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TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 623 
are covered with sculptured rows of chiefs, who carry a variety of weapons. 
Of the sixty-four personages left, half a dozen have ground or polished 
stone implements; others hold formidable harpoons (two of them double) 
or lances adorned with feathers; whilst the majority have from three to five 
spears and an atlatl (i.e., throwing stick), These are of different shapes. 
One figure has armlets with projecting rounded stones. Some have kilts, 
sporrans, leggings, and sandals. Eleven personages have tail appendages. 
There are protective sleeves in a series of puffs, breastplates, helmets, and 
feather headdresses, necklaces of stone beads, masks, ear and nose orna- 
ments in variety. Small round back-shields, always painted green and 
fastened on by a broad red belt, may have been of bronze attached to leather, 
as a bronze disc has been found. Round or oblong shields were carried by 
two thongs, one held in the left hand, the other slipped over the arm. 
The two upper chambers of the same building have reliefs on the door 
jambs of sixteen warriors, life size. They carry a sort of boomerang in 
addition to spears and atlatls. In the outer chamber was a great stone 
table or altar, supported ty fifteen caryatid figures. Upon its surface was 
a relief of a standing chief, holding out his atlatl over a kneeling enemy 
who offers a weapon. The walls of both chambers were covered with painted 
battle scenes, in which several hundred figures are still visible. They carry 
spears, atlatls, round or oblong shields, and a kind of boomerang which 
was used by the natives in Australia about eighty years ago. It was 
intended for striking rather than throwing. On one wall the method of 
attacking high places by means of long-notched tree-trunks as ladders and 
scaffold towers is shown. 
The building at the north end of the great Ball Court is evidently 
very ancient, and its sculptured walls have chiefs with spears and atlatls. 
The temple on the great pyramid called the Castillo also has warriors on 
its doorposts and pillars, with boomerangs, spears, and atlatls, and so has a 
building in the great Square of Columns. In an upper chamber of the 
palace of the Monjes are paintings in which are men with spears and 
atlatls, and also spears with lighted grass attached thrown against high- 
roofed buildings. A survey of all that has so far been discovered at 
Chichen gives a vivid idea of primitive battle array. 
5. Ethnological Researches in Alaska. By Dr. G. B. Gorpon. 
In 1907 the author made an expedition to the Koskokwin Valley of 
Alaska to investigate the natives of that region, who, owing to their 
remoteness, preserve in a marked degree their aboriginal characteristics. 
In the Upper Valley of the Koskokwin Déné tribes were found; seven 
hundred miles down the river Eskimo culture began ; and two hundred miles 
further Eskimo customs prevailed and the tendency of the Déné of this 
district to adopt Eskimo culture is strongly marked and shows that the 
Eskimo culture is the more aggressive and the more advanced. At the 
mouth of the Koskokwin the Eskimo communities have retained in full 
vigour their peculiar customs and mode of life, because that part of the 
Alaskan coast has not-been invaded by trading vessels or whalers. 
The general health and physical welfare of these communities were 
noticeably better than in those locations where the natives have been in 
continued contact with the white men. At the same time their mental and 
moral state is also decidedly better. All observations tended to show that 
the inhabitants of Alaska, both Déné and Eskimo, undergo physical and 
moral deterioration under the influence of civilisation. 
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