Skull Masks
The two final masks to be described are the skull masks in the Ethnographical Museum in Berlin, and in the British Museum, London. On pl. XVIII is represented the Berlin example, which has been described by Uhle and illustrated in colors, three-fourths natural size.[93] Only the front of the skull has been used, and it was incrusted with sky-blue to pale slabs of turquois. The mask is 6⅝ inches in height. Our illustration is a photograph of the lithograph published by Uhle.
The skull mask in the British Museum (pl. XIX) has been illustrated many times, and is one of the best-known pieces of Mexican mosaic. It has also been repeatedly described, so that it is not necessary to present a detailed description at this time. Suffice it to say that the back of the skull has been cut away, and the front covered with five broad transverse mosaic bands, alternating from the top downward, of lignite (not obsidian, as all writers have described it, we are informed by Joyce) and turquois. The inside is lined with leather, on which traces of red paint still remain.
Shields
Richly decorated shields or chimallis played a prominent part in certain phases of the life of the ancient Mexicans. Mrs. Nuttall, in her interesting and instructive study, “On Old Mexican Shields,”[94] has pointed out that “all authorities agree that the shields were of two kinds. The first consisted of the military shields used for protection in warfare by all grades of warriors; the second comprised the shields carried, for display only, in religious dances and festivals.” In this study Mrs. Nuttall has made the following classification of shields, based on an extended examination of the chronicles of early writers:
1. Plain, unadorned war-shields (yaochimalli) of several kinds, used by the common soldiers.
2. Gala shields (totopchimalli), indicating the military rank and achievement of chiefs. These seem to have been indiscriminately used in warfare or feasts and dances. Their general structure seems to have been alike in either case, though it is obvious that they may have been more or less light and strong. Shields of this category sometimes reproduced one or more features of the military costume, body-painting and adornments pertaining to each grade. The shield in Museo Nacional is an example of this kind. Others exhibited the emblematic device of a militant god, Huitzilopochtli, Xipe, Yiacatecuhtli, etc., marking an order of chivalry—and to this division the Stuttgart specimens belong.
3. Shields, presumably of the supreme war-chief, exhibiting in picture-writing the name of his people or his personal appellation. Nothing certain is known about this group, but its existence seems vouched for by a series of indications.
4. Shields pictured in the codices with deities only exhibiting their emblematic devices or reproducing features of their symbolic attire. Such shields seem to have been carried, in religious dances and festivals, by the living images of the deities in whose honor they were held.
5. Shields of most precious materials, with strange and elaborate designs, described in the Inventories. As they are not mentioned elsewhere, it is not possible to state anything definite about them, but it is obvious that they were intended for the use of individuals of supreme rank. The beautiful shield at Castle Ambras belongs to this group. It is, consequently, the sole forthcoming specimen with a valid, though shadowy, right to the title of “Montezuma’s shield.”