Geographical Distribution of the Shell-Purple Industry. 25 



the only precolumbian textiles in existence, those of Peru, 

 preserved in the Royal Ethnographical Museum in Berlin, 

 a g-arment and some bands with narrow stripes, the colour 

 of which is identical with that of the Huave kerchiefs. 

 He also noticed the same in textiles from Chimbote, 

 Peru (Bolivar collection)."' 



In further support of his conclusion that the dye of 

 the Purpura shell was used in America in precolumbian 

 times, Professor von Martens refers to the use, alongside 

 of each other and in the New and Old World alike, of 

 two other shell products, viz., the conch-shell trumpets 

 and pearls. The interesting data concerning these two 

 products, and the evidence they afford in the spread of 

 certain elements of culture, will be dealt with in later 

 chapters. It will be sufficient here to point out that 

 Professor von Martens' conclusion is strikingly confirmed 

 by the further evidence produced by Mrs. Nuttall.*' She 

 tells us that in the ancient Mexican Codex named after 

 her, a beautiful purple paint is profusely used. This 

 Codex " contains pictures of no fewer than thirteen women 

 of rank wearing purple skirts, and five with capes and 

 jackets of the same colour. In addition, forty-six chieftains 

 are figured with short, fringed, rounded purple waist- 

 cloths, and there are also three examples of the use of a 

 close-fitting purple Cap." Priests and other personages 

 are also represented whose bodies, and sometimes faces, 

 are painted purple, and throughout the Codex the same 

 colour appears in combination with others in ornamental 

 dfesigns and figures. 



Mrs. Nuttall points out further that "the shade of the 

 purple paint used is identical with that of the purpura 

 dye, and until it is demonstrated to us that the native 



"■> Von Martens, op. cit., p. 485. 

 " Nuttall, of. cil., pp. 380-1. 



