PAPEKS KELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 315 



bead. The line which \vc have i'ollowed IVom [)icture No. 11 terminates 

 in this place, which is inscribed with the word iecuniatla, of doubtful 

 T:u;ascan origin and unknown meaning. 



No, -5. Returnini;- to square Xo. 11, we will see to the ri<^lit two other 

 lines, whiidi leave it for other squares. No. 25 sliows a hill, and two 

 human figures who are apparently descending from its summit. On 

 the plain are two shrubs with large leaves, which, per]ia|)s, indicate the 

 fertility of the place, and it has the name puninato written, which sig- 

 nifies place of calabashes {CuciimLs), from puntna, calabash {Ciicuntis 

 2)c})<>), and the particle tio, small place of. 



No. 20. Again we have a hill with three individuals about its foot. 

 In the plain is seen a vegetable identical with that of the pieceding 

 ])icture, and a human figure at its foot. Two heads are also seen, and 

 the inscription reads tsichahpdo^ a Tarascau word which we have not 

 been able to make out. 



No. 27. Here also we meet with a hill. On its left side are two large 

 trees in foliage, and on its right two human figures on foot, ai)i>arently 

 advancing towards it. In the field are two individuals, who are evi- 

 dently conversing with great animation. It has the inscription cliu- 

 nencoj which we do not understand, although it is Tarascan. 



No. 28. Here are two hills, one small and the other large. Two men 

 loaded with great burdens are descending the latter, and another is 

 going up towards them or pointing out the right road. On the small 

 hill are seen two figures on foot, and at one side two dead trees. A 

 road goes from the base of the small hill to that of the large one, and 

 in the valley between the two we read the ins(;rii>tion .vicalvatica. We 

 do not know its etymology. This village has disappeared completely ; 

 only its site is known, liemains of houses and some mounds or pyra- 

 mids (yacatas) are the only things which recall it to mind. In 

 some excavations made here vessels of singular construction and de- 

 sign have been found. We have inspected them and comi)ared them 

 with those described by George Ebers in his great work on Egypt. 

 They appeared to us similar. Axes of copper and darts of obsidian, and 

 the skeleton of the buried person complete and in the horizontal posi- 

 tion — an attitude which corresponds to the third class and to the more 

 modern mode of burial, which we have discovered and classified in our 

 archteological investigations in Michoacan. A short distance from this 

 place exists the new Jicalan. Above the larger hill we read the in- 

 scription Minas, so that those descending it are miners, bearing tlie 

 products of their industry. That the Tarascans were skillful miners is 

 proved by the great number of shafts, galleries, and caves met with in 

 Michuacan, and all bear evidence of having been worked in primitive 

 times. Frequently large mallets, anvils, and caves, with the remains of 

 minerals, are found there, and the walls of these excavations show un- 

 doub:;ed evidence of having been worked with these rude instruments. 

 Their knowledge of minerals was extensive, and their idiom itself proves 



