GANN] MAYA INDIANS OF YUCATAN AND BRITISH HONDURAS 67 



and gnakes, together with two-headed dragons and other mythologic 

 animals. Snnilar mounds contaming animal effigies have been found 

 at Douglas, about 18 miles southwest of Santa Kita; at Bacalar, 

 25 miles northwest; at Corozal, less than a mile south; and near 

 San Antonio, about 9 miles north of it. In each of these locaUties 

 only a single effigy was found, the workmanship of which resembled 

 so closely that of the Santa Rita specimens that it wouM be difficult 

 to decide from which locality they had come. 



So far as it has been possible to ascertain, no similar human and 

 animal effigies have been previously discovered in this section of the 

 Maya area. The significance of these figurines appears to be some- 

 what obscure. They are not invariably found associated with hu- 

 ma!i remains, though this may be owing to the fact that the bones 

 have completely perished through decay or because cremation has 

 been practiced. They show no signs of use or wear and were evi- 

 dently made only to be buried. The hollow specimens frequently 

 contain one or more beads of red shell, greenstone, or clay in their 

 interioi-s, while in most cases they have been found associated with 

 fragments of pottery incense burners, which in this region seem to 

 have been very commonly mortuary in use. On the whole it seems 

 probable that these figurines were merely votive offerings to the 

 gods, buried with the dead. Some of them may indicate the occu- 

 pation of the individual with whom they were buried. A priest and 

 warrior from the same mound have been described, whose occupant 

 may have combined the double office, while a small statuette of an 

 old man, with a macapal slung over his shoulders, by a strap passing 

 across the forehead (t}T)ical of an Indian laborer of the present day), 

 was found by a coohe digging out stone from a mound at Santa Rita 

 many years ago. 



Mound No. 4 



Mound No. 4 (No. 7 on the plan of the Santa Rita mounds) ^ has 

 recently been excavated, together with nearly the whole of the earth- 

 work on its south side. The mound was circular at the base, conical 

 in shape, 57 feet in height, 471 feet in circumference, and was built 

 of blocks of limestone held together by mortar. On the south side 

 of the mound and continuous with it was a circular earthwork 100 

 yards in diameter. The walls inclosing the circular space varied 

 from 10 to 25 feet in height. They were higher toward the north, 

 where they were continuous with the large mound, and lower toward 

 the south, where an opening 80 feet wide gave access to the 

 inclosure. The summit of the mound was truncated, circular, and 

 about 20 feet in diameter. It was covered by a layer of alluvial 



' Figured in pi. xxxvni of the Nineteenth Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethn., as the Great Central Lookout 

 Mound. 



