ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN NICARAGUA. 



21 



opposite sides, are human faces or masks in relief, whose features have been more 

 fully indicated by painted outlines. Similar faces are on the outside of the legs 

 of a tripod in the Dow collection, and the feet of the tripod, No. 14,104, are gro- 

 tesque heads, probably caricatures of the human head. 



The vessels commonly have on the outside a band of lines around near the 

 rim, and another about half way down. The intervening space is divided into 

 panels* occupied by conventional designs, not symmetrical, but drawn from left 

 to right, and following as in profile. In the general character of the coloring 

 and the Luna patterns there is a resemblance to the Marajo pottery of Brazil, 

 collected and described by Prof. Hartt ; but the drawing on the latter is in much 

 more regular geometrical style, and incised ornaments are of frequent occurrence, 

 while they are never seen on the Luna ware. 



It is rather a singular fact that this terra-cotta was associated in and around 

 the burial urns with black earthen ware, which was ornamented with faces in 

 relief and incised borders in fret, &c. Again, the absence of the relievo repre- 

 sentations of animals, especially reptiles, which adorned the burial urns, indicates 

 a difference in the fashion for different kinds of vessels. The work with the 

 brush on the Luna terra-cotta is singularly cramped, while decided spirit is shown 

 in the figures on the large urns. It almost looks as if different people had man- 

 ufactured the two varieties, and that to commerce or conquest was due the inter- 

 change of articles. On nearly all these bowls, and on many of the urns, the 

 surface is traced over in delicate irregularly arborescent or veined lines of bluish 

 black, which add decidedly to the beauty of the ware. These lines were rather 

 puzzling at first, but seem to be the result of the burning into charcoal of fine 

 rootlets, which interlaced the clay. The color was brought out in burning, so as 

 to show through the paint. The extension of these lines for considerable dis- 

 tances in some of the specimens indicates that the smaller vessels were moulded 

 by hand, and not built up by the rope method. They were much rarer and 

 shorter in the large vessels. 



Fig. 18. Pig. 19. Pig. 20. 



No. 22,377. 



No. 22,381. 



No. 22,377. 

 Shallow bowls of Luna terra-cotta. 



Of the individual specimens the little shallow bowl or dish, No. 22,377, Figs. 



* Not used in the strict architectural sense of the term. 



