258 
GUATEMALA. 
it is four feet in diameter, and decorated with the 
symbols of Quetzalcoatl. 
A nation of warriors, it would be supposed their arts 
would provide arms both offensive and defensive; hut 
there seems to have been nothing of peculiar originality. 
Arrows and darts, often poisoned, hatchets and wooden 
swords, in which were inserted obsidian teeth, were their 
weapons of offence, and those of defence were coats of 
quilted cotton, which the Spaniards were not slow to 
adopt, and shields of skins lined with cotton. While the 
generals and other officers were clothed in skins of pumas, 
jaguars, eagles, and other animals, it does not appear that 
the rank and file had any especial uniform. 1 All joined 
battle with yells and the lugubrious blasts of the tun or 
teponaztles , — a sort of trumpet sounding even worse than 
an Alpine lure. 
Let us return to Utatlan, and follow for a while the 
fortunes of the Quiches. Under brave kings their bounds 
had extended, and towns, tribes, and nations were com¬ 
pelled to acknowledge the kings of Utatlan as their 
lieges. In all this external prosperity, internal dissen¬ 
sions arose ; and the plebs, incited by demagogues, de¬ 
manded privileges which the king, Quicab, was compelled 
to grant after the palaces of the nobles had been sacked 
by the mob. Another more serious trouble arose from 
this mob-rule. It was the custom for the rulers of the 
conquered tribes to reside at court at least a part of the 
year; and the two kings of the Cakchiquels, Huntoh and 
Vucubatz, were visiting Quicab, when a street-riot, of 
1 Among the curious illustrations in the Kingshorough Collection are coats 
of armor belonging to the nobles, consisting of a shirt of simple body-torm, 
embroidered or painted with various devices. With these are helmets, some¬ 
times of conical shape, but frequently in form of animal heads. 
