GREAT DRAGON OF QUIEIGUA, GUATEMALA HOLMES. 453 



and glory of the gods, thus insuring their willing subservience to 

 the temporal powers. To the people the stelae, probably originally 

 the images of rulers set up at stated intervals, as the dates indicate, 

 were divinities to be revered and served. The zoomorphic divinities 

 represented by the massive altarlike monuments were doubtless in 

 the native mind definitely individualized, vitalized beings, eternal 

 and endowed with varied powers of extraordinary potency. When, 

 under the inspired direction of the shamanistic master, the sculptor 

 carved a wing, it was not of a bird he thought ; when he carved the 

 reptilian fangs, it was not of a serpent he thought ; when he carved 

 the turtlelike flippers, he thought not of a turtle. In all cases he 

 had in mind a being or divinity, which, though a work of the imagi- 

 nation, pure and simple, was to him as real as the living forms with 

 which nature surrounded him. 



The assemblage of attributes represented in the sculptured dragon 

 were not necessarily the invention of the people or the priesthood of 

 Quirigua, for they must have grown up with the growth of myth 

 through unnumbered generations. It is probable that they were but 

 dimly understood even by the officials who directed the sculpture of 

 their images and who assumed to be the familiars of the gods. We 

 may be quite sure that every one of the multitude of features carved 

 with so much labor and artistic care had associated with it some ele- 

 ment of myth. The dragon was doubtless regarded as the material 

 embodiment of a divine being perhaps of the highest order in the 

 native pantheon. May it then not be, as some have surmised, that 

 this image impersonates the Earth Monster, the World God, and that 

 from the wide-open jaws, facing the ceremonial plaza, issued the 

 divinity of the world of man, that through the glyph-hidden jaws 

 of the southern end peered the grotesque demon of the underworld, 

 and that the strangely compoimded visage of the upper surface was 

 the guardian of the slr^? We must remain content, however, with 

 mere surmises, until research penetrates more deeply into the mys- 

 teries of Maya mythology. Of one thing we may be assured — our 

 imaginings, howsoever elaborated and fanciful, can be but as shad- 

 ows compared with the complex imagery with which the 2-headed 

 12-eyed dragon was invested by the ancient worshipers of Quirigua. 



The functions. — The sculptured monoliths of Quirigua were carved 

 with a definite purpose in view and had a particular and very impor- 

 tant function to perform. Although the highest technical skill of 

 the people was lavished upon them, and the esthetic perfection of 

 the result was kept constantly in view, the primary purpose was 

 not the gratification of the craving for beauty. They had a vital 

 bearing on the welfare of the people — a practical function of the 

 greatest moment. Through the idols the mysterious powers of 

 nature, which they were believed to represent, were reached, and 

 73839°— SM 1916 30 



