INVESTIGATIONS IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA. 65 



inch each ; in this I made the drawings, reducing each square of six inches of the 

 original to one square of the tield-book. My drawings, therefore, are all one- 

 twelfth of the originals. 



The sculptured slabs are in the vicinity of the village. The greater number of 

 them, of which I have made drawings, form an extended heap, rendering it prob- 

 able that there are others hidden from view which more extended researches would 

 reveal. 



The other slabs are only a few rods distant, interred in such a manner as 

 to present to view nothing but the sculptured surfaces. Besides the above there 

 are two sculptures in the village, one in the yard of the rectory, and the other 

 forming the door-step to the private residence of Don Pedro Auda, the discoverer 

 of these monoliths. 



The heaping up of these stones caused the fracture of some of them, and the 

 concealment of the sculptures on others. 



On the hacienda "Los Tarros," about three miles from this heap of relics, are 

 rIso some sculptures of a high degree of perfection. It is not impossible that at 

 one time both collections may have formed parts of the ornaments of a lai'ge city, 

 as I visited in the republic of San Salvador the ruins of a city three miles in extent. 

 The remains of the front wall of a church are to be seen between the two places 

 above mentioned. From whence came its materials'? Who built if? There is no 

 record whatever of the existence of a city of such magnitude as would seem to be 

 indicated by the presence of the sculptured stones save the monuments themselves. 



At the time of the discovery and occupancy of Central America nothing was 

 known in regard to such a city; but this need not be surprising if we consider that 

 there is no record of the existence of a much more recent settlement on the same 

 spot, or of four other communities of Christian origin within a very limited area 

 in the same vicinity; the name, nay even the official records, fail to indicate their 

 former existence, and all five of them are only recognizable now by the ruins of 

 their churches. 



All the sculptur-es, with the exception of three statues, are in low relief, nearly 

 all being in cavo-relievo, that is, surrounded by a raised border, the height of which 

 indicates the elevation of the relief. The same kind of relief was practised by the 

 ancient Assyrians and Egyptians. 



In seven instances the sculpture represents a person adoring a deity of a different 

 theological conception in each case. One of these seems to represent the sun, 

 another the moon, while it is impossible to define their character in the remaining 

 five. All these deities are represented by a human figure, of wliich only the head, 

 arms, and breast are correctly portrayed, proving that the religious conceptions had 

 risen to Anthropomorphism, while the idols of the nations of Central America and 

 Mexico which have previously come to our knowledge are represented by disfigured 

 human forms or grotesque images. 



Four of the other sculptures represent allegorical subjects; two of them tlie 

 myth of the Griffin, the bird of the sun. 



The slabs on which the low reliefs are sculptured came from the Volcano of 

 Acatenango, and are of various sizes ; the greater number of these, like those 



9 Novem'ier. 1873. 



