COPAX. 



35 



Of all the subjects from which decorative design is derived, the feathered serpent is by 

 far the most important, and before commencing a detailed description of the monuments 

 it is thought advisable to give a few examples (Plates XXIII. and XXIV.) of the many 

 varieties of ornament derived from the serpent's head and the scroll-work attached to it. 

 There are, so far as I have observed, no really natural representations of a serpent 

 to be found in the Central- American sculptures. Serpent-worship had probably long- 

 antedated the development of Central- American art into the condition in which any 

 examples of it remain to us, and the serpents of the sculptures have already passed 

 through a stage of exaggeration and conventionalism. Small heads of snakes drawn 

 naturally may, however, be seen throughout the period of the greatest exaggeration 

 attached as ornaments to the ends of stringa or narrow bands, such as the thongs of a 

 sandal, or the bands of the breastplates in Plate VIII. ; but in this particular case the 

 rattles of the tail are drawn as a conventional ornament at the sides of the breastplate. 



Stone Mask fhom Mexico, now in tee British Museum. 



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