Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/353

 274 In the National Museum and in the collection of the Conde, are seyeral masks, made of obsidian, said to have been found in Indian tombs, covering the faces of skeletons, the remains, perhaps, of some of the illustrious dead of the Empire. The one here represented was found in the Department of Chiapas. When you recollect the exceedingly frail and glass-like material out of which these things are out, you cannot fail to be struck with the skill and ingenuity of the person who contrived to work it into the semblance of human features, without fracturing the mass, and gave to the whole a polish resembling that of the finest mirrors. You will be the more surprised at this on looking at the following ring,



also made of obsidian, and but one-tenth of an inch in thickness. It is perfectly transparent, beautifully wrought, and apparently so brittle and thin, that the slightest blow would fracture it.



The above is also a mask, about a foot long, made, not of obsidian, but of serpentine. There are holes, as you perceive, in the upper part, which were doubtless used to suspend it before the face of some of the idols, according to one of the occasional rites of their worship. This mask is extremely interesting, because it is a perfect profile of the present race of Indians who frequent the very spot at St. Jago de Tlaltelolco, where the relic was found.