DOOR-POSTS OF HALL IN THE TENNIS-COURT OF CHICHEN-ITZA. of feathers, a heavy collar of precious stones, a bundle of arrows in the left hand, while the right carries a knife similar to that carried by the figures of the Cuauhxicalli, so that we might almost fancy we are following in the train of a Nahua pageant so vividly portrayed by Sahagun, when he says: “In the feast of the God of Fire, which was held in the month Izcalli” (the eighteenth month), “the nobles wore a high-fronted paper coronet, with no back to it, a kind of false nose of blue paper, a collar and medallions around their necks, while in their hands was carried a wooden knife, the lower half of which was painted red and the upper white.”[137] In our cut, the figure to the right wears the mitre just described with the piece of paper about the nose, while the collar and the wooden knife may be seen in both, just like those we see on Tizoc’s stone. The analogy is as curious as it is striking.
TIZOC’S STONE, IN MEXICO.
Further, to the right of our drawing (page 365), the figures, besides the huge feather head-dress, carry in their hands spears barbed with feathers, like the figures to the extreme left on Tizoc’s stone. These warriors are distributed in groups of two, the conqueror to the left, the vanquished to the right; the latter in the act of presenting the sacred knife he holds in his hand, as a sign of submission. Some of the warriors, instead of the knife, have a two-handed sword, “macana,” furnished with blades of obsidian of Toltec manufacture; a few have their noses pierced, and wear a golden ball, or the obsidian bezoté, on their under-lip, as a badge of knighthood, which they had adopted from the Nahuas of the Uplands. Further, each figure, whether in the Mexican or Maya bas-relief, wears a kind of casque, fashioned in the shape of a crocodile, a bird, a serpent, or a duck’s head, etc., with his name on it. Slight differences of style may occur here and there; for these monuments belong to remote epochs, while Tizoc’s stone only dates back to 1485; but the fact that they are found at a distance of more than 900 miles from each other does not make their resemblance less marvellous.
STATUE OF TLALOC FOUND AT CHICHEN-ITZA.
We will end our comparisons with a description of the following statues, which ought to convert the most obstinate to our theory. One was discovered at Chichen-Itza five or six years ago, by Leplongeon, an American explorer; the other in the neighbourhood of Tlascala, close to Mexico, at a considerable distance from the former. The two statues represent the Toltec god Tlaloc, according to Mr. Hamy, whose view I take. This view receives additional probability from the existence of a third statue, which was found I know not where, and which is the property of Mr. Baron of Mexico, who bought it among several other Aztec antiquities, and had it placed in his beautiful garden at Tacubaya, whence it has, I suppose, been removed to Spain. “This statue,” says Jesus Sanchez, “is smaller than the other two, measuring but 3 feet by 1 foot 7 inches by 2 feet high. It also represents a man lying on his back, his legs drawn up, his feet on the ground, and holding with both hands a vase which rests against his body.”
STATUE OF TLALOC OF TLASCALA (IN THE MUSEUM OF MEXICO).