664 MOUNDS IN NORTHERN HONDURAS [ETH. ANN. 19 
nearly the whole of the lower part had become effaced. Fortunately, 
on that part of the wall adjacent to the doorway the painting was per- 
fect from cornice to floor. This wall, like the others, rested on a 
layer of hard cement continuous with the stucco which covered it. 
Of the west wall, which was the last to be exposed, 9 feet remained 
standing. It was the best-preserved wall in the whole building, the 
entire mural painting, from cornice to floor, being almost perfect. 
Of the south wall of the building not one stone remained upon 
another; but as the mound was built mainly of squared stones, and 
as there were many such in the line of this wall still retaining pieces 
of painted stucco, it seems probable that this wall was decorated sim- 
ilarly to the others. 
The triangular stone cornice extended along all the walls at a uni- 
form height of + feet 10 inches from the ground; its wpper surface 
was oblique, its lower surface horizontal; and it projected 35 inches 
from the wall. The layer of hard cement on which the building 
rested could be traced outward from its walls a distance of + or 5 
feet, where it ended ina jagged edge. Its superficial layer was light 
yellow in color, and so-hard that it was difficult to make any impression 
on it with a machete; the deeper layers, however, were much softer. 
This cement layer was placed about 2 feet above the ground level. 
The interior of the building was without cornice, and was completely 
covered with plain, unpainted stucco. The floor was on a level with 
the ground outside the walls, and was of the same hard cement which 
covered it. 
The plain stucco covering the interior of the building was in very 
close contact with the wall, from which it could not be removed, except 
in smal] pieces. The painted stucco on the outside, on the other hand, 
was separated from a subjacent layer of similar material by a very 
thin layer of dark, friable clay, rendering it easy to remove large 
pieces of the stucco without much damage to the painting. The 
second layer of stucco also bore traces of painted figures, but they 
were so indistinct that even if the superficial layer had all been 
carefully removed, it would have been impossible to copy them. 
Beneath the second layer there existed a third layer, which also bore 
faint traces of having originally been covered with colored devices. 
The greater part of the walls above the cornice had been broken down, 
but in places they rose to a height of 5 feet. The mortar used in con- 
structing the building was soft and friable, and contained large lumps 
of limestone. The walls were throughout uniformly 14 inches thick. 
During the excavation of this mound a large number of potsherds 
were found; some of them roughly made, others nicely decorated with 
geometric devices in red, black, and yellow; afew were glazed. Two 
stone spearheads were also found—one, triangular in shape and 44 
inches in length, was made of yellow flint; the other, of leaf shape, 3 
