267 



called chalch'mhtepehiia, dragged him dead or 

 living to the altar, and tore out his heart. 



It is possible, that the stone, which was found 

 in digging round the cathedral, was the same 

 temalacatl, which the gentiluomo of Cortez 

 asserts having seen near the enclosure of the 

 great teocalli of Mexitli. The figures of the 

 relief are nearly sixty decimetres high. Their 

 shoes are very remarkable : the conqueror has 

 his left foot terminated by a kind of beak, 

 which appears to be a defensive weapon. We 

 may be surprised at finding this weapon, to 

 which I know of nothing analogous among other 

 nations, only on the left foot. This same figure, 

 the stunted body of which reminds us of the 

 earliest Etruscan style, holds the prisoner by 

 the helmet, grasping it with his left hand. In 

 a great number of Mexican paintings, which 

 represent battles, we see warriors holding their 

 weapons in the left hand : they are represented 

 acting rather with this hand than with the right. 

 We might be led to think at first sight, that this 

 singularity is the result of peculiar habits ; but, 

 on examining a great number of historical hiero- 

 glyphics of the Mexicans, we observe, that their 

 painters placed weapons sometimes in the right, 

 and at other times in the left hand % as it hap- 

 pened to produce a symmetrical disposition in 



* Cod. Vat. anon. fol. 86. 



