210 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [buli,. 28 



Spaniard; so also is the carpenter 's ax on fragment X (plate xv). 

 All else, if colored at all, is painted yellow. 



As for the general character of this manuscript, the figure of the 

 Spaniard, on fragment XI (plate xvi), Avho is pulling two Indians 

 along by a rope and the four Indians, on fragment X (plate xv), who, 

 with their hands bound behind their backs, hang upon a sort of gal- 

 lows, show that this is a bill of complaint. The Indians enter com- 

 plaint of oppression on the part of the Spaniards of ill treatment, 

 work unjustly required, and of supplies unpaid for. This is there- 

 fore a document similar to the Pintura del Gobernador, Alcaldes y 

 Regidores de Mexico, which "was discovered in the archives of the 

 Duke of Osuna, But our manuscript unfortunately is not provided 

 with text ; therefore a degree of uncertainty will always attach to the 

 interpretations. 



Among the various illustrations, I will first draw attention to the 

 one at the top of fragment XI (plate xvi). Here we see the head 

 of an Indian and behind it his hieroglyph, a white roll, probabl}^ 

 meant to represent paper (amatl) (see «, figure 46, from the tribute 

 list in the Mendoza codex, page 27, and described in the text as " papel 

 de la tierra "). After this comes a house, with walls evidently sup- 

 posed to be built of reeds, like the xacalli in the lower part of frag- 

 ment II (plate vii). But the roof is different. It looks as though 

 there had been an attempt to draw the j^rickl}^ point of an agave leaf 

 on the house. These sharp points of the agave leaf were called uitztli, 

 " thorn ", and uitztli, or uitzoctli, " j^ricking pulque ", was also the 

 name given to newly fermented pulque, the intoxicating drink pre- 

 pared from the juice of the agave." That there is here a reference to 

 something of the kind appears froin what follows the house in the 

 drawing. We see there three jugs Avith basket-work covering, fur- 

 nished wnth straAV or rope handles. 



This illustration is valuable in itself, as it incidentally throws 

 light upon the locality and the outward circumstances. We are 

 forced to conclude that there is a reference here to occurrences on a 

 pulque hacienda. Furthermore, we learn from the jugs on fragment 

 XI (plate xvi) that the peculiar design to be seen on them and simi- 

 lar objects represented on these fragments (an unpainted white border 

 with a stripe running through it on one side) is meant for the mouth 

 of a vessel. The artist may have had in mind a vessel with a sort of 

 lip or spout which was formed by narrowing the mouth at one side. 

 We find the same design on the two transverse rows of red, four- 

 cornered objects corded Avith ropes, Avhich are represented in the 

 upper portion of fragment XI (plate xvi), as well as on the similar 

 objects painted yellow to be seen in the two transverse roAvs at the 



"Sahagun, v. 4, chap. 5. 



