82 ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL 



Sculpture Number XXIII, Plate VIII. 



A stone three feet long and one foot broad has a death's head sculptured on its 

 surface with the usual characteristics. The skull is also covered with hair, as if 

 with a wig. From the two sides of the head extend projections like horns, and 

 back of these four connected bands depend. The ears are adorned with circular 

 disks each having a tassel hanging from the centre. Through the parted teeth 

 the tongue protrudes. 



REFLECTIONS ON THE SCULPTURES. 



Tliese sculptures of Santa Lucia Cosumalwhuapa are to me the most interesting 

 of the kind that have been preserved of the ancient inhabitants of America, fur- 

 nishing, as they do, iinequivocal proof of the advanced culture to which their 

 constructors had attained. Those found in otlier localities represent either single 

 individuals, or groups in which the relations arc obscure ; but the bas-reliefs of 

 Santa Lucia in every case but one present scenes in which there are generally two 

 actors, one of them being a mythological personage. We are introduced into the 

 very feelings and thoughts of the people, and learn much of their modes of living. 



We are enabled to decide the progress of a people by the perfection to which 

 they had carried the useful arts, by the advancement which they had made in the 

 fine arts and in scientific knowledge, by their religious conceptions, and by their 

 language, including the methods of representing it. A comparison of these also 

 acquaints us with those things which different peoples have in common. Let us 

 therefore compare the sculptures of Santa Lucia with tliose of other parts of Ame- 

 rica in these four particulars, in order that we may perceive the resemblances between 

 their fabricators, if any exist, and form some opinion of their comparative status 

 in culture. 



As regards the useful arts, when we consider the hardness of the material, a dark 

 gray porphyry from tlie volcano of Acatenango, we are convinced that the Santa 

 Lucian sculptors used tools of great perfection. The advancement of teclmical skill 

 is further attested by the variety of manufactures represented in the sculptures, such 

 as wood-carving, textile fabrics, shell and metal work, leather work, carved stones, 

 etc. The elevated character of these products of industry is attested by the uses to 

 which they were put. With the exception of sculi)tures nine and fourteen, there 

 is scarcely anything which indicates clothing merely. Nearly every article which 

 is attached to the body is an ornament, although the drapery suspended from the 

 girdle may have been introduced to hide the genital organs. The foot also may 

 be said to derive some slight protection from its ornamented sandal. The neck, 

 arms, body, and legs, however, are adorned and not clothed. The ornaments of the 

 head, and especially those of the hair, are extremely profuse, reaching often to the 

 ground. It is worthy of notice that no part of the body is mutilated for the sake 

 of beauty, excepting the lobe of the ear, whicli even in our enlightened age serves 

 the ladies as a means of perpetuating barbarism. 



Again, the variety of forms in the same object is an indication of progress. The 

 headdresses are greatly varied. In one instance (No. 1) it is a crab, in another 



