oroughly earnest
archaeologist could long, to be a witness of the funeral ceremony in
which Fray Antonio most conspicuously would not take part. As this was
hopelessly impossible--for only by very slow advances, if ever, could I
reach again by considerate investigation the point that in a moment I
had reached by chance--I came away from Santa Maria reluctantly, yet
greatly elated by the discovery that I had made.

So jealous was I in guarding the strange legacy that the Cacique had
bequeathed to me that not until I was safe back in Morelia, in my room
at the hotel, with the door locked behind me, did I venture to examine
it. The bag, about six inches square, tightly sewed on all four of its
sides, was made of snake-skin, and was provided with a loop of
snake-skin so that it might be hung from the neck upon the breast like a
scapulary. My hands trembled as I cut the delicate stitching of maguey
fibre, and then drew forth a mass of several thicknesses of coarse
gray-brown paper, also made of the maguey, such as the ancient Aztecs
used. Being unfolded, I had before me a sheet nearly two feet square, on
which was painted in dull colors a curious winding procession of figures
and symbols. My knowledge of such matters being then but scant, I could
tell only that this was a record, at once historical and geographical,
of a tribal migration; and I saw at a glance that it was unlike either
of the famous picture-writings which record the migration of the Aztecs
from Culhuacan to the Valley of Mexico, and then about that valley until
their final settlement in Tenochtitlan. I was reasonably confident,
indeed, that this record differed from all existing codices; and I was
filled with what I hope will be looked upon as a pardonable pride at
having discovered, within three months of my coming to Mexico, this
unique and inestimable treasure.

My natural desire was to carry my precious codex at once to Don Rafael,
that I might have the benefit of his superior knowledge in studying it
(for he had continued very intelligently the investigation of Aztec
picture-writing that was so well begun by the late Senor Ramirez), and
also that I might enjoy his sympathetic enjoyment of my discovery. As I
raised the bag, that I might replace in it the refolded paper--which I
already saw heralded to the world as the Codex Palgravius, and
reproduced in fac-simile in _Pre-Columbian Conditions on the Continent
of North America_--some glittering object dr