64 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull.28 



where 1, 2, 3, and 4 are taken from the iiianuscripts, and in fact from 

 hieroglyphs whose phonetic vahie is known, while 5, which occurs on 

 a beautiful cla>^ vessel found in the vicinity of Tlaxcala, with tiger 

 and snake lieads, a Inindle of sjxnirs, and a feather ball, is perhaps only 

 meant to represent the tier\^ luminous disk in general. The emerald 

 in a watery field is to be read chalchiuh-atl. This may mean, in 

 general, the ''precious fluid"; but it is more probably the same as 

 chalchiuh-uitz-atl, the "precious water flowing in penance" — that 

 is, the sacrificial blood, the blood. Indeed, upon the beliutiful feather 

 mantle belonging to the Uhde collection in the Royal Museum of Eth- 

 nology we see the emerald above, on a ])right green field, and below it 

 a stream of blood with a skull on its surface. These characteristic 

 S3^mbols, which are seen on Xipo's shield, on the Chinialli stone from 

 Cuernavaca {!>, figure 7), and also, although only indicated, on the 

 shield borne by Motecuhzoma dressed as Xipe (r/, figure 7), are wholly 

 wanting in the Axayacatl disguised as Xipe of the Cozcatzin codex 

 and in the Bilimec warrior. In both an arm is painted on the surface 

 of the shield. This is not very common as a shield emblem. And the 

 agreement upon this point, in conjunction with the identity of the 

 devices on the back, is a striking proof in favor of the theory that 

 the painter of the Bilimec picture and the artist of the Cozcatzin codex 

 had the same original or, at least, the same tradition in mind. 



In the Sahagun manuscript of the Academia dc la Historia a shield 

 with a drawing of a hand under the name macpallo chimalli is repre- 

 sented among the shields of chiefs and warriors of lower rank. But 

 this name does not explain the meaning of the emblem. On the other 

 hand, 1 find the shield with the hand on a beautifully drawn colored 

 page in the Aubin-Goupil collection, which the publisher, Eugene 

 Boban, describes as " worship of Tonatiuh (the sun), a document relating 

 to the theogon}^ and astronomy of the ancient Mexicans", and which, as 

 he explains, perhaps represents looking up at an eclipse of the sun.'* 

 This cut reminds us, by the style of painting, of tlie Vienna manuscript, 

 and originated somewhere near the Olmeca Uixtotin Mixteca. The 

 paintings are done on a piece of leather, which is covered with a kind 

 of white stucco, such as we find in the Mixtec manuscripts of the 

 Philipp J. Becker and Dorenberg collections. The sheet is a repre- 

 sentation of the tonalamatl in five, instead of four, directions. 



The tonalamatl divisions in question are not, strange to sa3', desig- 

 nated by the initial days, but by two dates, which, as it seems, repre- 

 sent the name hieroglyphs of the divinities which adorn this division, 



a A copy, and that a very bad one, of this was made by Le6n y Gama, in which the middle part is 

 restored, doubtless iiieorreetly, as may be clearly seen in .several preserved yiortions. This copy 

 was reproduced by Brantz Mayer ("Mexico as it was", etc.. New York, 1844) as the upper side of a 

 buried stone found in Mexico, which was said to have served for the sacriflcio gladiatorio. This 

 copy is also given by Chavero in "Mexico & travC's de los siglos", v. 1, as " Piedra policroma del sa- 

 criflcio gladiatorio". 



