552 SCULPTURES OF SANTA LUCIA COZUMAHUALPA. 



the iiiu^'nifii'iMice of the I'cmains discovored bespeaks of itself a long 

 period of pros])oi'ous (le\('lo})iiient. The main outlines of the Nahoa 

 civilization are preserved: hut new elements, some of them attri})uta- 

 ble to Maya civilization, have been introduced and have ])een worked 

 over in a peculiar way. so that a new type has been involved. Before 

 enterino' into details w(> may as well ^i'lance at the ag-e of the Santa 

 Lucia monuments. For this estimation detinite data are ati'orded by 

 Maya remains which narrate incursions of foreign hordes. According 

 to these records the settlement nmst have taken place six or seven 

 centuries ago — that is. in the thirteenth century of our era. Jt may 

 have subsisted foi' a long time and may have been ultimately destroj'^ed 

 in contests with aboriginal ('hakchi([uels. Quiches, and other Maya 

 races, which contests we likewise tind recorded.' 



Taken as a whole, th<> monuments of Santa Lucia exhibit, both in 

 their techniijue and in thtMr artistic conce])tion and elaboration, a 

 higher development than the corresponding })roductions of old Mexico, 

 and approach the leading works of the Maya civilization, by which 

 tliey may have been stinudated and aided. The proportions of the 

 human l)ody and the representation of its meml)ers are more correct 

 than in the Mexican sculptures, and the bas-relief is executed with 

 great taste. The ])ieces here considered generally represent priests 

 engagi^d in performing rites of worship to different divinities; jind 

 the head of the divinity is so elaborated as to constitute the main 

 object of the sculpture. The sex of the divinity is not indicatod, at 

 any rate not to our present means of discrimination. It ma}' be that 

 the mode of wearing the hair or the ornaments with which the divini- 

 ties are loaded indicate their sex; but not having as yet found any 

 figures of men and women with which the}- can be compai-ed we are 

 left in the dark upon this point. The particular fimction of each 

 divinity is also difficult to determine, since attributes are employed 

 with which we have no other acquaintance; so that it is only in some 

 particular cases that analogy atfords any clue to the nature of the 

 god or goddess. Some details of the representations may now be 

 considered in a general way. 



We several times tind close to the ornanuMits characterizing the 

 divinity, and invariably before the mouths of the priests, as well as 

 here and there among lifeless things, a sign in the form of a variously 

 curved tillet. usually like an interrogation mark, with sundry double 

 knot-like side excrescences. This sign nmst l»e equivalent to the tap- 

 like sign with a bent end which is conmion in Nahuatlan represen- 



' If the first settlement wa:? in the thirteenth century, and if it endured long enough 

 to develop an original type of civilization and to become rich enough to erect mag- 

 niticent monuments, it could not well have l)een destroyed without a long struggle, 

 and there would seem to be scant time for every vestige and memory of it to dis- 

 appear before 1522. — Tkaxslatok. 



