GANN] BUILDERS OF THE TEMPLE 673 
apparently being presented as an offering or sacrifice. The dress of 
the two figures is very similar. A huge headdress projecting forward 
for a considerable distance above the face is ornamented with feathers 
and jewels; a bead-decorated cape and the usual large earrings are 
worn by both. In the glyph placed above the Labphak figure is 
seen a cross, and the same symbol is also to be observed in the head- 
dress. In the glyph placed between figures 3 and 4, plate xxx, 
the same symbol also appears. The cross is in both cases of the same 
shape. 
In figures + and 5, plate xxx, the lower part is unfortunately very 
much damaged; but if the upper part of the figures be compared 
with the bas-relief sculpture in the Temple of the Cross at Palenque, 
it will be seen that the subject is the same. In the center of the pic- 
ture is a symbolic bird with a long tail and eagle’s talons, standing 
in the one case on top of a cross, in the other on top of an Ahau 
symbol, and on each side is a human figure apparently making offer- 
ines to this bird. Above figure 4 the cross forms a prominent part of 
the hieroglyph. 
The resemblance between figure 8, plate xxx, and the bas-relief in 
stone from Casa 4 at Palenque’ has already been noticed. The huge 
prominent noses, the toothless jaws and prominent chins, the similar 
headdresses with the eagles’ heads in front, and especially the feather- 
decorated serpents twined around the bodies, show, without doubt, 
that both of these figures are meant to represent the god Quetzalcoatl. 
On the strength of this evidence, then, I think we may fairly infer: 
(a) That this building was the work of people of the same nation 
which built the ruined cities of Yucatan, Gautemala, and Honduras; 
but that, as their style and method of execution were more like those 
of the builders of the cities of southeastern Mexico, they were probably 
more closely allied to, and more nearly contemporaneous with, them 
than with the builders of the other cities. 
(>) That in the absence of all other evidence the hieroglyphics would 
alone prove that the building was the work of a branch of the Maya 
Toltec nation. 
THe DrsTROYERS OF THE MouND-COVERED TEMPLE 
We can pass now to the second question, namely, by whom, and 
why, was the building destroyed and the mound erected over it? 
In certain other mounds at Santa Rita, immediately to be described, 
there were found, buried superficially in each mound, the fragments of 
two pottery images, and more deeply a number of small painted 
pottery animals, the latter either inside of or immediately adjacent to 
large pottery urns. The similarity between these clay figures and 

1 John L. Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Central America, vol. 11, p. 353. 
