56 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 64 



they were used as such, as they do not seem to be adapted to any 

 other purpose. With this exception we learn nothing of the art of 

 weaving from the contents of the mounds. Henequen fiber was 

 doubtless used for the manufacture of rope, mats, hammocks, and other 

 objects, as grooved flat stones for beating the pulp from the fiber are 

 common. 



GAMES 



The appliances for at least two distinct games have been found. ^ 

 The first consists of a large spherical block of limestone, nicely 

 pohshed, and about 1 foot in diameter, found associated with 6 to 12 

 smaller spherical stones, each about 3 inches in diameter, of very light 

 material somewhat resembling pumice stone. The second consists 

 of a number of small disks of shell, about three-fourths of an inch in 

 diameter. Collections of these have been found together on several 

 occasions; they might have been used as beads or ornaments but for 

 the fact that they are neither perforated nor decorated with incised 

 figures as sheU beads usually are. 



RELIGION 



Of the 15 gods of the codices classified by Schellhas five may be 

 recognized in this area with a fair degree of certainty. God A, the 

 god of death, in the form of a human skull, decorates the outside of 

 not a few small pottery vessels, and is depicted upon the painted 

 stucco wall at Santa Rita. God B, the long-nosed, god, is usually 

 identified with Cuculcan. Representations of this god are found 

 throughout the whole area in great abundance, painted upon pottery 

 and stucco, incised on bone and stone, and modeled in clay. This 

 god is associated with the cities of Chichen Itza and Mayapan, and is 

 supposed to have entered Yucatan from the west ; indeed it is possible 

 that he may originally have been the leader of one of the Maya 

 immigrations from that direction. He appears to have been by far 

 the most popular and -generally worshiped deity in this area, and it 

 is his image which is found on nearly half of all the incense burners 

 discovered. God D, probably Itzamna, appears in the codices as an 

 old man with a Roman nose, shrunken cheeks, toothless jaws, and a 

 peculiar scroU-like ornament beneath the eye, to the lower border of 

 which are attached two or three small circles. In some representa- 

 tions a single tooth projects from the upper jaw, and in a few the 



1 Por lo qual se usava tener en cada pueblo una casa grande y encalada, abierta por todas partes, en la 

 qual se juntavan los mo^os para sus passatiempos. Jugavan a la pelota y a un juego con unas habas como 

 a los dados, y a otros muehos.— Landa, op.'cit., p. 178. 



Two curious stones, which maj' have been used in some game, were discovered in a small bmial mound 

 in the Orange Walk district of British Honduras some years ago. They were made of nicely polished 

 crystalline limestone, about one foot in diameter, and shaped very much like curling stones without handles. 

 The upper part of each was traversed by two round holes, about one inch in diameter, which passed com- 

 pletely through the stone, near its summit, and crossed each other at right angles. 



