138 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



representations singularly apposite to the inquiry in which he has 

 been engaged, and which a writer of so much acuteness and industry- 

 would not, I conjecture, have been likely to overlook. The illustrated 

 edition is rare. "When I was last in the reading-room of the British 

 Museum, it was not in their general collection ; but, after some search, 

 a copy was found in the King's Library. We possess a copy in the 

 Moore Library. 



The most striking features of resemblance between Asiatic and 

 Egyptian objects on the one hand, and Mexican architectural remains 

 on the other, are the stepped pyramidal temples, of which several plans 

 and drawings are found in Raffles' work. In these structures the 

 features of the pyramid and pagoda are combined with an Asiatic pro- 

 fusion of ornament, resembling very much the pyramidial Teocallis of 

 Yucatan. I subjoin one of the most characteristic. 



Pyramidal Temple in Java. 



But the illustration which in Raffles' Java brings us, so to speak, 

 face to face with the Aztecs, is a representation of what he describes as 

 " scenic shadows," that is, a species of puppet-show made by projecting 

 the shadows of certain grotesque figures on a semi-transparent surface. 

 These marionettes are cut or stamped out of leather, and with moveable 

 limbs are made to play their parts by the motion of the performer's 

 hand, communicated by an attached conducting rod. The features are 

 purely Aztec : the taste and decorative accessories are of an equally 

 marked Hindoo character. In neither is there the least resemblance 

 to existing Javanese types, either ethnological or aesthetic. The 

 Javanese account for the unlikeness of these objects to anything in 

 their categories of existence by a statement, which, considering that it 

 was made to Raffles long before the attention of Europeans had been 

 turned to the peculiarities of Central American architecture, or of 

 Aztec physiognomy, is worthy of grave consideration in any system 

 of ethnology dealing with Mexican origins. 



