SKLEK] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENTS XV, XVI 221 



FRACJMENT XV 



Tliis (plate xx) is a strip of agave paper 34 cm. loiio; and 5-J cm. 

 AviJe, Avhich resembles the fragments X to XII (plates xv, xvi, and 

 XVII ). The drawing of the figures also exhibits an unmistakable 

 resemblance to those fragments. 



This fragment also belongs among those of our collection which 

 can with tolerable certaint}^ be identified with some of those described 

 by Boturini. It is mentioned in the Catiilogo del Museo Indiano in 

 section 21, under number 10: Otro [mapa] del mismo [papel Indiano], 

 y pinta gran Numero de pavos, que se pagavan de Tributo. No se 

 sabe de que pueblo (" another [map] on the same paper [Indian 

 paper], which depicts a great number of turkeys'', which were paid as 

 tribute, it is not known from Avhat town ''). 



Besides the personages on the right, there are only turkey cocks 

 (designated by the heads) represented in the six divisions, which are 

 formed on the fragment by transverse lines. The first fifteen vertical 

 rows are jjainted red, the last two blue. In every transverse division 

 we have in the first vertical row (on the right) 5 turkey heads, and in 

 all the foHowing vertical rows only 4. The whole number of red tur- 

 key heads occurring in one division is, therefore, 61. The rows of 

 !)lue turkeys are probably incomplete. 



Of the persons on the right side of the fragment the lowest one has 

 no hieroglyph. The next one is designated by a bird's head with a long 

 curved beak. The next tAvo are destroyed. The one before the last 

 has for a hieroglyph the picture of a fish close beside his head : his 

 name, therefore, was probably Mich in. The topmost one has a circle 

 below his head, which may have reference to his name. 



FRAGMENT XVI 



We have next a strip of thick, firm paper 35 cm. long, 45 cm. 

 Avide, Avhich looks like European paper made of rags. Microscopic 

 iiiA^estigation, hoAvever, reveals a fiber which in appearance, thickness 

 of cell Avail, size of lumen, etc., is apparently precisely like the fibers 

 of the coarse agaA^e paper used for fragments III (phite viii) and IV 

 (plate ix). But, together Avith these, single fibers occur Avhieh are 

 Aery delicate and spirally coiled, and Avhich seem to stretch and unroll 

 slightly in the water of the object glass. 



This fragment, as the creases prove, Avas folded in four i:)arts, and is 

 much damaged, especially on the right side. The draAvings are done 

 in black ink, Avithout other coloring. The pictures begin above at 

 the left, and continue in this row from left to right, but in the second 

 roAv from right to left, and so on, the direction alternating. 



The representations are of a religious nature. In order to under- 

 stand them it is necessary to consult the Roman Catechism, especially 



