ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN NICARAGUA. 57 



the skull-like form, and a resemblance to the shape of the stomach has been sug- 

 gested by Professor Otis T. Mason ; but, after examining hundreds of specimens, 

 I am inclined to believe that the bird was the original type. The Luna jars 

 probably gave the idea to the workers of Santa Helena. 



In the collection there are two pieces of unpainted ware resembling the 

 Peruvian type. One consists of two small vessels, connected by an arching 

 handle ; the other seems to have been intended as a cover, used possibly over 

 food. It also has a long arched handle much like those on Peruvian specimens. 

 At the junction of the handle with the body of the vessel are raised griffin-like 

 figures. Professor Mason, who pointed out its resemblance to the Peruvian 

 type, thinks this latter vessel may have reached Nicaragua through traffic. I 

 only know that it was exhumed along with pre-Columbian relics. 



Fig. 115. 



No. 28,400. No. 28,477. 



Objects from Santa Helena, of Peruvian style. 



The painted ware of Santa Helena was comparatively well burned ; a little 

 soft when unearthed, but hardening rapidly when exposed. The painting on some 

 of this is nearly perfect still, after having been imbedded for at least three 

 hundred and fifty years in the damp soil of tropical low-lands. 



On these vessels the field is a buff or cream color, covered with figures in 

 red, bordered with black. The prettiest tripod vase, Fig. Ill, has a body a little 

 deeper than an ordinary soup plate, with legs in the shape of doves. The 

 bottom in the interior is taken up with what seems a conventional human face of 

 the triangular type seen in the terra-cotta images from the ruins of Teotihuacan.* 

 The interior, between the bottom and the rim, is divided into two zones by a 

 horizontal black line. These spaces are occupied with masked human figures in 

 profile, and following each other, as on the altar at Copan.f There are eight in 

 the upper row and seven in the lower. The profuse plumes and dress ornaments 

 also resemble many in Kingsborough's Mexican antiquities and some at Copan 



* The Native Races of the Pacide States. Bancroft. Vol. IV, page 542. 

 f Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. Stephens. Vol. I, page 142. 



