in the temple-buildings and were consulted as diviners on ordinary occasions. These were distinguished by their hair, which they wore in plaits.
In Campeche, Diaz mentions priests who wore their hair long and matted with blood, in Mexican style, and he further states that the people of Chiapas brought with them into battle a "priestess or goddess" with an incense-burner and stone idols. This priestess wore body-paint with white down stuck upon it, another Mexican custom. Many of the reliefs of the older Maya culture show priests engaged in various functions, and the elaborate dresses in which these are often clad have given rise to the supposition that many religious offices were performed by priestesses. Figures in flowing robes are particularly noticeable at Menché (PI. XXII; p. 294), but, especially in later Yucatan, women as a general rule were excluded from the more important ceremonies, and I think that these figures merely represent men in priestly insignia, which would naturally be of a.more elaborate nature than the ordinary dress. Sacrifice was common throughout the Maya region, but the question how far human offerings were made in early times is difficult to settle. There is only one scene upon the monuments which may be interpreted as a human sacrifice,[1] and this occurs at Piedras Negras, but the negative evidence afforded by the other reliefs throughout the Maya region would seem to suggest that the practice was, at most, exceptional. Even the Dresden codex furnishes no definite proof that the rite existed when it was written, though there are scenes which may possibly be interpreted as suggesting the custom. For instance, Fig. 63 (p. 301) shows a head lying on an altar; but as it
- ↑ There is a wall-painting at Chichen Itza which seems to picture a human sacrifice, but this is on a building which undoubtedly belongs to a later period, when the Maya had already come in contact with Mexican influences, as will be seen later.
