204 



A STUDY OF CHIRIQUIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



Fig. 348. Gold image 

 of a frog. Metro- 

 politan Museum. New 

 York. '/ 



back, and eyes resembling foot symbols. On the bottom of each forefoot there is a 

 ring for suspension. The Museum possesses another small gold figurine of a frog of 

 the type figured by Bollaert, 1 and probably the identical specimen. 



Figurines of the alligator are not so numerous as those of 

 the frog. One of the simplified forms is reproduced in figure 349. 

 This specimen, which was purchased from de Zeltner, was called 

 in his catalogue " une sorte de poisson " ; but it is an alligator, 

 as indicated by the prominence between the eyes, and the long 

 jaws showing teeth. The usual characteristic recurving of the 

 snout is represented here by a simple ring at the end of the 

 upper jaw (compare with fig. 331). 



Mr. George G. Heye of New York has a large collection of 

 ancient Chiriquian gold ornaments, among them the representa- 

 tion of an alligator (fig. 350). Mr. Utley obtained this inter- 

 esting specimen at Pueblo Viejo. The attitude is one of motion ; 

 spreading legs, head raised and tail curved to one side. A 

 single row of long spines reaches from between the eyes to near 

 the tip of the tail. Under each forefoot there is a ring for sus- 

 pension. The prominence between the eyes and the upturned snout 



are both characteristic. It holds 

 in its mouth a part of a human 

 leg (from the knee down). The 

 latter is recognized as human by 

 the flat foot and ankle-band. The 

 crab-god reproduced in color (see 

 PI. XLVIII, fig. h*) also holds in 

 its mouth the lower half of a 

 human leg. 



The New York Public Library 

 (Lenox Foundation) is the for- 

 tunate possessor of some of the 

 gold ornaments brought to New 

 York by Mr. J. F. Bateman of 

 Panama, who accompanied the 

 first exploring party to Chiriqui, 

 in August, 1858. Mr. Bateman 

 exhibited his collection at a meet- 

 ing of the American Ethnological 

 Society, in October, 1860. It is 

 stated in the Proceedings 2 that 

 " The articles exhibited differed 

 very much in size and form, a cricket, frog, a sea-shell, and a man, each from 

 one to two inches in length, and an ounce or two in weight ; a tiger or jaguar, 

 five ounces, and an alligator, eight and a half ounces, (the heaviest and largest 



1 Op. cit, 32. 



2 Bull. Amer. ethn. soc., I, 21, 1861. 



Fig. 349- 



Fig. 35- 



Fig. 349- - Simplified alligator figurine in low-grade gold. '/' 

 Fig. 350. Gold image of an alligator holding in its mouth a 

 human leg ; from Pueblo Viejo. Heye collection. '/' 



