ngraving to
be Yucatec and not Aztec in its origin. If it had been sculptured on one
side only, and these hieroglyphs omitted, I am satisfied that the facts
which I shall point out in the next paragraphs would have led to the
conclusion that this stone was Mexican in its origin. Fortunately the
native artist had the time to sculpture the Yucatec hieroglyphs, which
are the proof of its true origin. It was not dropped by a traveling
Aztec; it was made by a Yucatec.

In passing, it may be said that the upper left-hand, hieroglyph of Plate
XIII most probably repeats this name.

I collect from the third volume of BANCROFT'S _Native Races_, chapter
viii, such descriptions of HUITZILOPOCHTLI as he was represented among
the Mexicans as will be of use to us in our comparisons. No display of
learning in giving the references to the original works is necessary
here, since Mr. BANCROFT has placed all these in order and culled them
for a use like the present. It will suffice once for all to refer the
critical reader to this volume, and to express the highest sense of
obligation to Mr. BANCROFT'S compilation, which renders a survey of the
characteristic features of the American divinities easy.

In Mexico, then, this god had, among other symbols, "five balls of
feathers arranged in the form of a cross." This was in reference to the
mysterious conception of his mother through the _powers of the air_. The
upper hieroglyph in Fig. 52, and one of the lower ones, contain this
sign: "In his right hand he had an azured staff cutte in fashion of a
waving snake." (See Plate LXI of STEPHENS.) "Joining to the temple of
this idol there was a piece of less work, where there was another idol
they called TLALOC. These two idolls were alwayes together, for that
they held them as companions and of equal power."

To his temple "there were foure gates," in allusion to the form of the
cross. The temple was surrounded by rows of skulls (as at Copan) and the
temple itself was upon a high pyramid. SOLIS says the war god sat "on a
throne supported by a blue globe.[TN-7] From this, supposed to represent
the heavens, projected four staves with serpents' heads. (See Plate
XXIV, STEPHENS.) "The image bore on its head a bird of wrought plumes,"
"its right hand rested upon a crooked serpent." "Upon the left arm was a
buckler bearing five white plums arranged in form of a cross." SAHAGUN
describes his device as a dragon's head, "frightful in the extreme, and
c