PEBFACE. vii 



In planting their corn '(maize) it was dibbled in with a curved stick, 

 five grains to a hill being the established number. While at this work they 

 wore a peculiar head-covering, apparently a kind of matting. The other 

 cultivated plants noticed in the work appear to be cacao, cotton, and a 

 leguminous species, probably a climbing bean, as it is supported by a stake. 



I judge, from a number of the figures, that their corn while growing 

 was subject to the attacks of numerous insects (represented as worms or 

 snakes), which ate foliage, ear, and i-oot, and was frequently injured by 

 severe storms, and also that the planted grains were pulled up by birds and 

 a small quadruped. Their crops were also subject to injury by severe 

 droughts, accompanied by great heat. 



The production of honey seems to have been a very important indus- 

 try in the section to which the work relates, but so far I have succeeded in 

 interpreting but few of the figures which refer to it. 



Rope-making (or possibly weaving) is represented on Plate XI* — a 

 very simple process, which will be found described in my paper. 



Their chief mechanical work, as I judge from this Manuscript, was the 

 manufacture of idols, some being made of clay and others carved of wood 

 Two implements used in making their wooden images appear, from the 

 figures, to have been of metal, one a hatchet, the other sharp-pointed and 

 shaped much like a pair of shears. 



Spears and arrows (if such they be, for there is no figure^of a bow in 

 the entire work), or darts, are the only implements of warfare shown. The 

 spears or darts seem to have been often thrown by means of a kind of hook, 

 and guided by a piece of wood with a notch at the end. . 



5th. The taking of life, apparently of a slave, is indicated in one place, 

 but whether as a sacrificial offering is uncertain. It is evidently not in the 

 manner described by the early writers, as in this case it is by decapitation 

 with a machete or hatchet, the arms being bound behind the back, and what 

 is presumed to be a yoke fixed on the back of the head. This is the only 

 thing in the Manuscript, except holding captives by the hair, as in the 

 Mexican Codices, which can possibly be construed to indicate human sacri- 

 fice. In the Dresden Codex human sacrifice in the usual way — by opening 

 the breast — is clearly indicated. 



