267 ' 
called chalchiiiJitepekua, dragged him dead or 
living to the altai% and tore out his heart. 
It is possible, that the stone, which was found 
in digging round the cathedral, was the same 
temalacati, which the gentilaomo of Cortez 
UvSserts 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 helniet, 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. Yat, anon. fol. 86. 
