154 THE NATURALIST IX NICARAGUA. [Ch. IX. 



site at another, we might suppose that the vegetation on 

 which the caterpillars feed was at one time more abun- 

 dant in the north-west, at another in the south-east ; 

 but during the five years I was in Central America, I 

 was always on the look-out for them, and never saw any 

 return swarms of butterflies, so that their migration 

 every year in one definite direction is quite unintelligible 

 to me. 



We gradually ascended the range that separates the 

 water-shed of the Lake of Nicaragua from that of the 

 Blewfields river, passing over grassy savannahs. About 

 two leagues from Libertad there are many old Indian 

 graves, covered with mounds of earth and stones. A 

 well-educated Englishman, Mr. Fairbairn, has taken up 

 his abode at this place, and is growing maize and rearing 

 cattle. There are many evidences of a large Indian 

 population having lived at this spot, and their pottery 

 and fragments of their stones for bruising maize have 

 been found in some graves that have been opened. Mr. 

 Fairbairn got me several of these curiosities, amongst 

 them are imitations of the heads of Armadillos, and other 

 animals. Some of these had formed the feet of urns, 

 others were rattles, containing small balls of baked clay. 

 The old Indians used these rattles in their solemn reli- 

 gious dances, and the custom is probably not yet quite 

 obsolete, for as late as 1823 Mr. W. Bullock saw, in 

 Mexico, Indian women dancing in a masque representing 

 the court of Montezuma, and holding rattles in their 

 right hands, to the noise of which they accompanied 

 their motions. Several stone axes have been found, which 



are called " thunderbolts" by the natives, who have no idea 



j 



that they are artificial, although it is less than four bun- 



