209 
fanciful. I have engraved a part of the figures, 
which most excited my curiosity ; I have added 
to each group, represented in the 15th plate, the 
citation of the Codex Borgianus^ and that of the 
Italian manuscript, which was to serve as a 
commentary. 
No. 1. An unknown animal, decorated with 
a collar, and a kind of harness, but pierced with 
darts. Fabrega calls it the crowned rabbity the 
sacred rabbit. This figure is found in several 
rituals of the ancient Mexicans. According to 
the traditions, which have been preserved to our 
times, it is a symbol of suffering innocence. 
Under this point of view, the allegorical repre- 
sentation reminds us of the lamb of the Hebrews, 
or the mystic idea of an expiatory sacrifice des- 
tined to calm the anger of the divinity. The in- 
cisive teeth, and the form of the head and tail, 
seem to indicate, that the painter wished to re- 
present an animal of the order glires {rongeurs) : 
although the feet with two hoofs, and a toe 
which does not touch the ground, indicate a 
species of the ruminating tribe ; I doubt whether 
it be a caviUy or Mexican hare ; perhaps it may 
be some unknown quadruped, living in the inte- 
rior, on the north of the Rio Gila, towards the 
north-west part of America. 
lliis same animal, with a much longer tail, 
seems to me to figure a second time in the Codex 
Borgianus at the fifty-third page : of this No. 1 1, 
VOL. XIII. 
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