivista Scientifico- Indtistriale, November 15, 1888. — Granular 

 snow and the theory of the formation of hail, by Prof. Ferdinando 

 Palagi. The author had a good opportunity of studying the 

 phenomenon of granular snow during a heavy snow-storm at 

 Teramo on October 20. The grains, about the size of ordinary 

 peas, were perfectly dry, falling with a clatter like that of hail, 

 which they resembled somewhat in appearance, although evi- 

 d-ently formed, not by superimposed layers of ice, but by 

 particles of snow agglomerated under certain atmospheric and 

 perhaps electrical conditions. They were relatively light, perfectly 

 white and opaque, yielding under pressure between the fingers, 

 and from their general appearance and the circumstances of their 

 formation Prof. Palagi concluded that granular snow is the 

 first phase in the formation of hail. — On the development of 

 electricity from the evaporation of marine water under the ex- 

 clusive action of the solar rays, by Prof. Luigi Palmier!. Some 

 recent experiments with the Bohnenberger electroscope are here 

 described, which fully confirm the conclusions already arrived 

 at forty years ago by the author, and in fact anticipated by 

 Volta, regarding the origin of atmospheric electricity from 

 aqueous evaporation. — Signor Giuseppe Terrenzi describes some 

 remains of the beaver {Castor fiber, Lin.) lately discovered in 

 the Pliocene formations of the Colle dell' Oro near Terni. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Linnean Society, December 20, 1888. — Mr. W. Carruthers, 

 F. R.S., President, in the chair. — Prof. R. J. Anderson exhibited 

 a photograph of an apparatus for the microscope which he had 

 designed, consisting of a revolving disk with clips, by means of 

 which a number of slides may be successively brought opposite 

 the microscope, which is fixed in a horizontal position in front of 

 it. — Mr. Clement Reid exhibited fruit of the Hornbeam from 

 the pre-glacial forest bed at Pakefield, near Norwich, and not 

 previously recorded as occurring in any British deposit. — Mr. T 

 Christy exhibited a collection received from Java of hairs from 

 the base of various ferns, notably Cibotitim Cumviingii, and a 

 species, as supposed, oi Dicksonia, used as a styptic, for staunch- 

 ing blood. Prof. Stewart, in pointing out that the use of 

 similar material for a like purpose in China was well known to 

 surgeons, took occasion to explain the nature of the so-called 

 "lamb of Tartary," on which an instructive little volume had 

 been published by the late Mr. Henry Lee, F.L.S. Mr. D. 

 Morris remarked that the use of "fern hairs" was also known 

 as a styptic in South America, whence specimens had been 

 forwarded to the Herbarium at Kew. — A paper was then read 

 by Mr. D. Morris on the characteristics of plants included 

 under Erylhroxyloi Coca, Lam.arck, with a description of a new 

 variety, which he proposed to name, from its origin, E. novo- 

 granatense. He pointed out that the well-known coca-plant 

 had been noticed by botanists and travellers for the last 300 

 years ; and that, although Clusius was generally regarded as the 

 earliest writer on it, he had been anticipated by Nicholas Monardes 

 in his "Historia Medicinal," published at Seville in 1580, and 

 translated by Clusius, who printed it in a condensed form in his 

 " Exoticorum libri decern " in 1605. The plant was first described 

 as a species by Lamarck, in the " Encyclopedic Methodique ""in 

 1786, from specimens bfought by de Jussieu from Peru. Until 

 lately the leaves had been used merely as a nervous stimulant, 

 like opium in China, and betel in the East Indies ; but had 

 latterly come into prominence as the source of cocaine, a valuable 

 alkaloid possessing antesthetic properties in contact with the 

 mucous membrane. There were several climatic forms more or 

 less distinct ; and after describing the typical plant, Mr. Morris 

 pointed out the characters by which E. navo-graiiatcnse might be 

 distinguished. The paper .was ably criticized by Mr. J. G. Baker, 

 Mr. Rolfe, and Mr. Thomas Christy. — Mr. Spencer Moore 



