44 



ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN NICARAGUA. 



No. 22,821. 



No. 22,333. 



No. 24,250. 



No. 32,767. No. 23,759. No. 23,768. 



Objects in black ware from the urn burials wbistle, spindle whorl, and vessels. 



and among them one in the form of a bird, and a whistle of similar shape, 

 No. 23,759. Both of these are well formed, polished, and burned. The whistle 

 has a compass of five notes. 



CONTENTS OF THE URNS. 



Besides the small articles in terra-cotta already described, the contents of the 

 urns were human bones, remains of food, personal ornaments, and a few fragments 

 of stone implements. The skulls were usually well shaped ; but some of them 

 were short and high, as if from slight antero-posterior compression, with heavy 

 lower jaw and large teeth. There are a few tall Indians now living on the 

 Madera end of the island and adjacent portion of Ometepec with the same style 

 of countenance. The majority of the skulls were not different from those of the 

 average Central American Indians. The bodies may have been kept out of the 

 ground for some time, as is now done among certain Costa Rican tribes, and the 

 desiccated remains buried. At any rate the skeleton was, as a rule, not disartic- 

 ulated, but buried in a squatting posture, with the knees drawn up to the chin 



