File:Bulletin (1904) (20430611461).jpg

Title: Bulletin
Identifier: bulletin281904smit (find matches)
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology
Subjects: Ethnology
Publisher: Washington : G. P. O.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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612 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (bull. 28 to the above-mentioned figure of a priest, whether the costume is indeed of feather work or, possibly, of separate strips of cotton which are sewn together and hip over one another, any such doubt is pre- cluded here by the fact that the feathers are indicated with perfect distinctness on one of these figures, by outlines like those of «, fig- ure 124. It is highly probable that these figures also represent priests, but nothing analogous either to them or to the figure first mentioned is to be found in the manuscripts or on the reliefs. Certain sitting figures in the same collection are equally remark- able. The trunk is covered by a mantle without any ornament, which leaves the upper part of the chest bai'e, and apparently con- isists of nothing else but a large round covering with a hole in the mid- dle through which to )5ut the head (plate xlv, number 3), a rather primitive article of dress, which, however, in the sitting figures shows a strong resemblance to the accompanying illustrations from the man- uscripts (c and (/, figure 123). It is possible that the singular form of
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a h c d e Fig. 124. Figures showing dress, featlier worli, and neclilaces. this article of dress is only the result of a lack of artistic skill in the maker of these figures, and that it really represents one of those cloaks so frequently found in the Maya manuscripts and the Mexican codices. Andagoya speaks of a similar article of dress in Nicaragua (in Navarrete's Coleccion de los viages, etc.). He describes it as a sort of cape with a hole for the head, which covered the breast as well as the upper arm. Otherwise, the upper part of the body is nude as a rule in the fig- ures of the collection as well as in the manuscripts. For iromcn. While Landa states that in many parts of Yucatan the women wore an upper garment which covered the breast or a kind of jacket which was fastened at the v,'aist by a girdle there is not a single female figure to be found in any of the manuscripts with the upper part of the body covered,^' and even the blanket which, according to Landa, the women used to sleep under, and carried over the shoulder when traveliuij. is nowhere to be seen. This fact is " Compare the figures Troano codex, pp. 15* and 16*. middle (men witli mantles), v.'itli tlie figures, pp. 18*, 10*. and 20*, middle (women wifli slcirts, without upper garments).

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