1903.] ASHMEAD—HUACOS POTTERIES OF OLD PERU. : 3898 
both figures the arms are held arranged behind, like a person who 
listens tranquilly. The large idol has a cord round the neck, which 
is tied in front by a coarse knot. One of the ends of the cord goes 
down to the stomach. The nose in both takes the form of an 
eagle’s beak. David Forbes says these wooden idols represent 
prisoners holding a cord or a serpent to the neck. Forbes 
and H. B. Frank suppose that they have thus symbolized syphilis, 
a disease original to the mountains of Peru and characteristic of 
the alpaca or llama, an animal which transmitted it to man by 
unnatural vice. Neither of these idols nor those described by 
Weiner represent mutilated nose and lips. ‘Therefore a// prisoners 
were not punished by amputation of nose and lips. (See rich col- 
lection in La Plata Museum.) 
Polakowsky divides all these vessels into groups: 1. Clay figures 
representing mutilation of nose, of pathologic origin; 2. Those 
where it is doubtful whether they treat of disease or of surgical 
operation. | 
Polakowsky does not think they treat of punished criminals, be- 
cause he has searched for data in the literature and failed to find 
such. He lived twenty-five years in South America. Von den 
Steinen found in the Royal Museum of Berlin representant vases of 
heads and entire bodies, one of them stretched on his belly, the 
other on the knees or with the legs crossed. All had mutilations 
of the point of the nose and the greater part of the upper lip. In 
four of the pieces the feet were lacking, on the others the lower 
part of the body was covered with a cloth which enveloped it from 
the hips, in a manner which made one think they also had lost the 
feet. 
Now in ceramics too: First, we have types undoubtedly of pris- 
oners, representing a person on foot with hands behind and bound 
with a cord, but no other indication to show that it treats of a pris- 
oner. Secondly, aprisoner on his knees, halting, or sitting with the 
feet crossed. Moreover, he has a cord tied around his neck. A 
third represents the serpent eating a certain part of his body (penis), 
while his hands are tied behind hisback. But in zome of these clay 
figures which represent undoubtedly prisoners, was there mutilation 
of any part of the face or of the body.. The testimony of the 
huacos potteries, therefore, is to the effect that the Old Incans did not 
mutilate their prisoners by amputation of the feet. Moreover, in 
PROC. AMER. PHILOS, 80C. XLII. 174. AA. PRINTED JAN. 30, 1904. 
