HOUSE SYMBOLS— ROPE MAKING. 



131 



wooden idols. We observe that the character with the cross is wanting, and 

 hence presume that the walls were too slender to bear the weight of a beam. 

 They were probably built of slender poles or of canes, as was common in 

 Guatemala, and covered perha];)s with palm-leaves. 



Instead of the figures at the top always being marked in the peculiar 

 manner which I have supposed to indicate matting, it is sometimes marked 

 with bent lines, similar to those on the figures representing cords or ropes. 

 On some of the plates, as, for example, XIII* and XIV*, the figure of 

 a bent tree appears to be used to denote a dwelling of some kind, possibly 

 only a temporary booth. It is true figures of this kind are given in a num- 

 ber of other places for a very diff"erent purpose, as on Plates VIII to XIII, 

 wliere they are used to represent the method of capturing deer; but a little 

 examination will show a marked difference between the two kinds. 



If I am correct in reference to the houses, then it is probable the 

 Manuscript relates to a section of country where the dwellings and the 

 terajDles were of a primitive character. 



]3ut few houses or dwellings are represented in the Dresden Codex. 

 In the lower division of Plate 8 there are figures of two, one of which is 

 copied in our Fig. 30. These ma}^ represent temples placed 

 on pyramids or elevated platforms ascending by steps, as in- 

 dicated in the figure. 



The different forms of their vases 

 are given in our Plates I-IV (Ms. 

 XX-XXIII). 



The leg of a deer, to which allusion 

 has already been made, is shown by 

 Fig. 30. the yellow figure with a double, white fig. 31. 



band and black tips in tlie upper leit-hand corner of the lower division of 

 Plate I (Ms. XX). 



The machine or apparatus used for, and the method of making, ropes 

 or cords, is represented on Plate XI* and in our Figs. 31 and 'd2. The first 

 (Fig. 31) shows the method of preparing the material. Strips of the sub- 

 stance used, probably the inner bark of some tree, or aloe fiber, is placed 

 on a bench of the form shown, wliicli has pieces extending upward from 



