Nevertheless, a few years later, as hinted by Casares, Mr. Edward H. Thompson secured the complete confirmation of the traditions concerning the character of the cenote. He brought out of the mud a most amazing archeological treasure. Through the kindness of Prof. A. M. Tozzer we are enabled to include here drawings of four pieces of mosaic-work which were among the many interesting things discovered. As Professor Tozzer and Dr. Spinden are engaged in an exhaustive study of the cenote material for publication, we will not further anticipate the results of their investigations.
Fig. 9 Fig. 10
In figs. 9 and 10 are illustrated two small fragments of wooden objects from the cenote which still retain portions of turquois-mosaic decoration. In fig. 9 the irregularly shaped piece in the center is a thin plate of gold. Both fragments are evidently from objects of considerable size. Several wooden teeth covered with the same kind of mosaic incrustation were probably from a jaguar mask or head.
Pl. III represents two fairly complete specimens from the cenote. Of these, a is a small staff or scepter, the face of which is covered with turquois mosaic, and it is possible that the headdress was once similarly incrusted. In b is shown a rattle of wood, within which is a copper bell. Only two bits of turquois of the mosaic decoration remain.
Fig. 11
In this object we find in the Mexican pictures an instrument analogous to the one last mentioned. In both of the Sahagun manuscripts, that of the Real Palacio in Madrid and the one in Florence, are representations of the deity Xipe Totec. In the former manuscript is found the name of the god written above the figure, Xippe anavatlitec, translated by Seler as “Xipe, lord of the coastland.” He is an earth deity, “our lord the flayed,” for he is represented wearing loosely about him a human skin. He was the patron deity of the goldsmiths of the valley of Mexico, and is said to have been paid special homage by the people of the Teotitlan district, the beginning of the highway to Tabasco. In the pictures given by Sahagun, and in other codices, this god carried a long staff which terminates in a kind of rattle (fig. 11), similar in shape to that found in the cenote of Chichen Itza. It was called chicauaztli by the Nahua, and Seler asserts that the rattlestick of the god Xipe was carried, besides him, only by the goddesses of the earth.[85] Sahagun describes it as a scepter made after the manner of the calyx of the poppy where the seed is, with something like the point of a dart fastened in and rising from the upper part.[86] The resemblance of the cenote specimen to the one shown in the Sahagun manuscript suggests that it was brought from the Nahuan region.
Fig. 12