METAL. 223 



and foot-piece to so many Chiriquian gold figurines, this type of setting for such 

 images being in fact one of the characteristic features of Chiriquian art. These 

 bars are derived from, or at least merge into animal forms two heads and a 

 common body. A majority of them represent the alligator, a rare exception to 

 this rule being given in figure 369, where bird heads are employed. The bar in 

 that case is presumably an avian body, common to the two heads which it con- 

 nects. The present northern limit of the use of these flattened symbolic bars at 

 the head and feet of gold images is Nicaragua, west of the lakes. A good 

 example from this region is in the American Museum of Natural History. This 

 image, which is small and of low-grade gold, resembles that reproduced in 

 figure 375. The head however is apelike ; there are loin- and knee-bands ; and 

 the bars at the head and one at the feet are not even perforated. Similar gold 

 figurines from Colombia are to be seen in the Field Museum, Chicago. 



Like the parrot-god, the jaguar-god also occurs on the monumental stone slabs 

 as well as in the form of independent stone statues, examples of both having 

 been found recently at Mercedes, Costa Rica, by Mr. Keith. One of these slabs 

 is about two meters high by fifty-nine centimeters wide and ten centimeters thick. 

 The front is plain. Resting on the top is a group of three jaguar-gods carved in 

 the round. The bodies and extremities are human. While the head in each case 

 is that of the jaguar, it is adorned with long human hair reaching down to the 

 lumbar region. In addition, the larger, central figure wears a crown. The grouping 

 is admirable. The chief god rests on both knees with arms extended and hands 

 on the shoulders of the figures at the sides. These two smaller gods are of equal 

 size, the one on the right kneeling on the right knee and that on the left kneeling 

 on the left knee ; the group as a whole is thus bilaterally symmetrical. The 

 two lateral margins at the back of the slab are decorated with eighteen small 

 figures of the jaguar, nine on each side, with heads all directed toward the group 

 of jaguar-gods. Beginning at the upper corners, these jaguar figures are distrib- 

 uted at equal distances, the last ones being situated at least thirty centimeters 

 from the foot of the slab. 



Equally remarkable is the great stone statue representing the jaguar-god and 

 found also at Mercedes by Mr. Keith. It is of stocky proportions, with a height 

 equal to that of a short man. It wears a cap or crown, cylindrical ear-plugs and 

 a sash carried over the left shoulder and reaching down to the left hip. The 

 right arm is missing. In the left hand is held a human head, the long coiled 

 hair of which is brought up over the right shoulder, as if to balance the sash on 

 the left. This statue has certain points in common with one also from Mercedes, 

 illustrated byHartman, 1 although the head and body of the latter are both human. 

 The discovery of these fine examples in stone of the jaguar-god not only serves 

 as a confirmation of my belief in the existence of that deity based on the gold and 

 earthenware specimens already described, but also extends the boundaries of the 

 cult half-way across Costa Rica. 



The Yale collection includes a single rare, plaque-like gold mask representing 

 the human face (fig. 378). It is a squarish sheet of gold-leaf, somewhat thicker 



1 Archaeological researches in Costa Rica, PI. 3, fig. 1, 1901. 



