8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 97 



shed to the south in the vicinity of Taulebe and San Jose, there are 

 fertile plains and valleys. These are separated from the Comayagua 

 valley by the high plateau of Siguatepeque. 



In general, therefore, it can be said that the sites investigated by 

 us in the Ulua drainage occupy two main environmental regions : First, 

 those on the lower Comayagua and Ulua Rivers, located in the rain 

 forests of the broad, alluvial river valleys, and second, mountain val- 

 leys, as at Naco and at Lake Yojoa, where the elevation was consider- 

 ably greater, the rain forest limited to the borders of stream or lake, 

 and the more open pine and oak association close at hand. 



ETHNIC AND LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 



At the present time there are no obvious, aboriginal remnants of 

 population in the part of Honduras considered in this report. It is 

 true that the present population of the region is in considerable part 

 made up of assimilated Indian groups, but the language is Spanish 

 and the culture Latin American. Isolated groups of Jicaque Indians 

 are reported as still living in the more remote parts of the Depart- 

 ment of Yoro.'* 



It is possible that Lenca-speaking Indians may still be found in 

 our region, and groups of Chorti Maya occur in the departments to 

 the south and west, but, as yet, ethnographic and linguistic research 

 in Honduras has received little attention. If we desire to connect the 

 archeological remains with historic Indian groups, it is therefore neces- 

 sary to turn back the pages of history and consider the region at the 

 time of the Spanish Conquest. 



Early sources on northwestern Honduras are fairly numerous, in- 

 cluding Cortez, Bernal Diaz, Palacio, Las Casas, Torquemada, Mar- 

 roquin, Montejo, Palaez, Pedraza, Espino, and the historians Her- 

 rera, Oviedo, and Gomara, but, with the exception of the first three, the 

 grains of ethnography to be gleaned from the works of these writers 

 seem rather scant. In a later paper other sources will be considered, 

 but for the present we shall confine ourselves to the most important 

 primary sources and more recent general studies. 



As was the case in regard to the geography of Honduras, one must 

 still consult E. G. Squier's " States of Central America ", 1858, re- 

 garding the ethnography of Honduras. Similarly, H. H. Bancroft's 



° Described by Habel, 1880, p. 17. In June 1933 the senior author was told by 

 Mr. Acley, then American Consul at Tegucigalpa, of a very primitive group of 

 Jicaque Indians he had visited that year near the town of Morale, in the Sierra 

 de la Flor of the Department of Yoro, near the Olancho line. From photographs, 

 they appeared very similar to those described by Habel. 



