60 THE TRIBUTE ROLL OF MONTEZUMA. 



and a half inches. For the tribute roll a greater width was obtained by placing 

 strips of two and a half inches wide on one side, while still moist, and causing them 

 to be rolled or pressed into imperfect unity with the main strip ; or, as in 'No. 4, by 

 similarly uniting two sheets of full width and cutting oif the edges. They then 

 seem to have been cut into pages of seventeen inches long for the tribute roll. The 

 outlines of all the figures have been carefully made with an ink resembling sepia, and 

 then the various colors, probably of vegetable origin, filled in. These are shaded 

 with much accuracy. 



The ethnographic features of the pictures are very interesting and suggestive. 

 Thus on No. 2, Tlatilulco, are four heads each surrounded with a very light yellow 

 circlet rising into a point above, and fastened with a red bow or sash behind ; the 

 face is white with slight pink hue, the nose straight and pointed, eyes black, as also 

 the long hair which covers the ears ; the expression is that of command. Very 

 different is the head on No. 30, near the foot of the page, the face of which is of a 

 yellowish color, the hair represented as twisted in two coils which are intertwined 

 around the head and terminate in horn-like projection above the rather high forehead, 

 while the nose is aquiline, almost gibbous, with thick lips and prominent chin. 



On the first of the two calendar sheets we see two heads without color, but sur- 

 mounted by what may represent a cap or helmet with two horns ; then a face which 

 recalls in its outline those of the first fi-agment of the tribute roll. Then follow 

 others, nearly all with very long straight noses, some of them however slightly gib- 

 bous. About midway on this sheet (which is forty-two inches long) is a representa- 

 tion of two square huts or houses, with roofs rising to a flat peak in the centre ; in 

 the line below that of a man seated in a curule chair, wearing a sombrero and plaited 

 doublet, with a lono^ straio-ht sword held in front of his left hand. It would seem 

 as though this were a narrative which was soon after abruptly terminated, as the 

 illustrations above the circles which I take to stand for days are only three in number. 

 It is worth noting that the faces are all turned in reverse directions in the alternate 

 lines, thus making them advance first from left to right, and in the line below from 

 right to left. The circles indicating days are usually ten in each row, sometimes 

 eleven, once nine. Some bear a svastica symbol and are colored red; others at irreg- 

 ular intervals have a red face, with a gibbous pointed nose and very full lips, partly 

 filling a white circle not concentric with the main one, which is otherwise always 

 yellow. I believe these faces represent the phases of the moon. 



The other calendar fragment, which is thirty-two inches long, is of inferior 

 workmanship, has the day circles (some of which are colorless, others green and 

 greenish yellow) arranged on the right side. On this again, near the lower end, is 



