spotted ocelot's skin, occupy the centre and support, on their bowed
shoulders, a curious emblem terminating in open serpents' jaws. The large
head (of a jaguar?) is in the centre and above this issue two puffs of
breath with seeds, forming a double recurved figure so identical in shape
and detail to a single branch of the Copan swastika that one might imagine
it was carved by the same hand. On this tablet, instead of a tree, the
centre is occupied by a shield, exhibiting a face and having tufts of
feathers at its four rounded corners. This rests on two crossed lances
with decorated handles surmounted by large points.

In this connection it is interesting and important to note that, in
ancient Mexico, lands conquered and acquired in warfare were termed "mil
chimalli," literally, "field of the shield," a metaphor which was also
probably known to the Mayas.

Glancing next at the "Temple of Inscriptions," the fourth of the large
detached temples of Palenque, we find that its interior is characterized
by the most extensive mural inscriptions found in America, consisting
entirely of hieroglyphics. Four exterior free pillars, however, "contain
on their outer faces, modelled in bold relief, life-sized figures of women
holding children in their arms" (Holmes).

Having brought out the particular point that, in each of the four temples
described, adults are represented in the act of carrying or offering
children or diminutive and strangely grotesque conventionalized effigies
of human beings, I would note that the only analogous grotesque figures
with long noses, I know of, are those on the sceptres held in the hand by
the seated personage on the "Great Turtle" and by the individual carved on
Stela E at Quirigua. It is noteworthy that the left hand of the latter
personage holds a shield displaying a face and recalling that carved on
the tablet of the Palenque "Temple of the Sun." Analogous grotesque
figures also surround the personage carved on Stela F at Copan. These
facts indicate that the Quirigua "Great Turtle," the stelae at Quirigua and
Copan and the Palenque tablets, were erected by people sharing the same
cult and ritual observance, one feature of which was the carrying of
diminutive human effigies, with exaggerated and almost grotesque noses.

A clue to the significance of this rite is supplied by the text of the
Codex Telleriano-Remensis (Kingsborough, vol. V, p. 134) relating to the
Mexican 20-day period Iz-calli, the