METAL. 



219 



almost rivaling in richness the Chiriquian huacal of Bugavita. These two parrot- 

 gods are similar except as to details. The body and legs are human. The head 

 and the forked wings that replace the human arms are the only avian characters. 

 The figures are strengthened by the characteristic flattened bars at the head and 

 feet, to which and to the bars are attached conventionalized alligator heads. The 

 eyes are large and projecting. Each image is supplied with knee- and loin-bands. 

 A number of differences are to be noted. In figure 372, the eyes are bell-shaped, 

 hollow, slit and provided with pellets ; and a small reptile is held in the beak. 

 The alligator heads are made of wires. The image reproduced in figure 373 

 holds a fish in its beak. There is a ring for suspension at the back as well as 

 on the beak. In both of these examples, certain parts, as the wings and alligator 

 heads, have the appearance of being cast separately and then attached to the 



Fig. 372. Gold image of the parrot-god, with alli- 

 gator motives at the head and feet. Keith collec- 

 tion. V 



Fig. 373. Image of the parrot-god in gold, or- 

 namented with alligator motives at the head 

 and feet. Keith collection. '/ 



central figure by fusion and pressure. On the other hand, there are some features 

 which can be accounted for only by the supposition that while the model was 

 composed of a number of parts, the gold figure itself was cast as a whole. 



Frau Dr. Alice Mertens has recently given to the Royal Ethnographical Museum, 

 Berlin, a valuable series of Costa Rican gold ornaments also from the valley of 

 Rio General. Judging from the published photographic reproductions, 1 one of 

 these is a double parrot-god, with two complete human bodies, each having 

 two arms and a single wing, the latter attached to the distal shoulder in both. 

 One head is missing; the other is that of the parrot. Another double image 

 in the same collection resembles the foregoing in every essential feature with 

 the possible exception of the heads, the smallness of the half-tone rendering 

 it impossible to determine whether they are avian. If not, then we have to 



1 Eduard Seler. Vorlage einer neu eingegangenen Sammlung von Goldaltertiimern aus 

 Costa Rica. Zeitschr. f. Ethnol., XLI, 463, 1909. 



