ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN NICARAGUA. 61 



wide, nearly to the centre. On the east side we commenced on the slant about 

 live feet from the foot, sunk a shaft below the surface level, and then cut in to the 

 centre. Near the foot of the mound, on the north side, was a row of slab-stones, 

 seemingly a part of an enclosure around the central portion of the mound. This 

 wall was probably left on the cast side between the foot of the mound and the 

 shaft. One of the slabs was 30 X 25 inches and 5 inches in thickness. They 

 were not worked, nor were those mentioned above at San Francisco. On the 

 north side near the surface were found a small piece of greenish stone like argil- 

 lite, pieces of flint and of a stone grinder and pestle in basalt, with fragments of 

 the same class of pottery as that found at Pueblo Viejo and Santa Helena. I 

 believe that these objects were placed in the mound at a time long subsequent to 

 its erection. The feet and handles of the vessels were in the form of the heads 

 of birds arid other animals hollow, and usually containing balls of baked clay 



Pig. 118. 



No. 22,409. Parrot's head, Santa Helena ware from Los Angeles. 



inside for rattles. In the cast cut, near the centre, was a round jar with a 

 vertebra of some small animal and a piece of charcoal. 



Relics similar to those at Pueblo Viejo were dug up in the road north of the 

 mound. 



Several mounds were seen at Los Cocos, a piece of low land bordering on 

 the lake half a mile south of Chilaite. One of them upon being opened appeared 

 never to have been disturbed previously. It was about forty feet in diameter at 

 the base and six feet in height. In the base, nearly four feet from the outer 

 edge, was a corral of stones two or three feet high extending around the mound; 

 with this exception it was of earth. Near the centre was a skeleton, with two 

 small tcrra-cotta vessels. One of these, which was quite pretty, was shaped like 

 a bird, with an opening on the back. This vessel, the probable type of the 

 original shoe-shaped urn, was painted red, the wings being represented by buff 



Fig. 119. 



t 



No. 28,584. Bird-shaped vessel, from mound at Los Cocos. 



