SELER] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT I 131 



In c and f/, figure 30, we also see a paper covered with drawings of 

 cotton fastened to the back of the goddess's head. That the paper in 

 our picture b, painted with the acute-angled figures, is, like the 

 broom, a s_ymbol of the earth goddess is most clearly shown by the 

 fact that the broom which, in her picture, the goddess Toci carries in 

 her hand is wound round with j^aper similarly painted. Thus we 

 see it in 6, figure 30, which is taken from the picture in the Sahagun 

 manuscript of the Bibliotheca del Palacio at Madrid, which repre- 

 sents the various ceremonies of the feast Ochpaniztli. 



The third picture in tlie column, which I designate by c (plate ii), 

 rei^resents a flag ai)parently made of striped woven stuff, with stream- 

 ers of the same material fastened to its top. Such flags were, it 

 seems, called quachpamitl — derived from quachtli, "" a square piece of 

 woven cloth ", and pamitl, " flag "". Among the Mexicans, as among 

 the nations of the Old World, flags and other insignia played an 

 important part in war. The Mexicans, however, as a rule, did not 

 carry these insignia free in their hands, but strapped upon their 

 backs, though it seems that flags of the same sort and shape as the 

 one represented in our picture c were also waved in the hand. The 

 signal for battle was given with them, as we learn from Sahagun. 

 Thus we read in the Aztec manuscript of the Academia de la His- 

 toria at Madrid: " Yn quachpanitl, coztic teocuitlapanitl yoan quet- 

 zalpanitl, yn teeuitia j^yaoc: yn omottac ye meuatiquetzaya izqui 

 quachpanitl, niman cemeua yaoquizque ynic miccali ". Sahagun 

 (book 8, chapter 12) translates it somewhat inexactly: Tambien usa- 

 ban de unas vanderillas de oro, las cuales en tocando al arma las 

 levantaban en las manos, porque comenzasen a pelear los soldados 

 ("They also used certain golden flags, which, when the call to arms 

 w^as sounded, they raised in their hands, because the soldiers began 

 to fight"). The correct translation is as follows: "The flag of 

 woven stuff, the flag of ])lates of gold, and the one made of quetzal 

 feathers, they call the people in war time to prepare for battle. 

 When men see how the quachpamitl (flags of woven stuff) are raised 

 on every hand, then the warriors go forth to battle ". The raising 

 of the flag, then, was the signal to begin battle. Panquetzaliztli, 

 the raising of the flag, therefore, was the name of the festival — the 

 fifteenth, according to the usual reckoning — which the Mexicans 

 celebrated in honor of the god Uitzilopochtli, w^ho was especially 

 regarded as the god of combat and war. In Codices Telleriano- 

 Remensis and Vaticanus A this festival is represented by the figure 

 of the god himself holding a flag in his hand (^, figure 30), which 

 shows essentially the same characteristics as the one in the picture c, 

 plate II. Elsewhere the quachpamitl is painted by itself, as in later 



