68 CUP SHAPED AISD OTHER LAPIDARIAN SCULPTURES. 



"From information received during my two visits to Chiriqui, and 

 from what lias been published since I first drew attention to this subject, I 

 am led to believe that there are a great many inscribed rocks in that dis- 

 trict. But I myself have seen only one, the now famous piedra pintal {i. e. 

 painted stone), which is found on a plain at Caldera, a few leagues from 

 the town of David. It is fifteen feet high, nearly fifty feet in circumference, 

 and rather flat on the top. Every part, especially the eastern side, is cov- 

 ered with incised characters about an inch or half an inch deep. The first 

 figure on the left-hand side represents a radiant sun, followed by a series 

 of heads, or what appear to be heads, all with some variation. It is these 

 heads, particularly the appendages (perhaps intended for hair?), which 

 show a certain resemblance to one of the most curious characters found on 

 the British rocks {21) in Fig. 58), and calling to mind the so-called 'Ogham 

 characters.' These 'heads' are succeeded by scorpion- like, or branched, 

 and other fantastic figures. The top of the stone, and the other sides, are 

 covered with a great number of concentric rings and ovals, crossed by lines. 

 It is especially these which bear so striking a resemblance to the Northum- 

 brian characters. 



"Symmetry being the first aim of barbarous nations in their attempt 

 at ornamentation, I have always rejected the idea that these figures are 

 intended for mere ornament, and have taken them to be symbols full of 

 meaning, and recording ideas held to be of vital importance to the people 

 who used them, and whose very name has become a matter of doubt. 

 However, to speculate on their meaning must be labor thrown away, until 

 we shall have become acquainted with all the inscriptions, of which those 

 on the piedra pintal are specimens. 



" At present we can hardly say more than that there is a remarkable 

 family likeness, if nothing more, between the .incient British and Chiriqui 

 inscriptions, — a relationship entirely unsuspected by me until Mr. Tate's 

 remarkable work fell into my hands. Could an identity between these 

 rocks, so widely separated geographically, be established, we should be in 

 a position to indulge in legitimate speculation. We should have to con- 

 cede — I say it without hesitation — that, in prehistoric times, an intercourse 

 existed between the Bi-itish Islands and Central America ; that this inter- 



