808 PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



same position leaning against a tree, and after tliirty-two years there 

 was very little change in the relative size of tree and head. After ex- 

 amining the veutana and ascending the wall overlooking the river, we 

 pursued the passage Y and returned by A. The drawing of the altar 

 is excellent. I made a close examination of the hieroglyph in the upper 

 right-hand corner of the side represented at page 141, and found the 

 drawing exact except that there are thirteen knobs instead of the 

 twelve given by Catherwood. Again, the characteristic prominence of 

 the glabella, whence the nose and forehead sloped, forming an obtuse 

 angle, is not sufficiently marked in the drawings. In other instances the 

 minor details were hardly worked out with sufficient minuteness, a de- 

 fect which was probably unavoidable in dealing with such a mass of 

 minute and intricate ornamentation. The bold freedom of the sculp- 

 ture is its most striking feature, and in some cases the undercutting 

 leaves the ornamentation free, and several inches from the mass. The 

 legs of some of the large figures are nearly free. I was prepared to see 

 good work because of my faith in Stephens, but the boldness of it was 

 beyond my expectation, and had to be seen to be appreciated. The 

 figures in some places had been mutilated. The lip of that shown on 

 page 136 had been broken and the chin broken off. The face looks out 

 from a snake's mouth. About 60 feet northwest of B was the head of a 

 large serpent, lying with other fragments at the foot of the slanting wall. 

 In front of it, lying on the ground, was a tablet in four sections. The 

 figure on it is looking over the right shoulder towards the head of the 

 serpent. In the right hand is something spherical, possibly a head, 

 which is apparently offered to the serpent. There were two other tab- 

 lets similar to this, the three with the serpent head forming a square. 

 The figure on the tablet is seated cross-legged, with a plumed turban, a 

 mask, a necklace suspending a gorget, and a belt fastened in front with 

 a circular gorget. 



The statue is 12 feet high, 4 across the from and 3 feet thick. 

 Back of E, halfway up the side of the pyramid — if it may so be called 

 — the stones were in position and cut to form a smooth incline, the sur- 

 face of which is covered with hieroglyphs. 



We readily found all the large statues mentioned by Stephens except 

 that at S, shown opposite page 151. In 1839 it was buried nearly out 

 of sight, and I had no time to make a thorough search. In the deep 

 cuttings on some of the statues were still remains of red paint. This 

 was in positions protected from sun and rain, and in such a climate 

 will probably last indefinitely. 



About a mile west of the temple, in the village of Copan, is a mound 

 some 40 feet high, at the west base of which are two altars with glyphs, 

 &c. One of them has figures similar to those on the altar at A. On 

 the south side is a double row of glyphs in the middle, with two hu- 

 man figures on each side facing in. On both east and west sides are 

 four figures in profile sitting cross-legged and facing south, apparently 



