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Show 184 .ART OF AMERICAN NATIONS. peculiar features of the Central American group of the Red-mon, Fig. 74. Fig. 76. MEXICAN MusiCAL INSTRU)tENT. MEXICAN STATU.lll. Fig 76. in the formation of the skull, as well as by their high choek-boues. The drawings of the Mexican hioroglyphical and pictorial M S. are of a conventional and decorative character. The following group from the astronomical Fe;'erva1·y codex, is inserted to represent the state in which they portray tho phases of tho moon, according to Aztec mythology. We see first tho sun and the moon quarrelling [given in wood-cut 77]: tho MKx•cAN GEnt. next group, in the original MS., shows the defeat of tho moon, which in the third group is swallowed by the sun; tho fourth figure represents the triumphant sun; in the fifLb, the conqueror (very unresthetically) spits the head of tho moon out, as symbol of the :first quarter.202 Wo merely figure one specimen: the subject being hardly intelligible without the colors of tho original. Of a higher importance are tho antiquities of Central America; though a comparison of the different publications on the ruins of Palenqu6 clearly shows, that a faithful copy of those monum nts belongs still to the desiderata of archroology. The idiotic head [7 J published by Waldeck,203 with the peculiar artificial deformation of the 202 KJNOsnonouou, Antiql4itiu of Mezico, iii.; "MS. in the possession of Gu.briel Fcjcrvnry"- figs. 8, 5, 6, 7. 203 Voyage Pittore&ql4e tt ArcMologiql4e dan8 la provi11c~ de Yucatan, 1834-6, Pnris, fol. 1837; pl. xxii. p. 101>-" Relief o.stronomiquo do Po.lenqu6 "-(differently given in DEL 1\10 Dewiption, 1822, pl. 8.) ' ART OF AMERICAN NATIONS. Fig. 77. MEXICAN !LLumNATEJ> MS. Fig. 78. PALJIINQUf'.-ltET.II~II'. skull; ancl thetcrra-cott.a idol, [179] ;204 -both from Yucatan,-show a tendou ·y towards decorative art; which treats even tho human form merely for ornamental pnrposcs, and tl1erefore lays a peculiar sLt· ss on the hoad.- dress, yebrows, w1·i nkles, and other YucA'J"AN·IooL. acces,;;orios, in pl"ofcronce to the purity 185 of the principal forms. In fact we may characterize the reliefs of Palenquc by tl1is peculiarity, which we observe in a smaller degree on Mexican reliefs. Tbe few monuments of Guatemala hitherto published, among those discovered by quicr, are of a pnee1· taste and high r artistical character. ThiH inedited colossal head [80], obligingly communicated to us from his well-stored portfolio, found by him at Yulpates, in 1853, sur- 20• Idem, pl. xix.-" Idolo ct Va~o en torro cui to." |