SEIER] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 83 



of the mountain over which they had to pass on their return journey, 

 where a tire was evidently kept burning-, fed by the wax and copal 

 ofl'erings of passers-by. There were, besides, places of worship in the 

 villages, consisting only of a round structure or (in the temple or 

 meetinghouse) of a couple of stones upon which the wax candles and 

 the copal were burned." In the ermita of the Lacandons Doctor 

 Sapper likewise found no idols whatever, but only a " low table upon 

 which wax candles appeared to have been burned" and the singulai- 

 sacriticial vessels in which wax, copal, etc., were offered.'' 



Peculiar clay vessels were found some time ago in this extensive 

 region, which has lately been made more accessible by the felling of 

 timber along the Usumacinta and the Rio de la Pasion. These vessels 

 are distinguished by a face mask of a rather stereotyped form, which 

 is placed on the riiu. In the (luatemalan exhibit in Madrid there was 

 a series of .such vessels displayed, and their origin was given as from 

 Usumacinta. The Royal Museum of Ethnology received from Consul- 

 General Sarg two such vessels with a similar label, one of whidi is 

 represented by h. figure 13. An exactl}' similar vessel is found in the 

 museum at Copenhagen, said to have come from Peten (/>, figure 14). 

 No such vessels are known to come from other parts of Guatemala. 

 The museum in Copenhagen possesses two similar vessels of somewhat 

 varying but probably related forms {a and c, figure 14), which l)ear the 

 general label "from Tabasco ". Charnay found vessels like tf, />, and c, 

 figure 18, in great numbers in the chief templeof Menche Tinamit. near 

 the idol and in almost every room.*^ He copies two of them, and since 

 the face mask of one is distinguished from the other by a very promi- 

 nent nose he supposes that these two types represent, perhaps, two 

 different races. Charnay considered these vessels to be prehistoric. 

 We have to thank Doctor Sapper for the knowledge that the Lacan- 

 dons still make such vessels to-day and bring wax and copal to their 

 gods in them. Doctor Sapper saw these vessels in the great ermita of 

 the settlement of Izan, and he collected fragments of them in the 

 ruins of Menche Tinamit, "where the Lacandons were accustomed to 

 meet once a year to celebrate their festivals by balche feasts and pecul- 

 iar ceremonies, and to ofler sacrifices to their gods in various I)uildings, 

 especially in a three-storied biylding distinguished by beautiful reliefs 

 and a large sitting stone idoP".'' 



I have had some of the fragments which were collected by Docto?- 

 Sapper copied in <■ tof. figure 18, while a shows a specimen which was 

 given to the Royal Museum from the Ecuadorian exhibit at the Cohnn- 

 bian Exposition in Chicago, and which is evidentlv of similar origin. 

 In the latter, as well as in the different fragments sent in by Sapper, 

 thick masses of a waxv or resinous substance were found. On the 



n Remesal, v. 2, chap. I'.t. • Les Anclennes Villes du Nouveau Monde, p. 381. 



''Ausland. 1S91, T>. 893. ^Ausland. 1891, pp. 893-S&4. 



