SELBR] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT I 129 



(columns c to e) cease in the fifth section from the top, it may be 

 assumed that this was the end of the strip, and that it was not further 

 written upon because, for some reason, the entries ceased altogether. 



In column b four pictures follow one another in regular repetition. 

 These I will designate by a, b, c, and d, proceeding from below 

 upward. Thus we have a in sections 1, 5, 9, 13, etc., b in sections 2, 6, 

 10, 14, etc., c in 3, 7, 11, 15, etc.. d in 4, 8, 12, IG, etc. 



The picture a, plate ii, shows a dark-colored face with a large 

 round eye, a row of long tusks, and over the lips an angular blue 

 stripe curved downward and rolled up at the ends. This is the 

 familiar face of the rain, thunder, and mountain god of the Mexi- 

 cans — Tlaloc by name — a face the features of which were supposed 

 to be produced originally by the coils of two snakes, their mouths, 

 with long fangs in the upper jaw, meeting in the middle of the upper 

 lip." The face of the rain god here stands for his chief festival, the 

 sixth (according to the usual reckoning) of the eighteen annual fes- 

 tivals of the Mexicans, known as Etzalqualiztli, that is, " when, they 

 eat bean food " (beans cooked with whole kernels of maize).'' 



The second of the four pictures (b, column b) is a white strip 

 painted over with black acute-angled figures, wound about with a red 

 band, from which two yellow tufts protrude at the top. The white 

 strip painted with angular figures represents a so-called teteuitl, or 

 ama-teteuitl, a stri]j of white bark paper (the inner bark of a variety 

 of fig) upon which certain figures are draAvn with liquid caoutchouc. 

 These teteuitl were in general use as sacrificial gifts. At the feast 

 of the rain gods they were hung upon long poles in the courtyard of 

 the house ; '" they were fastened on the breast of the small idols of the 

 mountain gods,'' and were burned in honor of the fire gods.'' 



These were easih^ prepared images of the gods to wdiich they were 

 offered. The picture of the god, or his symbol, was draAvn on the 

 paper with caoutchouc.'^ The red band which is wound around the 

 paper is a leather strap of the kind that were much used, either col- 

 ored or gilded, as ribbons and for ornamental purposes.^ And, finally, 

 the yellow tufts which protrude at the top represent a broom. These 

 brooms were made of a hard, stiff', pointed grass, which was cut with 

 sickles in the mountainous forests of Popocatepetl and Ajusco.'' The 

 whole picture is a symbol of the old earth goddess called Toci, " our 



» See Seler, Das TonalamatI der Aubinschen Samrnlung, in Comptes Rendus da Sep- 

 ti&me Session du Congr&s International des Amt'Ticanistes. Berlin, 1888, p. 584. 



* See Diirdn, v. 3, sec. 6 ; Sahagun, v. 2, chap. 6. 



'" Saliagun, v. 2, cliaps. 20 and 35. 



<* Sahagun, v. 2, chap. 32. 



« Sahagun, v. 0, chap. 3 ; v. 2, chap. 34. 



f See Saliagiin, v. 0, chap. 3. 



B See the hieroglyph of Cuetlaxtlan, " The Land of Leather "', in the Mendoza codex, v 8, 

 p. 21 ; V. 51, p. 1. 



"See Sahagun, v. 10, p. 24; v. 8, p. 61 (Bustamante edition), and a comment on the 

 passage by the editor. 



7238— No. 28—05 9 



