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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



forms in Maya hierojijlyph.s. It" it is true ot any specimen, we have 

 in this vessel the artistic production of a nation foreign to the Maya 

 soil. It is in all probability to be ascribed to the Pipils, the Nahua 

 tribe, who undoubtedh^ lived here a long- time before the conquest. 



To begin with, the vessel of pure Maya type (c, figure 26), the person- 

 ages represented on it are women. This is especially proved by the 

 long wisps of hair li.ying down in front, which can be seen in quite 

 similar fashion on the female forms in the Dresden manuscript. The 

 position of the arms and hands is a favorite one in the figures of gods 

 in the Mexican picture writings, especially in the Borgian codex and 

 Codex Vaticanus B, which, however, appears also in the Dresden 

 manuscript, for example, in the Moan bird, on page 11^/. The raised 

 or outstretched hand is evidently a gesture of speech or of command, 



h r d 



Pig. 28. Design on Guatemalan vessel and figures from Mexican codices. 



which, in fact, and especially in this case, are the same thing, for 

 tlahtouani, or tlauto, "the speaker", means the ruler, the prince. 

 The clothing of the figures seems to consist of an enagua, a cloth 

 wrapped about the hips like a petticoat and fastened about the middle 

 of the body with a band. Those objects seem to be the ends of this band 

 which are seen to rise above the enagua and fall down behind. The 

 figures are represented sitting with crossed legs. Protruding from the 

 enagua is the bare left thigh and below this the naked sole of the right 

 foot, a typical position which is very often drawn in the Dresden man- 

 uscript. But the lines in our picture are so displaced as to give the 

 impression that the drawing is not from life. I)ut from a familiar picture 

 I'epeated in a stereotyped way. 



The same impression is made in studying the hieroglyphs. I have 



