but the shield-marking is incorrect, consisting as it does of seven tufts of down instead of five.
Clavigero (tom. ii, pp. 17–19) says of Uitzilopochtli’s insignia: “Upon his head he carried a beautiful crest, shaped like the beak of a bird, upon his neck a collar shaped like ten figures of the human heart. His statue was of an enormous size, in the posture of a man seated on a blue-coloured bench, from the four corners of which issued four snakes. His forehead was blue, but his face was covered with a golden mask, while another of the same kind covered the back of his head. In his hand he carried a large blue, twisted club, in his left a shield in which appeared five balls of feathers disposed in the form of a cross, and from the upper part of the shield rose a golden flag with four arrows, which the Mexicans believed to have been sent to them from heaven. His body was girt with a large golden snake, and adorned with lesser figures of animals made of gold and precious stones, which ornaments and insignia had each their peculiar meaning.”
Acosta says of his appearance: “The chiefest idoll of Mexico was, as I have sayde, Vitziliputzli. It was an image of wood like to a man, set upon a stoole of the coloure of azure, in a brankard or litter, in every corner was a piece of wood in forme of a serpent’s head. The stoole signified that he was set in heaven. This idol had all the forehead azure, and had a band of azure under the nose from one ear to another. Upon his head he had a rich plume of feathers like to the beak of a small bird, the which was covered on the top with