812 PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



plumes, which looked like leaves. The ftice was the best work of art 

 that I have seen by the ancient Americans, nor have I met with any 

 specimen represented in the books to equal it. There was nothing con- 

 ventional; the features were regular and well cut 5 the expression grave, 

 dignified, regal. 



One of the figures on the left had the beardlike ornament discussed by 

 Habel.* It seemed not a beard, but a strap passed under the chin to 

 hold on the head-dress. Next was the head of a woman, with the eye- 

 ball hanging out of the socket on the cheek. The forehead was wrinkled 

 and the face exi^ressed acute pain. Next a man with both eyes hang- 

 ing out. Here the expression was of sadness mixed with pain, as of one 

 recently blind. Each face was distinctively individual, but all with 

 high cheek bones, wrinkled brow, and stern expression. The woman 

 had a small cap on one side of the head; the men wore turbans. They 

 all originally had trunnions behind the neck for insertion into a wall. 

 They were found by the mayor domoin some of his agricultural oi)erations. 



As remarked before, this belt of territory, at the foot of the western 

 slope of the Guatemala Mountains, is extremely fertile; is almost covered 

 with forest, and the objects at Santa Lucia, Pantaleone, and many 

 other places reported near Escuintla indicate a rich field, awaiting the 

 investigations of the archaeologist. 



The day after my arrival in Guatemala, Colonel Stewart, the American 

 consul, presented some specimens of pottery, which were obtained from 

 a mound about a mile and a half from San Jos6, that was cut by the rail- 

 road. The specimens consist of No. 59380, a vase nearly complete, and 

 the fragments numbered 59381, 59382, 59383, 593S4, 59385, 59386, 59387. 

 There is similarity in the biscuit and the degree of burning of the objects, 

 and in certain features of ornamentation. The vase is 12 inches high and 

 13 across the top. The bowl only occupies about two-thirds of its depth. 

 On each side is an ear, or handle, on the lower part of which is a button 

 or flower-like form with a depression in the center. On the front of the 

 vase is a rosette or bow in relief, the ends of which are free. This also 

 has the button, the central depression in this case being filled by a flat- 

 tened ball. The color is buff, with red bands and circles, and on each 

 side is a crescent in red. 



No. 59382 is a head, originally an ornament on a large vessel. The 

 collector probably broke this off and saved it as curious. The face is of 

 the type of many of the pottery figures here in the collection from Mex- 

 ico. The head-dress is a coronet, with plumes above; the earrings of 

 a flower form, shaped like the curved corolla of certain lilies; a banded 

 necklace suspending a flower-shaped gorget, and an ornament sus- 

 pended in the nose or upper lip graced this belle. The fragments are 

 ornaments, probably of the same vessel ; they are evidently representa- 

 tions of flowers. 



The discovery of this Mexican pottery makes one more link in the cor- 



* Habel. 



