Mexico of the details of Pope Paul II's bull pro- scribing the enslavement of Indians and defend- ing their full rationality and consequent lawful access to the sacraments, including the Eucha- ‘ist In this piece the ancient practice of adorning sacrificial victims with feathers is again recalled. At the moment of their deaths, ‘the individuals whose physical bodies were offered up to the gods achieved the status of divinities. Christ is the ultimate sacrificial being, and thus the portrayal of the Mass, the symbolic celebration of his offering in a mosaic composed of feathers, encapsulates the strength of the blending of Christian and indig-~ enous theologies." ‘Mexico was by no means the only place in the New World where objects made or adorned with feathers featured prominently asa principal commodity, luxury item, and ceremonial object. In 1655 the Jesuit priest and scholar Bernabé Cobo (1580-1657) finished his monumental trea- tise entitled Historia del Nuevo Mundo.» Basing his text upon a variety of sixteenth-century manuscripts by Spanish friars working in the ‘Andes, the Spanish-born Cobo (whe had first visited Peru in 1599, and who subsequently spent many years bath on the coast and inland) set out to describe not only the events of the Spanish presence in South America but also to create a lively picture of the daily life and reli- gious practices of the Inca. In his chapters devoted to ceremonial dress, he deals at length with the extraordinary feather arts made as clothing and body adornment for the highest, levels of Inca society. A brief citation from his discussion of the methods of clothing manufac- ture underscores the importance of featherwork among the ancient Peruvian civilizations of the Inca, Chimu, and others, ‘The feather cloths were the most esteemed and valued.... They were made on the cumbi [a cloth made from the finest lamb's wool] itself, but in such a way that the feathers stand out on the wool and cover it like velvet ‘The material that they had for this kind of cloth was extensive because incredible num- ‘bers and varieties of birds axe found in this land with such excellent colots that itis beyond beliet. They used only very small, fine feathers. These they fastened on the cloth with a fine, wool theead, laying them to one side, and making with them the same patterns and figures found in their handsome ‘cumbis. The gloss, splendor and sheen of this {eather cloth were of such exceptional beauty ‘that it must be seen to be appreciated, Upon entering this land, the Spaniards found the storehouses ofthe Inca well supplied with ‘many things; ne of the most important ones ‘wasan abundant supply of valuable feathers for these textiles, Almost all of the feathers were iridescent, with an admirable sheen ‘which looked like very fine gold Wondrous Objects |