I 
211 
very enrious monuments ; if they do not appear 
so to you^ the confidence I have in your judg- 
ment will dissipate my doubts. 
The first object that fixed my attention is the 
figure of a priestess, or, if you will, an Aztech 
princess (Plate 1 and 2). You think, that the 
ignorance of the sculptor has suppressed the arms 
of this figure ; and that he has had the awkward- 
ness, to attach the feet to the sides. I have no 
higher idea than you of the skill of the statuary ; 
but it appears to me that this figure, though out 
of all proportion, is not mutilated. I think I 
perceive, that the extremities, which you take for 
feet, are the hands of the statue. It seems to be 
on its knees, and seated on its legs and heels, 
y.ci^v\ixsv^y Lucian would say^^. This resting 
posture, suggested to men by nature itself, is care- 
fully described by the Greek lexicographers, and 
particularly affected, in the monuments of the 
arts, in the figures of women, Hesychius, v. 
omvKcti and oyha^eiv ; and Erotianus in his Lexi- 
con on Hippocrates, v. oyKaaic , ; describe this 
posture by periphrases, which denote the atti- 
tude in which a person is seated on his legs 
and his heels : stti ^rrfpvoiv It/ rao- 
yivyfxpiq Y.cil rkq . '^Tspvac rx yovxrx 
The learned Hemsterhuis conjectures, that the 
* In Lexiphmie. 
p 2 
