I have now mentioned all the relics of antiquity that have been found in stated localities within the central Mexican region, which was to constitute the geographical basis of this chapter. Besides these relics, however, there are very many others in antiquarian collections, public or private, in different parts of the world, respecting which all that is known is that they are Mexican, that is, were brought from some part of the Mexican Republic, or even from the northern Central American states. Probably a larger part did actually originate in that part of the Republic which has been treated of in the present and the two preceding chapters. Very few, if any, came from the broad northern regions, whose few scattered remains will form the subject of the following chapter. Neither do the general remarks of different writers on Mexican antiquities refer, except very slightly, to any northern monuments; consequently I may introduce here better than elsewhere such miscellaneous matter as would naturally come at the close of my description of Nahua antiquities.
THE MEXICAN MUSEUM.
The collections in the city of Mexico, embracing relics of aboriginal times gathered at different dates from all parts of the country, are described by travelers as very rich, but little cared for. The public collections were gradually united in the National Museum, where it is to be supposed they are still preserved and cared for under government auspices. M. de Waldeck at one time undertook the work of publishing lithographic plates of the relics in the Museum, but never completed it, and so far as I know no systematic catalogue has ever been given to the public. Every visitor to the city has had something to say of these monuments, but most have given their attention to the calendar-stone, and a few other well-known and famous objects. Many copies have been made by traveling artists, and such is the source whence many of the cuts in the preceding pages have been taken. Respecting the various private collections of Mexico, frequently changing hands, and scattered more or less to foreign lands at every succeeding revolution, I do not deem it important to notice them in this place, especially as I have no information about their present number and condition, or the effects of the French intervention.
M. de Fossey represents the Museum as containing "a hundred masks of obsidian, of serpentine, and of marble; a collection of vases of marble and clay; implements in clay, in wood, and in stone; metallic mirrors; amulets and ornaments in agate, coral, and shell," all in great confusion.[IX-110] Mr Mayer gives perhaps the most complete account of the monuments gathered in this and some other collections in the city of Mexico, illustrated by many cuts besides those which I have had occasion to copy or to mention in describing the monuments of particular localities. I make some quotations from this author respecting miscellaneous objects. "In the city of Mexico I constantly saw serpents, carved in stone, in the various collections of antiquities. One was presented to me by the Conde del Peñasco, and the drawings below represent the figures of two 'feathered serpents,' which, after considerable labor I disinterred (I may say,) from a heap of dirt and rubbish, old boxes, chicken-coops, and decayed fruit, in the court-yard of the University." "The carving with which they are covered is executed with a neatness and gracefulness that would make them, as mere ornaments, worthy of the chisel of an ancient sculptor." "On the benches around the walls, and scattered over the floor, are numberless figures of dogs, monkeys, lizards, birds, serpents, all in seemingly inextricable confusion and utter neglect." A mortar of basalt with a coiled serpent round the rim, and a beautifully cut human head of the same material. "In the adjoining cases [of the Museum] are all the smaller Mexican antiquities, which have been gathered together by the labor of many years, and arranged with some attention to system. In one department you find the hatchets used by the Indians; the ornaments of beads of obsidian and stone worn round their necks; the mirrors of obsidian; the masks of the same material, which they hung at different seasons before the faces of their idols; their bows and arrows, and arrow-heads of obsidian, some of them so small and beautifully cut, that the smallest birds might be killed without injuring their plumage. In another department are the smaller idols of the ancient Indians, in clay and stone, specimens of which, together with the small domestic altars and vases for burning incense, are exhibited in the following [7] drawings. Many of these figures were doubtless worn suspended around the neck, or hung on the walls of houses, as several are pierced with holes, through which cords have evidently passed. In the next place is a collection of Mexican vases and cups, most of which were discovered ... in the Island of Sacrificios," and have consequently been already mentioned. There follow cuts of an axe and two pipes; nine small clay idols; and seven musical instruments. Sixteen cuts of objects from the Peñasco collection are also given.[IX-111]
Bronze Bells—Christy Collection.
Mr Tylor tells us that the Uhde collection at Heidelberg is a far finer one than that in Mexico, except in the department of picture-writings; it contains a large number of stone idols and trinkets, pipes, and calendars. The Christy collection in London is particularly rich in small sculptured figures, many of them from Central America. It includes the squatting female figure carved from hard black basalt, fifteen inches high and seven and a half inches wide, described by Humboldt as an Aztec priestess;[IX-112] and also bronze needles and the bronze bells shown in the cut, which I take from Tylor. The same author also describes and illustrates various other relics seen by him in Mexican and European collections. These include stone and obsidian knives, spear-heads, and arrow-heads; heads and small idols in terra cotta; pottery, consisting of vases, altars, censers, rattles, flageolets, and whistles; and masks of obsidian, stone, wood, and terra-cotta. Respecting obsidian relics Mr Tylor says, "Anyone who does not know obsidian may imagine great masses of bottle-glass, such as our orthodox ugly wine bottles are made of, very hard, very brittle, and—if one breaks it with any ordinary implement—going, as glass does, in every direction but the right one." "Out of this rather unpromising stuff the Mexicans made knives, razors, arrow- and spear-heads, and other things, some of great beauty. I say nothing of the polished obsidian mirrors and ornaments, nor even of the curious masks of the human face that are to be seen in collections, for these were only laboriously cut and polished with jewelers' sand, to us a common-place process." "We got several obsidian maces or lance-heads—one about ten inches long—which were taper from base to point, and covered with taper flutings; and there are other things which present great difficulties." "The axes and chisels of stone are so exactly like those found in Europe that it is quite impossible to distinguish them. The bronze hatchet-blades are thin and flat, slightly thickened at the sides to give them strength, and mostly of a very peculiar shape, something like a
, but still more resembling the section of a mushroom cut vertically through the middle of the stalk."[IX-113] These supposed hatchets were, according to some authorities, coins. They are extremely light to be used as hatchets. "Many specimens are to be seen of the red and black ware of Cholula." "The terra-cotta rattles are very characteristic. They have little balls in them which shake about, and they puzzled us much as the apple-dumpling did good King George, for we could not make out very easily how the balls got inside. They were probably attached very slightly to the inside, and so baked and then broken loose." A cut is given of a brown lava mask from the Christy collection, which seems to have some sculptured figures on the inside.[IX-114]