Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/199

Rh hand being thrust through the hole, i am unable even to surmise its use. In four instances it stands behind a priest, who is in a squatting posture and appears to be holding bread or maize in his hand and performing some religious ceremony. In two instances it is in the hand of a priest clothed in black, and in a similar posture, who holds it in front of him. In all cases it extends as high as the top of the head, and the curved ends turn from the person.

A very singular implement (Fig. 37) is figured in the third division of Plate XXIII*. Fig. 35. It appears from the figures in the plate to have been held, while in use, in the right hand, which grasped the hoop at a. Its use can only be guessed by the connection in which it is found. In each case it is held up beside a tree, which appears to have been severed at the point immediately opposite, the top not yet fallen down. On the severed end of one we see the supposed death symbol. From these facts I infer that it was used as a kind of saw, though it is possible it was employed in peeling the bark from the trees used in the manufacture of their wooden idols. If used as a saw, which I think most likely, the teeth were probably flint chips, fastened to the hoop by strings or thongs. A fact worthy of notice is that the figure immediately following (or preceding) these in the third division of Plate XXIV* shows the use of the machete in felling trees, but here the evident intention is to represent a much larger tree, as shown by the diameter and three branches, a tree also of a different species.

An implement of the form shown in Fig. 38 is represented in the middle division of Plate XXXI*. As this appears from the figure in the plate to be used by the individual in whose hands it is held to sever the cord which he also grasps, I presume it is a cutting instrument, probably of flint.

The personage represented by the right-hand figure in this division is the god of death, and the death symbol is in the same compartment; therefore it is presumable that the