Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/192

126 attempt at true pictorial representation; yet I suggest as possible that the latter, which was used in carving the wooden images, may represent the copper ax and the other the stone ax. Landa (Relacion §XXIX) says: "They had little hatchets of a particular metal of this form [Fig. 18c]. These they adjusted to a handle of wood; in combat these served them as an arm; they were also instruments used in working wood."

The spear or dart, and one method of throwing it, is shown in Fig. 13 (page 96), heretofore referred to. I judge from this that a kind of hook or hand ballista was used to give it more force. Something similar is shown frequently in the Mexican Codices and, according to Valentini, on the Berlin stone. The instrument in the other hand may be a stick with a notch in it to guide the dart; the only reason for doubting this is the bent form given the one figured on the next plate.

The usual form of the spear as given in the Manuscript is shown in Fig. 19a. This often has the head marked with the trembling cross similar to that in Ezanab, probably denoting that it was made of flint.

The arrow, if such it be (as no bow is found in the Manuscript), is generally figured with the head in this form (Fig. 19b), indicating, if truly represented, that a flint was thrust into the split end of the shaft in the usual way; the other end of the shaft was surrounded by two feather whirls. Possibly these are darts thrown by hand and not arrows.

I have been somewhat surprised to find nothing in this work indicating warfare, unless it be the figures which I have heretofore interpreted as probably representing a play. Herrera, speaking of the expedition of Cordova (Dec. 2, Bk. 1, chap. 3), says that, while at Cotoche, "there appeared a multitude [of Indians] in armor made of quilted cotton, with targets, wooden swords having edges of flints, large cutlasses, spears, and slings