The people of Teotihuacan believed that divine messages appeared on the reflective surfaces of water-filled vessels, and this religious significance is sometimes expressed in the motifs with which these vessels were decorated. The stuccoed decoration of this tripod vessel consists of a sequence of three distinct iconographic elements, each depicted twice. The first element, the head of a rain deity, or perhaps one of the god's attendants, appears in profile, wearing an elaborate headdress of plumage dripping with blood; a scroll, symbolizing speech or song, pours from his lips. The second element, a round mirror with its ring of plumage, is an instrument of augury. The third element, the tri-mountain symbol with plants growing from the peaks, probably signifies the Teotihuacan conception of the physical world.