oannI MAYA INDIANS OF YI-^CATAN AND BRITISH HONDURAS 101 



was found by an Indian in the neighhorhood of San Antonio, on the 

 Rio Hondo, which here forms the boundary Uiic between Mexico and 

 British Honduras. He was idly scratching on the top of a small 

 mound, buried 'in the bush, with his machete, when a few inches 

 below the surface he came upon this very remarkable flint. Unfor- 

 tunately, he took no pains to locate the mound, and as the bush 

 in this neighborhood is literally covered with mounds in all directions, 

 he has never been able to find this particular one again. 



The implement shown in figure 48 was dredged up from the River 

 Thames, near London, at a spot where foreign-going ships were in the 

 habit of dumping their ballast. There can be little doubt that it 

 cajne originally from British Honduras, as flint implements of such 

 large size and of this peculiar type are not found outside the Maya 

 area. This object, as may be seen, is a crude representation of the 

 human form; it is 9^ inches in length and is neatly chipped. A 

 closely similar anthropomorphic specimen is pre- 

 served in the Northesk collection, a cast of 

 which may be seen in the British Museum. 



It is extremely difficult to form any satisfac- 

 tory theory as to the use of these eccentrically 

 shaped flints which will cover all the instances 

 in which they have been found. Teobert Maler, 

 judging by the small specimens, closely packed, 

 which he found at Naranjo, considers that they 

 may have been used as ornaments upon death's- 

 head masks, placed near stelje and temples, 

 the more perishable parts of which have disap- 

 peared. This theory could hardly apply to the 

 immense specimens from the Douglas, Orange 

 Walk, and Seven Hills mounds, some of which F'*^- -Js-Figiire from River 



, . . Thames, near London. 



are, moreover, obviously intended as weapons, 



and not as ornaments. Stevens, the author of ''Flint Chips," with 

 only the three large specimens found in a cave inland from the 

 Bay of Honduras to judge from, considers that they may have 

 served as "weapons of parade, like the state partisan or halbert of 

 later times;" it is perfectly obvious, however, that the zoomorpMc 

 forms from Corozal and Douglas, and the small specimens from 

 Benque Viejo, Naranjo, Kendal, and Santa Rita, could not have been 

 intended for this purpose. Finding small, beautifully chipped cres- 

 cents, crosses, and rings of obsidian and varicolored flints, as have been 

 discovered at Benque Viejo and Succots, one would be inclined to 

 think that they were intended as earrings, gorgets, and breast 

 ornaments, especially as one sees such forms frequently recurring 

 in the ornaments worn by figures on the stelae in the ntnghborhood. 

 Finding the huge flints pictured hi plate 15, 6, d, especially when 



