654 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[BULL. 28 



Seiiorio tie Mexico), from the Mendoza codex, page (u, who have 

 carried a declaration of wnv to the cacique of a village and are flee- 

 ing from the now hostile region, pursued by archers. In />, same 

 figure, also from the Mendoza codex, page ()T, we have the event 

 which occasioned the challenge — the surprise and murder of Mexi- 

 can traders by natives of the village in question. Here, too, besides 

 the carrying frame with the bale of wares and the traveling staff, 

 we have the fan as a necessary article to be carried on a journey 

 as a matter of course. To these three pictures from the Mendoza 

 codex I add still another example {a, figure 133), taken from the Mix- 

 tec Colombino (Dorenberg) codex, illustrating a subject of a more 

 mythologic nature. Here, too, is an undoubted representation of 

 travelers, who therefore hold in their right hand what may be a 

 lance or merely a traveling staff and in their left hand carry a fan. 

 But the foremost of these persons is the most famous of the Mexican 



a I> 



Fig. 133. Travelers iind whip, from the Mixtec-Coliimbino codex and the Cbania vase. 



gods, Quetzalcoatl, the Avind god and the hero of the myths of the 

 wandering Toltecs. 



The application of these pictures to the scene represented on the 

 Chama vase is self-evident. A^Tioever examines the attitude and bear- 

 ing of the separate personages impartially will scarcely form the idea 

 that one of the chief priests advancing from the right " seems to de- 

 mand the death of the kneeling victim with bloodthirsty vehemence, 

 while the one opposite is evidently trying to pacify him ". It is 

 scarceh^ probable that such matters were ever discussed. If a sacri- 

 fice Avas deemed necessary or useful, and a fit subject was at hand, 

 the sacrifice was performed. The scene assuredly has- an entirely 

 different meaning from the one ascribed to it, and I think I can 

 explain it in tAvo Avords: an-ival and reception. 



Now for the kneeling figure. Mr Dieseldorff thinks it is an elderly 



