seleh] 



EXPLANATION OF WALL PAINTINGS 



315 



of an agfave leaf. The round ends of the head knots, which are char- 

 acteristic of Quetzalcoatl, for eveiythin<»; about the wind god is 

 round or twisted in spirals, are to be found here and there. The 

 '" thorny, curved " ear decoration tzi('oliuh<iul nacochtli, plainly 

 meant to look as if cut out of a snail shell, seen in the pictures of this 

 god in the Borgian codex, Codex Vaticanus B, etc., is entirely lack- 

 ing in our paintings, being replaced by a simple ear disk. The breast 

 ornament of Quetzalcoatl, no less characteristic, and is evidently 

 cut out of a whelk shell,' which is called in the Aztec Sahagun text 

 ecailacatz-cozcatl, " the spirally twisted wind ornament '\ is also 

 lacking, but probably only because from the neck down the figures 

 are altogether destroyed. On the other hand, in fragment 4b, plate 

 XXXVII, it is outlined on the shield of the god. The fanlike or wing- 



r <1 



Fig. 78. Symbols and figures of Quetzalcoatl, from Mexican codices. 



like feather ornament, standing out stiffly from the nape of the 

 neck, which in the Aztec Sahagun text is once called cuezaluitoncatl, 

 " fanlike ornament of red guacamayo feathers ", and another time 

 quetzal-coxol-tlamamalli, "' dorsal ornament of quetzal and partridge 

 feathers ", is in our paintings always drawn like the pictures in the 

 Borgian codex. Codex Yaticanus B, the Vienna codex, and the Mixtec 

 Colombino codex (Dorenberg codex) ; that is, it consists of elongated, 

 radiating feathers (in the picture writings painted entirely red or 

 red with blue points), which are probably intended to represent the 

 tail feathers of the red guacamayo (" macaw "), and objects between 

 these which are either actual representations of ej^es (see «, figure 78, 

 from the Mixtec Colombino, or Dorenberg, codex) or surfaces orna- 

 mented with eyes more or less clearly expressed (see Z>, from the 



