.'^KiKK] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 101 



fact that this is so distinctly brought out in the heads of 8an oluan 

 Chamelco is of especial weight. It proves that the ancient iiihal)itants 

 of Vera Paz were under the immediate influence of the civilized nation 

 which had erected the monumental structures of Copan, perhaps were 

 identical with them; at any rate, that they were closely akin to tiiom. 

 Further, I will not omit to mention that this peculiar manner of tiling- 

 the teeth is seen on the pottery pipes of the Strebel Ranchito dv 

 las Animas collection, the so-called ""Totonac priests'', which are 

 sitting-, standing, or carousing figures, dressed in a peculiar capelike 

 overgarment. 



In this connection a few other small antiquities, some of which are 

 contained in the Sapper collection, and some in the Dieseldortf collec- 

 tion, from this region, seem to me to be of importance. These are red 

 pottery tablets with a rectangular border, on which, between raised 

 intersecting moldings, is a series of consecutive s^^ubols executed in 

 relief. I copied a fragment of the Sapper collection, seen in /. and 

 attempted, in / and k, to reproduce some of the symbols contained on 

 these fragments from photographs of the Dieseldortf colhn-tion. I 

 believe that in these fragments we have celestial shields executed in 

 relief, that is, they correspond to the tablets (square or rectangularly 

 bent), bearing the signs Kin, Akbal, and variants of the same, which 

 occur frequently in the Maya manuscripts, and which Forstemann would 

 like to interpret as symbols of different stars or planets. Messrs Sapper 

 and Dieseldortf formerly attached special importance to the little 

 rosettes {d, figure 19), which occur frequently in the region of Chamelco. 

 I consider them fragments of larger figures, and do not believe that 

 any deeper meaning can be attached to the number symbols on them, 

 excepting, of course, the four parts into which the center knot divides. 

 On the latter there are traces of blue color, as in the ear plates of h, 

 figure 19. The rosette itself appears to have been painted crimson. 

 The ear plates might, perhaps, be considered to represent turquoise 

 mosaic, and the same might l)e true of the knots of the rosettes. 



A few pottery figures (pipes) of the Sarg collection, said to have 

 come from the cave of Zabalam, near Coban, are of a peculiar character 

 (r/, J, and c, figure 21). The material is a brick-red clay, which is some- 

 what more sandy than in the fragments described before, painted in 

 certain places partly light-blue and partly white. The whole construc- 

 tion has something remarkably modern about it; the first, '/, shows a 

 figure clothed with a maxtlatl and a loin cloth, wearing large round 

 ear pegs and a cylindric stone bead on a cord around the neck, and 

 adorned with great winglikc feather ornaments projecting from the 

 sides of the head. The figure is represented in a dancing posture 

 before a sort of tree, whose branches are made of unripe ears of niuize 

 still in the husk. Such an ear of maize also rises high over the head 

 of the figure. Both at the right and left are seen figures of animals 



