gann] 



MAYA INDIANS OF YUCATAN AND BRITISH HONDURAS 



61 



hand is extended, while the left holds a circular fan. In the other the 

 forearms arc flexed at right angles, mth hands held open in front of 

 the waist, as if about to receive something. The lizard effigies, though 

 crudely made, are most lifelike representations about 6 inches in 

 length. The alligators resemble very closely those taken from another 

 mound at Santa Ilita.* 



The tigers and dragon-like creatures are exactly similar to those 

 figured in Nos. 6 and 4 of the same plate. The bird and snake effigies 

 are very crude and ill made ; the former, about 1 h inches in length, 

 represent birds in the act of flying, A\nth wings extended. The snakes, 

 each represented with a double curve in the body, are about 5h inches 



Fig. 16.— Figurines from Mound No. 1. 



in length and one-half inch in diameter; they are made of rough 

 clay, painted red. The effigies of the quashes, though rough and 

 crudely made, are rather vigorous and lifelike in execution. Each is 

 about 3 inches long. This small arboreal animal, which abounds in 

 the district, is represented in a variety of comical positions; so well 

 indeed has the artist studied his model that one can not help think- 

 ing that he must have kept some, of the little animals as pets, as 

 many of the Maya Indians do at the present day. The figures when 

 first found were so brittle that it was impossible to remove them 

 from the pot without breakage, as they had been seemingly only 

 sun dried. After exposure to the sun and air, however, for a few 

 days they gradually hardened. 



Figured in Nineteenth Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pi. xxxrv, No. 5. 



