133 



narrow sleeves resembles the garment, which 

 the Mexicans name ichcahuepilli 3 but the net, 

 which covers the shoulders, is an ornament 

 no longer to be met with among the Indians. 

 Below the girdle is the spotted skin of a jaguar, 

 with its tail. It is related by the Spanish his- 

 torians, that the Mexican warriors, in order to 

 appear more terrible in combat, wore enormous 

 wooden helmets in the form of a tyger's head, 

 the jaws of which were armed with the teeth of 

 this animal. Two skulls, no doubt those of van- 

 quished enemies, are tied to the girdle of the 

 conqueror. His feet are covered with a kind of 

 buskin, which reminds us of the Keau, or caligce, 

 of the Greeks and Romans. 



The slaves, represented sitting cross-legged 

 at the feet of the conqueror, are very remarkable 

 both for their attitudes and their nudity. That 

 on the left is like the figure of those saints, 

 which Ve frequently see in Hindoo paintings, 

 and which the navigator Roblet found on the 

 north-west coast of America, among the hiero- 

 glyph ical paintings of the natives of Cox's chan- 

 nel *'. It would be easy to trace, in this relief, 

 the Phrygian cap and the apron (^/f«jxa) of 

 the Egyptian statues, were we to follow the steps 

 of a learned writer -f^ who, led away by the 



* Marchand's Voyage, vol. 1, p. 312. 

 t Court de Gibeliu. 



