84 ARCIIiEOLOGlCAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL 



The protection of the feet is greatly diversified. Exceptionally both feet are 

 nude (No. 13), but generally the bottom of one or both feet is protected by a sole, 

 which is rolled up more or less to cover the upper part of the foot. The toes, with 

 few exceptions, remain unprotected, and in no instance is the covering of both feet 

 alike. 



We come now to speak of the artistic taste of the sculptors of Santa Lucia as 

 an indication of the superior culture of the people to whom they belonged. In 

 the representation of natural forms we attribute the highest culture to those people 

 who imitate nature most closely in her best manifestations. For this reason we 

 should attribute to the ancient Greeks a very high degree of culture if we had 

 received no other knowledge of their civilization excepting the relics of their works 

 of art, which, when attempting to imitate nature, avoid all grotesqueness and 

 caricature. 



In the sculptures of Sajjta Lucia the human form stands before us not with ill- 

 proportioned features, but in regular outline combined with marked expression of 

 the countenance. The observance of these details proves a diligent study of the 

 human body. That which does appear as grotesque, must not be attributed to a 

 crude conception or to want of skill, but to the ornamentation, which has a barba- 

 rous luxuriance. If we examine the heads in the sculptures of Santa Lucia, we 

 shall find that while they all possess the curved nose so characteristic of the abo- 

 rigines of America, they have no stereotyped form; on the contrary this feature 

 varies with the expression of the face, so as to individualize each person represented. 

 Some of the faces are attractive on account of the quiet expression of their features; 

 and one especially (No. 14) approaches very nearly to our sense of beauty. The 

 engraving hardly does justice to the original. 



Again, just as each art passes through several stages in its progress to perfection, 

 so among all arts there is the same gradation. Thus lyric and didactic poetry are 

 assigned a lower place than epic poetry, and the drama is the most elevated of all. 

 Dramatic conceptions can originate and be cultivated only by a people who have 

 passed the other stages. The monoliths of Santa Lucia show that their authors 

 had cultivated the poetic sentiment as well as sculpture ; for, not only do we find 

 that they had statuary as well as low reliefs, but we have evidence of the degree 

 of poetical elevation to which they had attained. All of the scenes represented 

 are dramatic, and four of them are allegorical. In the two sculptures representing 

 sick men, the individuals are doubtless of high standing. One of them is visited 

 by death in the shape of a skeleton, who draws the attention of the sick man to the 

 fact of his having lived for a number of years, indicated by the signs for numerals, 

 and that it is, therefore, time for him to depart. In the other case (No. 14), the 

 sick man is visited by the medicine man in the guise of a deer, and reminded of 

 the moderate number of years he has lived, as indicated by the numeral signs. 

 This news would cheer him with the hope of recovery. 



In each of tlie otlier two allegorical sculptures, a human being is devoured by a 

 bird, perhaps the Bird of the Sun, as it wears the image of the sun on the breast. 

 This myth, again, has arisen independently in many lands. 



The advancement of a people is also said to be measured by their religious 



