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ANCIENT MEXICAN FEATHER ORNAMENTS 



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tions of this deity hitherto known. The god usuiilly wear.s on his head 

 the yopitzoMtli, a pointed crown made of the rose-colored feathers of 

 the spoonbill, with fluttering- ribbons, forked like a swallow's tail. 

 Axajacatl, however, is usually represented in the Cozcatzin codex with 

 the xiuhuitzontli, the turquoise mosaic headl)and of Mexican kings, 

 and the Bilimec warrior wears the quetzallalpiloni, the fillet with quet- 

 zal-feather tassels. The plume which in both figur(\s of Axayacatl 

 (flgure 6) rises behind the shield is likewise nothing else than an essen- 

 tial part of the royal Mexican dress. It l)elongs, as a tuft, to the 

 machoncotl, the shell bracelet which the king wore on his upper arm 

 (compare the picture in the atlas of Duran). 



Ilhuitl, feast. ChalehluitI, 



emerald. 



Tezcatl, mirror. 



Fig. 8. Disks from Mexican codices. 



Xipe's shield is the tlauhte^uilacachiuhqui, a round shield covered 

 with the rose-colored feathers of the spoonbill, showing concentric 

 circles of darker tint on its surface. It is not infrequently bisected 

 vertically, in which case one half is divided by an oblique line into a 

 larger lower and a smaller uj^per panel. The former has a tiger- skin 

 design, the latter the figure of an emerald in a blue field, or one trav- 

 ersed by wavy lines (see h, figure 7). I formerly explained the emerald 

 as a mirror. This is not quite correct, although in the drawing of both 

 (mirror and emerald) the same fundamental principle of the glitteiing 

 disk throwing rays in all (four) directions is expressed. See a, figure 8, 



