Concerning the ancestral treasure of the Aztecan kings which Montezuma inherited from his father Axayacatl, finally exacted by Cortés from the unfortunate ruler, Bernal Díaz describes “three blowguns with their pellet molds and their coverings of jewels and pearls, and pictures in feathers of little birds covered with pearl shell, and other birds, all of great value.[61]
Tezozomoc, in describing the great sacrifices offered to the god Huitzilopochtli in honor of the coronation of Montezuma, and the presents brought by neighboring chiefs and lords as tributes from the various towns under their jurisdiction, writes:
In the center of the great square there was a building (xacal) where was the teponaztli, and the great tlapanhuehuetl with which they made music. On the xacal was the device of the Mexican arms with a small peñula (rock?) of painted paper, like a natural rock, with a great cactus (tuna) on it, and on the cactus a royal eagle having in its claws a great mangled snake, and the eagle had a crown of doubled or twisted paper very well (made) and gilded, and (with) very rich stone mosaic-work round about it, in the Mexican custom called teocuitla amayxcuatzolli.[62]
At this festival Montezuma had the king of Aculhuacan attired in special raiment, which Tezozomoc describes as “a netted mantle with much rich stonework in the knots of the mantle, and with little gold bells hanging from the fringe.[63]
According to Sahagun, Xiuhtecutli, god of fire, wore “earrings in the holes of the ears worked with mosaics of turquois.... In his left hand he carried a shield with five greenstones called chalchihuite, placed like a cross on a round gold plate, which nearly covered the whole of the shield.”[64]
PL. XIII
MASK OF WOOD WITH MOSAIC DECORATION
MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN HEYE FOUNDATION, NEW YORK
Chalchihuitlicue, goddess of water, fountains, and rivers, wore earrings of turquois fashioned in mosaic-work. In describing the idol of Quetzalcoatl, Sahagun says that, for ceremonial occasions, ear-ornaments of turquois mosaic were placed on it, and “in the right hand was placed a scepter like a bishop’s crosier or staff, the upper part crooked like a bishop’s staff, and wrought with stone mosaic-work.” In treating of the presents sent to Cortés by Montezuma we have already given the description of the paraphernalia pertaining to this deity. This scepter is there described as having “the crook like the head of a snake turned around or coiled.” In the codices the god or his priest is represented with this staff with a crook, but the serpent-headed scepter is shown by Sahagun (manuscript of the Real Palacio, Madrid, estampa VII, fig. 1) as part of the ceremonial outfit of Huitzilopochtli (fig. 5). The body of the serpent is painted blue, representing the scales done in turquois mosaic.