Mexican and Central American antiquities, calendar systems, and history; . e by the manuscripts, it must have been in general use as anational article of ornament. Hence it is the more amazing that wenowhere encounter it among the reliefs nor on any of the figures inthe Yucatan collection. A leg ornament appears, it is true, quite fre-quently amopg the former, but never in the shape which we regu-larly find in the manuscripts. Compare e (from a doorpost atKabah, after Stephens), and / (mural decoration at Chichen, afterthe same). Such coverings for the entire lower leg are wholly absentfrom th


Mexican and Central American antiquities, calendar systems, and history; . e by the manuscripts, it must have been in general use as anational article of ornament. Hence it is the more amazing that wenowhere encounter it among the reliefs nor on any of the figures inthe Yucatan collection. A leg ornament appears, it is true, quite fre-quently amopg the former, but never in the shape which we regu-larly find in the manuscripts. Compare e (from a doorpost atKabah, after Stephens), and / (mural decoration at Chichen, afterthe same). Such coverings for the entire lower leg are wholly absentfrom the Yucatan collection. Besides the above-mentioned leg ornament, single instances of an-other kind appear in the manuscripts, shaped like g. It is found onlyon the figure of the death god and evidently forms one of his attri-butes (see Die Gottergestalten der Mayahandschriften, page 9). Itspurpose is readily grasped. It consists of rattles or bells, buckled tothe leg in order to produce a rhythmic sound during the dance, asis still the custom among North American r s t u V w Fig. 119. Leg and wrist ornaments. Lastly, we have a few instances, for example, Troano codex, page17*, of a simple anklet like a and figure 119; also in one place(Dresden codex, page 50) as a leg decoration below the knee, c. Similar objects occur in the Yucatan collection, as on the before-mentioned figure of the priest, and on another figure, e. Thesesimple leg rings are also frequent in the reliefs at Palenque. A richcovering for the whole lower leg is also not unusual there, /. A foot ring, apparently made of the feather work that is held insuch high esteem in Central America, occurs on a figure in a carvingon a beam of sapota wood at Kabah, </, after Stephens. Similar ex-amples are frequent at Palenque. 606 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 ARM ORNAMENTS We have already stated that the leg ornament characteristic of themanuscript occurs also as an arm ornament, h. It is seen on womenas


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectmayas, bookyear1904