These jar designs were scattered on a white field. This cloak had two red stripes along its front border, passing over white bands grouped two by two” (see the textile in Fig. 18, _s_; p. 118). Many of the details in patterns such as the above were added in embroidery, at which the Mexican women were equally expert. Good polychrome weaving was performed by the Otomi in maguey fibre, and the Tarascan and Huaxtec ranked high as textile artists. The Tarascan women were said to prepare food for a couple of days before starting to weave, so that they might not be disturbed at their task. Weaving and embroidery were under the especial patronage of the goddess Xochiquetzal. Mat- and basket-making was also an important industry, though of these arts also specimens are lacking. However, the use of mat seats was a privilege of rank, though perhaps less so than in the Maya region, and the mat-makers paid reverence to a special patron-deity, Napatecutli, one of the Tlaloque. The consideration of Mexican pottery will be deferred until the architectural remains have been discussed. [Illustration: FIG. 28.--Designs from pottery stamps; Valley of Mexico. (_British Museum_)] A certain amount of information concerning the dress and ornaments of the Mexicans can be gleaned from the foregoing pages, and repetition will be unnecessary. The ordinary dress for a man, worn by nearly all the peoples mentioned in this book, was a girdle, maxtlatl, the ends of which hung down before and behind, and a shoulder-cloak (e.g. Fig. 23; p. 143). The woman’s dress, equally universal, consisted of a skirt and a tunic, usually without sleeves (e.g. Fig. 27, _b_; p. 148). The original costume of the Aztec was 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 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