PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 811 



in Arcliseological Eesearcbes in Nicaragua;* there was no iudication of 

 their origin. 



Mr. Edwin Rockstroh, professor in the Institute Nacional, was work- 

 ing in Indian philology with Berendt at the time of his death, and is prose- 

 cuting studies from which much may be expected by anthropologists. In 

 1881 he made a trip through the Peten and into the hitherto unexplored 

 country of the Lacandones. He found them speaking a dialect of the 

 Maya, and his Maya interpreter from Peten had no difficulty in under- 

 standing their language. Mr. Eockstroh discovered some ruins which he 

 called Mench^, which were afterward visited by Mr. Maudsley. M. 

 Charnay found the latter there. The ecstatic Frenchman was in rap- 

 tures, and dubbed poor Mench6 "Lorillard City." 



Mr. Eockstroh told me the Lacandones, or rather more than half of 

 them, had the peculiar profile of Copau and Palenque — large nose, prom- 

 inent glabella, and retreating forehead. This gentleman presented for the 

 Smithsonian a fine specimen of pavo real, whose habitat he informed 

 me is between the Motagua and Zucatan, in the Vera Paz and Peten. 



The afternoon of February 1 I rode 30 miles, from the Escuintla to 

 the princely estate of Don Manuel Herrera, Pantaleone, and next 

 morning, in company with my host, proceeded some 3 miles farther, to 

 Santa Lucia. It is northwest of Escuintla, about the same distance from 

 the sea, and in a region of similar topography. We found that the best of 

 the objects mentioned by Habel had been removed to Berlin. Still several 

 remained on and around a low mound. At one point were yet to be 

 seen, in situ, blocks of stone forming steps up the side of the mound. 

 These were 6 inches high and 18 inches wide. Most of the sculptures 

 were in hard black lava. No. 9t was in granite, as were two or three 

 blocks in the steps. I was informed that there was no granitic forma- 

 tion in this neighborhood. 



The drawings of Habel were found to be good representations of the 

 objects remaining. The drawing of No. 7 was excellent. Nos. 10 and 

 11 were good ; 16 and 17 well drawn, except that details were not suf- 

 ficiently worked outw No. 18 was not well drawn. These sculptures 

 are in very low relief. 



Returning to Pantaleone, I examined the figures which are mounted 

 on the wall around the fountain. Facing the house on the opposite 

 side of the fountain is one in hard, black basalt, 50 inches high, 43 

 inches wide, and 9 thick. It is a head with turban and plumes, the 

 whole overtopped by a crest, which arches over to the front and ends 

 in a fringe of tassels. There were large earrings ; a gorget was sus- 

 pended under the chin by a necklace. A fillet was on the brow at the 

 edge of the turban. On the turban was a ribbon knotted in front, and 

 above this a mask or ornament in shape of a face. Above were broad 



'Archaeological Researchea in Nicaragua ; Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, 

 No. 383, page 20. 

 + Habel. 



