3ELER] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 95 



lished, yet very little is known of its peculiar nature, and whose well- 

 drawn figure we see in one of the interesting relief tiles of Chiapas. 

 If the tapir be really Xolotl, the empty sockets must be characteristic 

 of the tapir, and we ought to recognize the tapir in h. however 

 improbable this identification may be to the eye trained to observe 

 natural phenomena. 



A quantity of other fragments show^ the same style and tli(> same 

 conception as ^r and c, especially those with conventionalized and oi-na- 

 mentally developed serpent heads, many of which seem to be found in 

 this region. I have copied in a, figure 18, a fragment from San Juan 

 Chamelco and in h another from Santa Cruz. The human leg, wJiich 

 is seen in the latter fragment under the edge of the upper jaw, prob- 

 ably ))elongs to a complete human figure which issued from the jaws 

 of the serpent — a very common representation which we see in the 

 cedar- wood biblets of Tikal and numerous other sculptures. These are 

 usually clay tablets with ijuite high and boldly executed reliefs. Some 

 have a peglike attachment on the reverse side. Perhaps they belong 

 to the kind of tablets which I have represented in /, ^•, and /, figure 20, 

 and which I interpret as celestial shields. On the last page of the 

 Dresden manuscript and in the Perez codex the celestial shields ter- 

 minate in half figures, especially heads of crocodiles. It seems more 

 probable to me that they are fragments of complicated figure struc- 

 tures resembling those of the Copan stelai. 



The material of these quite numerous fragments and also of the 

 fragment in c^ figure 17, is a hard-baked clay of brick-red appearance. 

 The fragments convey a strong impression of having all come from 

 the same place of manufacture. 



The majority of the heads and figure fragments of this region are 

 made of this same red clay. I reproduce next, in e, figure 18, the cast 

 of an ancient pottery shape, which Doctor Sapper obtained in the 

 region of Coban without being able to fix the exact place of discovery. 

 It is probably a female figure with parted hair falling down at the 

 sides of the head, a lock of which, drawn forward from l)ehind. hangs 

 far down over the shoulder. This long tapering lock of flowing hair 

 in front is likewise a distinguishing characteristic of women in the 

 Dresden manuscript, and we jjce it, moi'eover, in the vase paintiiig from 

 Rio Hondo, which is reproduced below in t\ figure 26. The form <■. 

 figure 18, wears large square ornamental tablets in the ears. A cloth 

 is wound about the body inunediately below the breasts, and around 

 the neck she wears a cord on which is strung a large quadraiigulai' 

 prismatic stone bead with a round bead at each end. A head {h. figure 

 19) which comes from San Juan Chamelco evidently belonged to a sim- 

 ilar figure. Here, too, the hair is parted, but bound above the forehead 

 by a tupuy, "headband". Two other modes of dressing the hair. 



