Note 19 — Chapter III · GOVERNMENT OF THE NAHUA NATIONS.

The crown used by the early Chichimec sovereigns was composed of a herb called pachxochitl, which grew on the rocks, surmounted by plumes of the royal eagle, and green fathers called Tecpilotl, the whole being mounted with gold and precious stones, and bound to the head with strips of deer-skin. Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chichimeca, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., tom. xi., p. 213. In another place, Relaciones, in id., p. 336, the same writer says that the crown differed according to time and season. In time of war it was composed of royal eagle feathers, placed at the back of the head, and held together with clasps of gold and precious stones; in time of peace the crown was made of laurel and green feathers of a very rare bird called Quezaltotolc; in the dry season it was made of a whitish moss which grew on the rocks, with a flower at the junction called teoxuchitl.