2. Gala shields (_totopchimalli_), indicating the military rank and achievement of chiefs. These seem to have been indiscriminately used in warfare or feasts and dances. Their general structure seems to have been alike in either case, though it is obvious that they may have been more or less light and strong. Shields of this category sometimes reproduced one or more features of the military costume, body-painting and adornments pertaining to each grade. The shield in Museo Nacional is an example of this kind. Others exhibited the emblematic device of a militant god, Huitzilopochtli, Xipe, Yiacatecuhtli, etc., marking an order of chivalry--and to this division the Stuttgart specimens belong. 3. Shields, presumably of the supreme war-chief, exhibiting in picture-writing the name of his people or his personal appellation. Nothing certain is known about this group, but its existence seems vouched for by a series of indications. 4. Shields pictured in the codices with deities only exhibiting their emblematic devices or reproducing features of their symbolic attire. Such shields seem to have been carried, in religious dances and festivals, by the living images of the deities in whose honor they were held. 5. Shields of most precious materials, with strange and elaborate designs, described in the Inventories. As they are not mentioned elsewhere, it is not possible to state anything definite about them, but it is obvious that they were intended for the use of individuals of supreme rank. The beautiful shield at Castle Ambras belongs to this group. It is, consequently, the sole forthcoming specimen with a valid, though shadowy, right to the title of “Montezuma’s shield.” [Illustration: PL. XXVI SHIELD OF WOOD (FRAGMENT) WITH MOSAIC DECORATION MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN HEYE FOUNDATION, NEW YORK] In the inventories of the Cortés loot, 150 shields are enumerated, mostly decorated with feathers, but 25 are specified as being ornamented with turquois mosaic, while others were garnished with gold. Of the feather-mosaic shields, one example is in Vienna (the shield formerly in Castle Ambras), two are in Stuttgart, and one is in the Museo Nacional, Mexico. Of the turquois mosaic shields, one is in London, and one in Vienna; none exists in Mexico. To this number we are now able to add eight specimens in New York, namely, one perfect shield, two nearly complete ones, and five fragments, all from the cave in the Mixteca.