On some Ancient Scutprures From THE Paciric Store or GUATEMALA. 
By Gustav EIsen. 
During my visit to Guatemala, Honduras and Salvador, in 1882, I made the 
archeological remains of the Mayas and the Aztees in those countries my particu- 
lar study. These researches were embodied in a paper presented to the Smithso- 
nian Institute in 1883. This paper treated principally of the ruins of Copsn and 
Quirigua, in Honduras and Guatemala. Through an unfortunate mishap a portion 
of this paper was lost in transferring from the Smithsonian Institute to the 
Bureau of Ethnology in Washington, D. C. This delayed the printing of the 
same four years. In the meantime Mr. Alfred Maudslay, of London, carried on 
extensive excavations in both the above places. His researches being so much 
more extensive than my own, and now soon to be published, will in a measure 
supersede them, and make their publication less desirable or entirely superfluous. 
The following paper contains only those portions of my former researches 
which refer to parts not visited by Mr. Maudslay. The historical traditions of 
these localities are entirely lost, and instead of indulging in vague and at present 
highly unsatisfactory speculations about possible relations, life, characteristics, ete., 
of the people who produced the sculptures found there, I shall mainly confine 
myself to describing what I have seen, leaving future explorers, with more 
material, to generalize and speculate upon the, of late, rather fashionable myths of 
Tlaloes, Quetzalcoatle, Toltecs, ete.; but this much I will say in regard to the people 
who originated these sculptures—that they were, undoubtedly, of Aztec origin; the 
worn gylphs yet to be distinguished show similarity to Aztec and not to Maya 
writings. 
EL PORTAL, PANTALEON, LOS TARROS, SANTA RITA, SANTA LUCIA COTZUMALGUAPA AND 
AGUNA. 
In the above named places as well as in many others along the Pacific Coast 
of Guatemala, from the very slope of the voleanoes to the shores of the Pacific 
Ocean, are found numerous traces of ancient civilization. So numerous seems the 
population of the country to have once been that there is now scarcely a single 
farm upon which is not found ruins or relics of some kind. But the monuments 
Mem. Vou, II.7 2. July, 1888. 
