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280 GEMS AND PRECIOUS STONES IN THE
quarters,
in one instance, two of them fitting together. The explanation offered
is, that the supply of the material having become exhausted, recourse
was had to division, or a removal of a part from existing objects,
evidently for the purpose of making others, perhaps to be buried with
some dead chief, or to be bestowed on new branches of the tribe, an
object held sacred. Fully one-eighth was removed from the back of this
adze, and the manner in which the instrument used in the removal was
held has produced a rounded cut on each side, lending probability to
the supposition that some abrasive was employed, drawn with a string
held in the hands, or stretched across a bow. If the Aztecs knew of the
existence of this sapphire, we can more readily understand how they
worked so large a mass of tough and hard material. So far as the writer
has been able to ascertain, no similar object of equal magnitude and
archaeological interest exists. Neither the Humboldt celt, the Leyden
plate, the Vienna adze, nor the one in the Ethnological Museum at
Dresden, which weighs only seven pounds, and is entirely devoid of
ornamentation, can compare with it.
A
jadeite breastplate was obtained in 1884, by a German engineer, from a
tomb near Santa Lucia, Cotzulmaguapa, where Dr. Behrendt had made some
extensive excavations and obtained a quantity of large engraved stones
and other antiquities from the old temples and tombs of the ancient
kings of Quiche, which exist in that neighborhood. It is 16 centimeters
(6 1/2 inches) wide, about 12 centimeters (5 inches) high, 1 centimeter
(2/5 inch) thick. The color round the edges is a grayish-green, while
on the outside, at the center, it is a light rusty brown, perhaps from
burning. By transmitted light, the color is a light apple-green. It
has been drilled at two places on the back edges with holes 4
millimeters (1/5 inch) in width, and has been sliced or cut from some
boulder, as the back edges show. At one place, there are evidences of
an attempt to slit it. According to Dr. Valentini, the cutting
represents a human face or mask, or rather the headgear of a man,
representing the symbol Achau, meaning " Ross " or " Lord ;" the head
of the tribe (one of the most common motives of the Maya, which is
found at least a thousand times drawn and colored in the Maya codices)
forming the walls.
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