Note 198 — Chapter VIII

In this land the umbrella is a rude kind of curiologics, faintly resembling European blazonry, and an armourist could tell the troops from the flag. In symbolism they precede Mexican writing. The newly-made caboceer is presented with a virgin-white article of palace manufacture, and he is expected to illustrate it by his actions. The principal figures are knives and decapitated heads and faces, cut out of cloth and sewn on the alternate lappets of the valance. The knives are straight, and shaped like a butcher’s, the handle blue, the blade red. The face is ruddy, with white eyes; and the head, which is clean cut off at the neck, wears an azure cap shaped like the East Indian ear-cloth.