peculiar features of the Central American group of the Red-men,
Kg' 74- Fig. 75.
M e x ic a n M u s ic a l I n s t b u m e n t . M e x ic a n S t a t c e .
Kg in the formation of the skull, as well as by their
high cheek-bones.
The drawings of the Mexican hieroglyphical
and pictbrial MSS. are of a conventional and
decorative character. The following group
from the astronomical Fejervary codex, is inserted
to represent the state in which they portray
the phases of the moon, according to Aztec
mythology. V e see first the sun and the
moon quarrelling [given in wood-cut 77]: the
M e x ic a n Gem . next group, in the original MS., shows the
defeat of the moon, which in the third group is
swallowed by the sun; the fourth figure represents the triumphant
sun; in the fifth, the conqueror (veiy unsesthetically) spits the head
of the moon out, as symbol of the first quarter.202
We merely figure one specimen: the subject being hardly intelligible
without the colors of the original.
Of a higher importance are the antiquities of Central America;
though a comparison of the different publications on the ruins of
Palenque clearly shows, that a faithful copy of those monuments
belongs still to the desiderata of archaeology. The idiotic head [78]
published by Waldeck,203 with the peculiar artificial deformation of the
a» Kingsborougii, Antiquities of Mexico, iii. ; “ MS. in the possession of Gabriel Feier-
vary”—figs. 3, 5, 6, 7.
208 Voyage Pittoresque et Archéologique dans la province de Yucatan, 1834-6, Paris, fol.
1837 ; pl. xxii. p. 105— “ Relief astronomique de Palenqué ”—(differently given in D e i R io ,
Description, 1822, pl. 3.)
A R T OF A M E R I C A N N A T I O N S . 1 8 5
Fig. 77.
Me x ic a n I l l um in a t e d M S .
Fig. 78. Fig
P a l e n q u é - r e l i e f .
skull; and the terra-cotta idol, [179]
both from Yucatan,—show a tendency
towards decorative art; which
treats even the human form merely
for ornamental purposes, and therefore
lays a peculiar stress on the headdress,
eyebrows, wrinkles, and other
accessories, in preference to the purity
of the principal forms. In fact we may characterize the reliefs of
Palenqub by this peculiarity, which we observe in a smaller decree
on Mexican reliefs.
The few monuments of Guatemala hitherto published, among those
discovered by Squier, are of a purer taste and higher artistical character.
This inedited colossal head [80], obligingly communicated to
os from his well-stored portfolio, found by him at Yulpates, in 1853, sur
204 Idem, pl. xix.—“ Idole et Vase en terre cuite.”