Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/186

120 these urns and steamed, in order to soften it, or, after carving, to give the images themselves the desired color.

The attention of the reader is called to the figures on which the individuals in the upper division of this and of Plate XIV* are seated. The characters with which they are marked denote, as I believe, that they are wooden seats or platforms.

In the left-hand compartment of the third division of Plate XIV* we see one of the priests, or artists, dressed to represent the god of death, preparing the paint. The other two figures in the same division show them at their devotions in their cabins. In the lower division they are at work carving the images. The peculiar form of the instrument here figured (see Fig. 35) leads me to believe it was of metal.

In the upper division of Plate XV* are the "messengers," who were sent by the priests to procure the wood, with machetes in hand, chopping down the trees. Although Landa states that cedar alone was used in this work two different species of trees are evidently represented here, the black one doubtless the native ebony out of which their "black" images were carved.

Division two of Plates XV* and XVI*, and division four of XVII* and XVIII*, represent the artists at work carving images, but here the machete is the chief implement used.

The upper division of XVII* contains two groups of figures which I find it difficult to interpret satisfactorily. I think these are symbolic representations, and not pictographs. The left group may possibly signify that out of the earth (represented by the head in the lower left-hand corner) springs the tree (denoted by the curved beam with Cauac characters upon it); that it finally produces a god (the figure at the top) to which the people and priests offer incense and viands. If this be the true interpretation it is a severe satire upon their worship, and reminds us strongly of the sarcasm of the prophet Isaiah on the religion of the idolaters of his day.

The group to the right is possibly a figurative representation of a similar idea. At the base are two Tlaloc heads, emblems of fertility, out of which arises a tree in the form of a cross, on which is Seated an idol. The plant probably signifies the "tree of life," or "life-giving plant."