The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1902-05-13
Fac Smile of the Most Interesting Aztec
Picture Manuscript.
IT is THE ROMANCE OF THE coDEx NuTTALL.
The First Work of the Kind Ever Undertaken in
This Country-lssued by the Peabody Museum
Tenth Record of Its Kind Discovered

Cambridge, Mass, May 7-One OF the
most remarkable volumes ever issued i'll
tbis country has just been published by
tbe Peabody Museum OF American Arch
seoloqy and Ethnology at Harvard 1t is
an exact fac smile, in the colors of the
original, Of one of the finest and best
nrcserved ancient Mexican manuscripts in
existence-the long lost codex owned by
ord Zouche of Harynworth, This fac
smile reproduction has been named the
Codex Nuttall, in honor of Mrs. leila Nut
tall. an honorary assistant of the museum,
vbo discovered the existence of the origi-
nal after it had been lost to view for
centuries. traced it to its present English
owner. spent months i'll a careful study OF
he contents directed the work of repro
ducing it. and has written careful intro
duction which explains its peculiarities
and text so far as they are cXplainable in
the light of modern archaeological science.
The Codex Nuttal is the tenth ancient
Mexican record of the kind that has been
discovered and it is the only one which
has ever been reproduced under the aus
nices OF American scholarship. Like the
other examples OF the same kind Of pic
pre-wrting it is painted on strips of
prepared deer skin, which are glued to-
zether in such way as to form a long
folded band and so lasting are the colors
employed--which were made by a secret
process that the native artists refused to
disclose to their Spanish conquerors-
hat even now, after more than 400 years,
hey are still bright and fresh. The pic
ure.writing-not conventional hero
glyphs like those that adorn so many old
Mexican and Central American monu-
nents. but actual colored drawings of a
much more elaborate and expressive
charactcr-covers both sides of the skin,
but the pages OF the book do not turn
like those of a modern volume, Each
sheet being attached at one edge to that
which preccdes it and at the other to that
which follows. 1t is necessary to read
through one side of the long strip which
is thus formed and then turn the whole
book over and begin reading again on the
back of the first page. On these reverse
pages. it may be noted. the coloriug diff
iers from that OF the diverse side of the
skin. and the detail is much more profuse.
4 Some thirty or forty years ago one Of
the members of the propaganda at Rome
told the monks OF San Marco, who then
owned the codex and who had submitted
H it to hun for identification, that the
document was probably intended for the
i Nusement children, but was so fool
n 9sf that it Gould only bore them - and,
Il indeed, TO unframed modern eyes it looks
v much like a grotesque picture book for
juvenile readers Page after page is COW
n cred with squat figures whose seeming
81 exaggeration of features and gestures is
n Characteristic OF Aztec art. and with sym
81 bols and figures illuminated in the rich
N colors of which the ancient American
n artists were so fond. Reds and greens
n and blues, warm browns and gaudy vel
n lows, gray and violet shade of purple
81 contrasting with the white of the deer skin
81 fill in the black outlines. But evidently
n all the coors were applied with the great
n est care and it is probable that each hac
"a special meaninR-many are known tc
81 have had ineed-just as there was a def
Fl mite significance, archaeologists think, ii
II each different shape of nose or eye.
~ Generally speaking, the codex is to bt
81 read in exactly the reverse way to tn,
n custom in reading English in other words
81 It's first page is what would he last in
# modern book the lines run from right t.
NJ
|K TO right and, the sequence is from toi
I'D to bottom. Some of the other Mexican
Isl codices are arranged differently and Their
M seems to have been no fixed rule in sucl
IBS matters, for it is evident that in severa
M cases parallel columns of pictures are Il
81 be read up and down like the Chimes
f# word signs, while in the Codex INITIAL
4 there are number OF places where lon
IN INES so divide the pages as to indcat
III mat the reader must turn at right angles
# as 1t were, and run his eye up the pag
) 10 follow the story that had been, a mo
M ment before, working its way back an
VA forth across it, Moreover, the cross line
'48 are very often not perfectly Symmetrical
pa some Of the figures being larger tina
A others so that the text weaves in an
Hx OUT IN a way that is somewhat confusin
s 70 the Inexperienced students but Mr.
M Nuttall who is one of the most accom-
k phshed "Americanists' now living. an
s VINO has devoted years to the examinatio
o. the writings and other records of ancier
N Mexico, has traced in its sheets a story
H or rather, a series of stories-which
M 'ull OF life and movement and whic
M seems to reach its full completion wit
me end OF the codex, though the last pas
.i the picture manuscript appears never I
' nave been finished by the artist.
inc Interpretation OF the old Aztec il
'eriptions and codces is, necessarily
some extent based on surmise, but Mr.
k Nu''ail has succeeded in bringing out Il