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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



to the incense burner, and forming a background for the figure, are pro- 

 jecting feather ornaments extending from the headdress to the elbow. 

 The moimd was dug away to the ground level. It was foimd to 

 be built of blocks of limestone and earth, but nothing of moment was 

 found in it with the exception of numerous potsherds of all kinds. 



Mound No. 25 



Momid No. 25 was situated m the comitry of the Icaiche Indians, 

 Quintana Koo, Yucatan. The momid was discovered by the Indians 

 when cuttmg down virgin bush to make a milpa, or corn plantation. 



It was a moderate-sized mo mid, 

 about 10 feet high, and upon its 

 summit, micovered, lay the ob- 

 jects illustrated in figures 68, 69, 

 and 70. Figure 68 exliibits a 

 roughly formed clay figurine, 

 nearly 1 foot in height, decorat- 

 ing a small hourglass-shaped in- 

 cense burner. Both figure and 

 vase are very crudely modeled in 

 rough pottery; most of the prom- 

 inent characteristics of the care- 

 fully modeled and elaborately 

 decorated incense burner repre- 

 sented in plate 20 and figure 67 

 are still retained. The large 

 round ear plugs, with long flaps 

 from the headdress overlapping 



Fig 68 -Incense burner decorated with crude clay them, the horizontaUy Striated 

 flgurme from Mound No 25 . , i , i i ■ . 



breastplate, and even a rudiment- 

 ary maxtli, together with the extended position of the arms, as if m the 

 actof making an offering,and thebackgromid of featherworkarefeatures 

 which may be recognized . There is exhibited, however, a lamentable 

 decadence from the art which fabricated the more elaborate vase. In 

 figure 69 may be seen what probably represents a further stage of de- 

 generation — ^namely, the substitution of the head for the entire figure 

 on the outside of the mcense burner. The last stage of all m the 

 decadence of this branch of Maya art is to be seen in the small 

 crude bowls fomid by Sapper in the great Christa of the settlement of 

 Izan, and by Charnay in the ruins of Menche Tmamit.^ These bowls, 



1 Accoimts of the finding of these incense burners and of copal are common in both ancient and modem 

 times. "Hall^ en una de las dos Capillas cacao ofrecido, y seflal de copal (que es su incienso) de poco 

 tiempo alll quemado, y que lo era de algima supersticion, 6 idolatria recito cometida."— Cogolludo, His- 

 toria de Yucathan, Bk. iv, Cap. vn, p. 193. 



"Y los que ivan tenian de costumbre de entrar tambi^n en templos dereUctos, quando passavan por 

 ellos a orar y quemar copal."— Landa, op. cit., p. 158. 



