SELER] ANCIENT MEXICAN FEATHER ORNAMENTS 71 



The meaning of tliis passage can scarcol}- be construed otherwise 

 than as a reference in this case to a combined ornament for the back, 

 consisting of a drum attached to the carr\nng frame at the bottom, 

 and of a bird (swooping down?) with outspread wings fastened at the 

 top of the pole/' 



I am therefore doubtful, in regard to figure 0, whether 1 may not 

 have done P. Sahagun an injustice in assuming that the passage (book 

 8, chapter 9) where he states that the tlauhquecholtzontli was a device 

 for the back — y trayan un plumage a cuestas que se llamaba tlauhque- 

 choltzontli muy curioso (''and they carried on their backs a very 

 curious plumage that was called tlauhquecholtzontli'"') — was based on 

 a false translation or a false application. The passage does, indeed, 

 contradict book 8, chapter 12, where Sahagun says that the tlauhque- 

 choltzontli is a head covering — un casquete de plumas muy coloradas. 

 que se llamaban tlauhquecholtzontli,'' y al rededor del casquete una 

 corona de plumas ricas y del medio de la corona salia un manojo de 

 plumas bellas que Uaman quetzal, como penachos ("'a helmet of col- 

 ored feathers, which was called tlauhquecholtzontli, and around the 

 helmet a crown of rich feathers, and from the middle of the crown 

 projected a tuft of beautiful feathers which they call quetzal, like 

 crests"). But the Aztec text in the latter passage does not directly 

 state that the tlauhquecholtzontli was w^orn on the head, and in the 

 former passage may possibly be understood to mean that the tlauhque- 

 choltzontli, together with the drum, ueuetl, formed the back device— 

 tlauhquecholtzontli tla^otlanqui quetzalli ycuecuetlacayo, yuical veuetl 

 coztic teucuitla\o yn tlauiztli yn quimama mitotia ("the wig of spoon- 

 bill feathers, the precious one with the waving tuft of feathers, and 

 its appendix, the drum covered with gold; that is, the device [or, are 

 the devices] which he w^ears on his back in the dance"). It is very 

 possible that Father Sahagun, as was frequently the case, did not 

 translate directly, but explained from circumstances known to him. 

 Of course I do not now assert that the feather ornaments described 

 as tzontli, "wig", were all carried on poles. Of the next object, the 

 xiuhtototzontli, the Aztec text says directly: ytzontecon conaquia 

 tlatoani ("with this the king covers his head"), but it seems to me 

 quite possible, as I suggested from the first,*- that this ornament, like 

 the Uaxtec pointed cap,'' was also sometimes worn on the head and 

 sometimes borne as a device on a pole.'' 



I now return to the Vienna ornament. Mrs NuttalPs attempt to 



« Uhle asserts, we scarcely see on what authority, that the reference here is to a stnfTcd bird. 



6The word amended after the Aztec text of the passage. 



oZeitschriftfurEthnologie, 1889, V. 21, p. 63. . 



riZeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, 1891, v. 21, p. 132, Doctor Uhle introduces, on p. 161, an illustration from 

 the Aztec text of the Florentine Sahagun manuscript where we see, side by side, the cuextoentl w itn 

 his pointed cap on his hea.l and a similar pointed cap, quctzalcopilli, borne on a pole upon the back. 



« Contrary to Doctor Uhle, I must say that it has never occurred to me to connect the expre.s..ion 

 tzontli, -hair", with patzactli, -device". I distinctly described tzontli as -fcath.-r cr..wn , 

 patzactli as "a comb-shaped device worn on the back" in ray pamphlet of 1891. 



