47 
miquL The mutilated hands alternate with the 
figure of certain vases, in which incense was 
burnt. These vases were called top-xicalU, hags 
in the form of calehashes^ (from toptli, a purse 
woven with the thread of the pita, and xicalll^ a 
calebash) . 
This idol being sculptured on every side, even 
beneath (Fig. 5), where we see represented 
Mictlanteuhtli^ the lord of the place of the dead^ 
we cannot doubt, but that it was supported in the 
air by means of two columns, on which rested 
the parts A and B in figures 1 and 3. Accord- 
ing to this uncouth arrangement, the head of the 
idol was probably elevated five or six metres above 
the pavement of the temple, so that the priests 
( teopixqui) dragged the unhappy victims to the 
altar, making them pass beneath the figure 
MictlanteuchtlL 
The Viceroy, count Revillagigedo, transport- 
ed this monument to the university of Mexico, 
which he considered as the most proper place 
for the preservation of the curious remains 
of American antiquity The professors of this 
University, of the order of St. Dominic, were 
unwilling to expose this idol to the sight of the 
Mexican youth ; and buried it anew in one of 
the passages of the college two feet deep. I 
should not have had the means of examining this 
* OfTicio del 5 Sept. 1.790, 
