om observed, by modern pilgrims in Mexico and Yucatan, of painting
uplifted hands on the outer walls of sanctuaries as an act of piety and
devotion.

[Illustration.]

Figure 44.

The hideous necklaces of alternate hands and hearts which encircle the
neck of a great monolithic idol in the city of Mexico and of an image in
the "Lyfe of the Indians" are thus also proven to be the touching though
uncouth and child-like expression of a devout prayer. Having gained this
insight into the deep significance of native emblems it is interesting to
study the peculiar breast-ornament which is the emblem of Xiuhtecuhtli,
literally "the azure lord," or the lord of the year or of fire and of the
Cihuacoatl or woman-serpent. It consists of an oblong plaque, the narrow
ends of which are cut out so as to simulate two air pyramids with steps.
The name of this symbolical ornament is recorded by Sahagun as
xiuh-tetelli, literally the turquoise or grass-green pyramid. It is
invariably painted blue and displays a round plate of burnished gold in
its centre. For more reasons than I can pause to relate here, it can be
shown that the plaque probably symbolized the Above, the blue sky, water
and air, whilst the gold plate was an image of the central divinity. The
sides of the square stool on which the god is seated are also cut out so
as to convey the idea that he is resting above terraced air-pyramids (fig.
44). His shield is surrounded by a cord and contains a cross-symbol with
lines conveying the idea of rotation and four circles. The banner above
the shield named pantli conveys the sound of the word pan=above, whilst
his conical ear-ornament symbolizes the Centre and Above. These details
are noteworthy because I am about to point out the striking analogy
between a Zuni idol or fetish and the ancient Mexican pictures of the lord
of fire and the lord of the north or the underworld=Tezcatlipoca.

This Zuni idol was sent to the Royal Ethnographical Museum at Berlin as
part of a representative collection by Mr. Frank H. Cushing and has been
figured and described in the publications of the Museum, with notes by Dr.
E. Seler.(18) It represents the Zuni god Aetchialaetopa whose attributes are
stone knives, who is the patron of the secret society, "Small fire" and
who is identified with a great star. His fetish represents him as standing
on the centre of a cross, formed of four beams plac