560 SCULPTURES OF SANTA LUCIA COZUMAHU ALPA. 



11 wears a cap with depondeiit feathers and ri])boiis. The staj^ man 

 has the hoof of the rit^ht fore leg* covered with a mask; the left is 

 raised and holds something, it is impossible to make out what. From 

 his under jaw proceeds a Hame. 



No. 12. This great and finely worked piece was called an altar by 

 Ha))el; but Seler more correctly designates it as a fire basin. The 

 whole represents a crouching ape carrying on his ])ack the basin 

 w'rapped round with a feather cloth {FedertucJi)^ while he seems to 

 hold Death between his fore paws. Such, at least, is the meaning of 

 the synil)()lic low ndief. It was chiefly this figure of Death which 

 induced llabel to regard the whole as a sacrificial stone, and to assume 

 that the blood of the victim was collected in the shallow basin, without 

 making it clear how the victim was to })e put to death. Other repre- 

 sentations show that the head of the victim was cut off', in order to 

 offer to the divinity the most important part of the man. But with 

 such a mode of death there would scarcely be occasion for so colossal 

 a basin. We know, however, that upon the platforms of the temples 

 there stood great fire basins in which fire had to be kept up day and 

 night. Now this piece would serve such a purpose very well; and 

 consequently Scleras interpre tilt ion is to be preferred. The symbolic 

 elements which in the form and ornamentation of this piece appear 

 as an ape and as Death, bear no direct relation to such a purpose; but 

 they may have had some ritual significance, indicating, for example, 

 the divinity to which the particular temple was dedicated. The ape 

 and Death, alike in the myths of the Mayas and of the Nahoas, are 

 closeh' connected, rcjiresonting perhaps the opposition of life and 

 death, or that of motion and stillness. Among both peoples we find 

 these among the twent}' day signs. 



No. 13. In conclusion. I will here notice a block whose sawed-off 

 plate in the shipment at the port of San Jose, unfortunately fell into 

 the sea and was irrecoverably lost. It is, therefore, doubly gratifying 

 to meet among Hal)ers drawings the highly intcM'esting representation 

 of this hloi-k. An enlarged cop}' of the drawing is to be seen in the 

 Museum. Habel gives its height as 9i English feet and its sculptured 

 width as 5 feet. 



The design shows us the king of the vultures {Sarcoramphus papa) 

 with outspread wings. The disk of the sun hangs at his neck, so that 

 he is here the sun bird. The king of the vultures is also one of the day 

 signs among both ^NLwas and Nahoas, and with the latter is further 

 the Ijringer of worthy old age, but these functions seem to be foreign 

 to the present representation.^ The bird has half eaten a man, the 

 upper part of whose body hangs down, and with his claw he grasps a 



^The Bakair^s of central Brazil, according to von den Steinen, consider the king 

 of the ^•ultures to be the creator of the sun, which would answer exactly to the design 

 of No. 13- — Author. 



