220 A STUDY OF CHIRIQUIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



do with a mixture of three instead of two forms. In this connection it should 

 also be noted that human attributes do not always constitute one of the ele- 

 ments in composite gold images. For example, the wings and tail of a bird are 

 sometimes attached to the head and body of an alligator. One image of this 

 type is illustrated by Liiders, 1 who also figures a deity with body and tail of a 

 bird, human arms with a rattle in each hand, and an alligator's head with horns 

 representing two conventionalized headless alligators. Where the figure is part 

 human I have suggested that it be called a god. Whether images composed of 

 two or more animal forms can be classed as gods is a question. 



Representations of the parrot-god are confined neither to the gold figurines nor 

 to Chiriqui. At Mercedes, near the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica, Mr. Keith has 

 found a number of stone slabs of various sizes resembling somewhat the grave- 

 stones in the colonial cemeteries of New England. Instead of being used as 

 headstones however they are said to be found at the bottom of the graves. 

 They are skilfully carved out of volcanic rock and are generally ornamented with 

 figures in relief, or in the round. Two of the smaller and simpler slabs are each 

 adorned with a parrot-god. It stands at the centre of one end, with wings extended 

 outward and downward until they touch the corners of the slab. The entire figure 

 is thus in the round. The body and legs are human, to which are added a bird's 

 head and wings. In one instance the wings terminate in jaguar heads. The 

 Central American parrot-god recalls the Assyrian god of fecundity, which is re- 

 presented as having the head and wings of an eagle. 2 



Many of the celt-shaped amulets from Las Guacas, Nicoya (Costa Rica), des- 

 cribed by Hartman 3 as "anthropomorphic," are also ornithomorphic, i. e., have 

 mixed attributes. These are in all probability representations of the same parrot- 

 god of which such fine examples in gold have just been noted. That the blade 

 of the celt is also the tail of a bird, there can be no question. Hartman states 

 that : " Often the lower part of the face, including the nose, is represented enclosed 

 by a square incision, having its upper corner at the root of the nose, its opposite 

 at the apex of the chin." Now the upper half of this diamond delineates either 

 the human nose or the slanting lines that begin near the base of the nose and 

 extend past the corners of the mouth. The lower half of this diamond is some- 

 times the outline of the human chin but is often that of a bird's beak instead. 

 Thus the "chin" which, according to Hartman, "is in numerous specimens tri- 

 angular, beak-shaped, prolonged downwardly on the breast," is in reality the 

 parrot's beak. In other words, the head is both human and avian, the figure as 

 a whole being analogous to that executed in gold, the differences being practically 

 confined to such as are due to the nature of the medium. Even the head-dress is 

 the same although not so elaborate. Instead of the relatively large gold bar 

 representing a common animal body (usually that of the alligator) with conventional- 

 ized heads at each end, there is a reduction of the whole, differing in degree, 



1 C. W. Liiders. Jahrbuch der Hamburgischen wissenschaftl. Anstalten, VI, Taf. Ill, 

 Abb. 10, 11, 1888. 



2 L'Anthropologie, XX, fig. 48, 1909. 



3 Archeol. researches on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Mem. Carnegie mus., Pittsburgh, 

 III, no. 1, Pis. XXX1II-XXXV, XLIV, 1907. 



