SELER] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 117 



Mr Strel)el — that is, primarily an ornanicntai adaptation of one or more 

 hierogl3'ph,s, which are repeated with variations. Mr 8trebel is of 

 opinion that ea(^h of these variants has its own special meaning, and it 

 may indeed have been so in that particular case, for the symbols near 

 the ear pegs partly recall the dili'erent signs on the so-called celestial 

 shields, but in regard to our ^, 1 incline to the opinion that we have 

 here mere variants, and I consider the hieroglyphs g, e, c as the chief 

 hieroglj'phs of the person represented below, and f, d, b and the bird 

 heads as companion hieroglyphs. 



The same case of the employment of ornamental hieroglyphs is also 

 undoubtedl}^ seen on the remarkable third vessel from Rio Hondo, 

 whose decoration is reproduced in «, figure 28. This vessel, as I have 

 already stated above, in all probability is to be considered as an artistic 

 production of the Nahua tribe of the Pipils, which doubtless had been 

 settled for a long time in these regions. We must not seek the proto- 

 types of the figures represented on it in Maya manuscripts or in Maya 

 sculptures, but in Mexican picture writings, or in those of the Mixtecs 

 or Zapotecs, which are akin to them in style. Similarity of st3'le 

 between our vessel and the last named appears clearly, both in the posi- 

 tion and in the dress of the figures. The figures are clothed with a sort 

 of shirt, the xicoUi, which is worn by the rain god Tlaloc, and also by 

 the priests, in Mexican picture writings, and which is especially 

 frequent on the figui'es in the Mixtec picture writings as the Colom- 

 bino codex (Dorenberg codex), Becker codex, and the Vienna codex. 

 Besides this shirt, the fig-ures seem to wear a short loin cloth, which is 

 also quite commonly drawn on the figures of the Colombino codex 

 (Dorenberg codex). On the front of this, in our figures, there is a 

 mask. This is a peculiarity of dress which I have not yet met with in 

 purely Mexican documents, but have in those from the more southerly 

 regions of the Mixtecs and the Zapotecs. In the collection of Doctor 

 Sologuren, in Oaxaca, I saw two pottery figures which came from La 

 Cienaga, in the department of Zimatlau, which plainl}' show this 

 peculiarity of dress. On a sheet of the Aubin-Goupil collection, a 

 piece of leather painted in gay colors, evidentl}^ also of Mixtec origin, 

 the five male deities all wear a mask in front on the girdle. This page 

 is reproduced in page 20 of r the Goupil-Boban Atlas with the legend 

 "Le culte rendu a Tonatiuh"." 



Further, the large headdress is conspicuous on the figures in our 



(1 In fact, the page forms one of the frequent representations of the tonalamatl, divided according 

 to the five points, the center, or the direction up and down, and the four points of the compass. To 

 each division were assigned a male and a female deity and their different attributes. The 2x5, 

 that is, 10, dates in the circle doubtless refer to these deities. Their names areXe Mazatl, Ce Quiauitl, 

 Ce Ozomatli. Cc Calli, Ce Quauhtli, and Macuil Cuetzpalin, Macuil Cozcaquauhtli, Macuil Tochtli, 

 Macuil Xochitl. and Macuil Malinalli. They correspond to the directions in the order E., N., up, 

 down, W., and S. 



It may be added that this is the page which Alfred Chavero copied in the first volume of tlie work 

 Mexico a traves de los siglos mider the name, " Parte superior de la piedra policroma del suerificio 

 gladiatorio" (!) 



