The Aztecs, Zapotecs, Mayas, and other people of the Mexican region were expert potters; and it was in this region that working in clay, like everything else, was carried to the highest degree of perfection on this continent, and where evidence is found of seemingly true glaze. Not only ordinary pottery of beautiful shapes and excellent texture was made, but large funeral vases of elaborate form, terra-cotta water-pipes, and terra-cotta figures, some of them of almost or quite life size. Saville recently found some of these funeral jars and terra-cotta figures in the Zapotec country, south of the city of Mexico, in the province of Oaxaca, and there are specimens in the Museum of Natural History in New York. The principal terra-cotta figure he found is thus described by Saville[93]: “Another trench was started at the eastern side of this mound, and after working down to the level of the surrounding fields near the centre of the mound just back of the tomb, there were found the scattered fragments of what will be, when restored, the largest specimen of terra cotta ever found in America, and I do not know of so large a specimen ever having been found elsewhere. It represented a warrior, and the different pieces of the figure were scattered over a space of about fifteen feet. The central fragment was the head, upper torso, and right arm, lying face upward; the open mouth revealed the teeth painted white and filed, as in the case of the funeral urns. The eyes were well modelled and painted white and red; the head was covered with a turban of feathers, somewhat resembling the head-dress of Chac Mol, found by Dr. Le Plongeon in Yucatan. A closely cropped beard covered the lower portion of the face, the upper part being pitted as though marked by smallpox. The ears had curious circular ornaments pendent by a string passed through holes pierced in the lobes. The nose was ornamented with a long cylindrical bead attached by a string fastened at the top and bottom through the septum. The breast was painted red and white and additionally ornamented with curious designs made by circular indentations. The legs, which lay quite separated from the body, were bare, and the feet were covered with sandals having beautiful heel-pieces. Around each ankle was a line of bells. Both the toe- and the finger-nails were painted white; the right arm, bent at an angle, grasped a pole or staff of which about a foot remained. These fragments are now in the Museo Nacional, City of Mexico. The entire length of the figure, according to measurements made of the detached pieces, was nearly, if not quite, six feet.” [Illustration: AN ANCIENT FIGURE OF TERRA COTTA FROM THE VALLEY OF MEXICO The height of this figure is 150.9 cm. Breadth of shoulders, 46.0 cm. From photograph by American Museum of Natural History ] [Illustration: COIL INDENTED FOR DECORATION]