672 MOUNDS IN NORTHERN HONDURAS [ETH. ANN. 19 
is vertical. Immediately behind the head of the individual portrayed 
in figure 5, plate xxrx, will be observed a gylph made up of five com- 
ponent parts, two above and three below. The upper left-hand 
division and the lower central division unquestionably form together 
the Maya symbol for the cardinal point east, named ‘‘likin’”—the 
lower division standing for ‘‘kin,” day, and the upper or Ahau 
symbol for **li,” the consonant element of which is ‘*].” This is the 
generally accepted interpretation of the symbol, but in the present 
case it can hardly hold good, for above the Ahau symbol are two bars 
and three dots, which stand for 13 (each bar representing 5, and each 
dot 1), showing that the Ahau symbol, though combined with the kin 
symbol, is not, at least here, used phonetically, but is employed 
simply to represent the last day of the Maya month. 
Turning again to the figures themselves we can not help being struck 
with their remarkable resemblance to those of Yucatan and south- 
eastern Mexico on the one hand, and to those found in the ruined cities 
of Guatemala‘and Honduras on the other. The most striking points 
of general resemblance are the similarity in shape and fashion of 
the headdresses, sandals, wrist and leg ornaments, the conventional 
treatment to be observed in all the human figures, and the fact that 
all are shown in profile. In the receding forehead, hooked nose, and 
somewhat prominent chin, which are characteristic of nearly all the 
figures, they resemble perhaps more closely the bas-reliefs of Palenque 
and Lorillard City than those of Yucatan and Honduras. The vast 
headdress, composed of jewels and plumes of feathers, decorated in 
most cases with the head of an animal immediately above the face— 
employed as a distinctive sign or badge by the upper class—the 
enormous square or round ear ornaments, with a pendant from the 
center, the sandals, elaborately decorated from heel to instep, and 
fastened in front with a gaily-colored bow, the wristlets of beads, also 
in many cases decorated with bows, the circlets, worn round the legs 
either just above the knee or just above the ankle, together with the 
nose and lip ornaments, are all common to Mexico, Yucatan, Guatemala, 
and Honduras. 
But besides showing these points of general resemblance, certain of 
the figures appear, when allowance is made for the differences which 
would necessarily exist between a bas-relief cut in stone and a paint- 
ing, to be almost identical with those found elsewhere. These are 
figures 3, 4, 5, and 8, plate xxx. The resemblance between figure 3, 
plate xxx, and the left-hand figure in the Temple of the Cross at 
Palenque has already been adverted to, and this figure bears an equally 
strong resemblance to a bas-relief in stone from the ruined city of 
Labphak, in Yucatan.’ In each case the figure is holding elevated in one 
hand a small object, on which is squatting a dwarf or baby, which is 

1 John L, Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, vol. 1, p. 164. 
