ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN NICARAGUA. 53 



In one jar was a small bowl inverted and some thin pieces of young cranial 

 bones ; within the bowl were crowns of young teeth. This urn also contained a 

 vessel shaped like a vase, which had no bottom possibly intended to hold flowers. 



The shoe-shaped jars of larger size had painted caps. Many of the speci- 

 mens were in the stiffer formation above the sand the skeletons in the sand. In 

 one jar were bones, apparently of some animal used as food, split in a manner to 

 suggest a supply of marrow furnished for the departed spirit on its journey to 

 the unknown land. 



The basalt columns mentioned above in no case appeared above the surface. 

 I can imagine no use for them except as grave stones, which were covered later, 

 although they were seen in shell-heaps and mounds in Costa Rica not rising 

 above the surface. 



In one place were found together images in terra-cotta of a man and a child, 

 and about fifteen feet away were two females, the genitals broadly indicated. 

 Near the latter was a skeleton, on the skull of which ninety-five sinkers of 

 painted pottery were closely packed, as if a fisherman's net had been carefully 

 folded and placed on his head. Over the sinkers a handsomely painted bowl was 

 inverted. The skull was rather short and high, and seemed somewhat flattened 



Fig. 111. 



No. 28,479. Tripod vase, Santa Helena terra-cotta. 



behind, but otherwise well shaped. Near another skeleton was a gaudily 

 painted tripod vase, with doves for feet. It was preserved in perfect condition, 

 and is now in the National Museum, No. 28,479. 



In a few of the larger jars were found bones of children. This mode of 

 burial was probably borrowed from their predecessors, as was the shape of their 

 oblong jars. 



Another chalcedony axe and a spear-head of the same material were dug 

 up, while contained in several jars, and occasionally scattered in the soil around 



