of skins, but after their settlement in the valley, textiles were adopted, first of nequen fibre, later of maguey and cotton. The last-named material however was reserved for the upper classes, the women of which added to their attire by wearing additional tunics and skirts. Exceptions to the above rule were constituted by the Tarascans, among whom the men, as among the Huaxtec, wore no maxtlatl, and the Chichimec who wore skins. Skin-clothing prevailed to some extent among the Tarascans also, though they were good weavers, and in this district the young wore shorter
(British Museum)
skirts than their elders. The following garments were considered more or less characteristic of certain peoples; white cloaks with figures of scorpions in blue of the Toltec; striped textiles of the Otomi; duck-feather cloaks of the Tarascans; net cloaks of the Totonac; white cotton mantles of the Zapotec, and polychrome textiles especially representing interlaced eddies (as the shield in Fig. 18, p; p. 118) of the Huaxtec. Body-paint was employed by all the tribes, especially on ceremonial occasions; Mexican women were in the habit of painting their faces yellow and impressing patterns in red upon their cheeks with pottery stamps (Fig. 28). Figures of monkeys and coxcoxtli-birds were especially favourite designs. The Tarascans of Tzintzuntzan used black
