skler]- 



MEXICAN I'ICTUKE WRITINGS FRAGMENT I 



147 



played precisely the same part among the j^riests and medicine men of 

 ancient JNIexico as it has from the remotest times down to the present 

 day among- the various savage tribes of North and South America. 



The tobacco pouch (ie-quachtli) or tobacco calabash (ie-tecomatl) 

 was, therefore, the special badge of priests. I have brought 

 together, in a to />', figure 3o, a number of figures of jiriests from the 

 Mendoza codex and the still unpublished Aztec Sahagun manuscript 

 of the Biblioteca del Palacio at Madrid, Avith incense basin and copal 



Fif!. 



FiRm-ps of priests from Aleiuloza codex and Saha}j;»n inanuscript. 



pouch, with sacrificial knife and copal pouch, and with the great 

 rattle stick Chicauaztli in their hands, and upon the back of each is 

 plainly to be seen the tobacco pouch or tobacco box (painted yellow 

 or brown in the original) , between two large tassels. Only the priest's 

 assistants, called '' quacuilli ", who in / hold the victim by the arms 

 and legs and in I bring down the burning billets of wood from the 

 temple, are dressed differently, simply like messengers of death. 

 Therefore, there can be no doubt that the figures drawn in column a 



