Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/132



This vessel is also made of a white transparent marble.

In a neighboring cabinet is seen a curious little figure, carved in serpentine. It appears to have been a charm or talisman, and in many respects resembles the bronze figures which were found at Pompeii, and are preserved in the Secret Museum at Naples. This relic was discovered at St. Iago Tlaltelolco, immediately north of the city of Mexico; but the design appears to me too indelicate to be inserted in a work intended for general readers. It struck me as resembling the images used of old in the worship of Isis, and if it does not serve as a link in the supposed connection between the Egyptians and the Mexicans, it certainly exhibits as great a disregard for decency as characterized the great "mother of ancient art and civilization."

The figures Nos. 1 and 2, on the next page, are drawings of two Indian Axes or Hatchets, of stone, the first of which was discovered in Baltimore County, State of Maryland, and the second near St. Louis Potosi, in Mexico! I have contrasted them, as singularly alike in shape and