ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN NICARAGUA. 



75 



In the village was purchased a greenish celt of jadeite, No. 28,991, extremely 

 hard and exquisitely polished. 



At the town of Nicoya a turtle-shaped whistle and two small vessels were 

 obtained, and a little further south, in the valleys among the mountains, were 

 observed many mounds and other remains of antiquity. The mounds were 

 usually about five feet in height and forty in diameter at the base. In the road 

 cuts and gullies fragments of stone implements and tcrra-cotta were abundant. 

 A piece of a fine long celt of tremolite was lying in a rut, broken by a cart 

 wheel. We pui'diased two whistles and some little vessels in this neighborhood, 

 and were shown the locality where they had been discovered with human bones 

 and several metatcs. I employed four men at work there for half a day, and 



No. 28,952. No. 28,953. 



Whistles exhumed at Nicoyn. 



unearthed three whistles, four small vessels, and bones of several skeletons. 

 Each body appeared to have been interred with a small earthen vessel and a 

 whistle. This place, about a mile and a half southeast of the town, where the 

 crest of the ridge was crossed by the road, was called Punta del Monte. The 

 specimens were lying in red clay, on a yellowish trap or cascaja, about four feet 

 below the surface ; and had been exposed, in a cut in the road, by the wash of 

 the rainy season. Throughout this country the metates are dug up for sale. 

 They are considered more valuable than those now made, and bring from six to 

 eight dollars. 



The remaining half day the men worked in the mounds half a mile farther 

 south. Two were cut into, showing great numbers of shards, pieces of grinders, 

 and curiol. Human bones were found once ; but I think they were placed there 

 subsequently to the erection of the mound. The natives said that metates, but 

 no bones, were found in the mounds. They seemed to have been built as the 

 sites of houses, the debris of household utensils gTadually accumulating on the 

 mound foundation. There were very few stones, which were scarce in the imme- 

 diate neighborhood. 



A magnificent chalchihuitl, No. 28,977, was obtained near here, and Dr. Flint 

 purchased for himself an opal, with a perforation in it like those drilled in the 

 green beads of Ometepec. 



A narrow vein of hard black rock was pointed out by the Indians as a source 



