682 MOUNDS IN NORTHERN HONDURAS [ETH. ANN. 19 
The layer immediately below that which contained these animals 
was composed of very tough cement and covered the whole mound 
evenly. It was so hard that even with a pickax it was difficult to 
make any impression on it. It was 12 inches thick and of a light 
yellowish color. Upon it rested the two pillars and fragments of walls 
already referred to, together with the pottery urn. 
Below this cement layer and reaching to the ground level the mound 
was built of large blocks of limestone, rough and unhewn, but neatly 
fitted together without any mortar or earth between them. Not one 
of these blocks was worked or showed traces of stucco. Extending 
downward from the cement layer to the ground leyel through this last 
layer was a small circular cyst at the point marked N on the plan. Its 
upper opening was covered with a slab, over which the cement was 
continuous. Its floor was the ground, and its sides, though neatly 
built, were not plastered. It was 3 feet in diameter and contained 
nothing but a quantity of charcoal. 
It seems evident that before this mound was erected there stood 
on its site a building, of which part of the north wall is now all that 
remains. This building was erected on a solid stone platform, raised 
10 feet above the ground level, and covered with a thick layer of very 
hard cement. The mound was constructed partly from the stones 
taken from this building and partly from those of the temple before 
described. 
The urn, the painted animals, the idols, and the bones were placed 
within the mound atthe time the building was destroyed and the upper 
part of the mound erected over its ruins: the urn and the animals on 
what had been the floor of the building, the idols and the bones more 
superficially in the mound. The original stone platform on which 
the building had stood formed the base of the mound. 
The second of these animal mounds, 5 on the plan, was situated 345 
yards almost due north of the great central mound. It was 52 yards 
in circumference, oval at the base, conical in shape, and 5 feet 
high at its highest point. It was built of earth and limestone dust, 
together with rough blocks of limestone, none of which were squared 
or showed any traces of stucco adherent to them. Almost in the 
center of the mound, a little less than 1 foot below the surface, frag- 
ments of two clay idols were discovered, consisting of arms, legs, and 
portions of two bodies. The face shown in figure 1, plate xxx, is that 
of one of the idols. ‘The other head and the remaining pieces are so 
much damaged that they are not worth figuring. On reaching the 
ground level, directly in the center of the mound, a small stone cyst 
or chamber was discovered. It was 18 inches in length, 12 inches in 
breadth, and 12 inches in height. The floor was the ground; the roof 
and walls were made of single, roughly hewn, flat slabs of stone. 
Within this cyst appeared the small pottery urm shown in figure 7c, 
