June 5, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



833 



breast of the idol lies a child which is 

 partly reclining on one hand. The quality 

 of this work would seem to prove that the 

 same artist made both this and the in- 

 clined shaft. The only difference in the 

 face on the south side is that the ears are 

 ornamented with rings. The east and west 

 sides have each 34 rectangles arranged in 

 pairs and all containing hieroglyphics. 



As the land hereabouts is but slightly 

 above the general level of the river, there is 

 no doubt that the frequent inundations have 

 buried many other monuments. 



The idols of Quirigua have no altars like 

 those of Copan, but within the space occu- 

 pied by the afore-mentioned, there are two 

 immense stones which very probably served 

 as such. The first one is nearly round, 

 some 12 feet in diameter, and is situated a 

 few feet from the first obelisk. The upper 

 portion is painted red and a sculptured 

 tiger's head can be made out, having a 

 human head under it. A line of finely 

 sculptured glyphs covers the back. What 

 looks like a seat occupies the center, 

 around which there are several grooves 

 which run toward the floor. All this would 

 seem to indicate the use of this stone as a 

 sacrificial altar. 



The second stone, which is between the 

 fourth and fifth obelisks and to the east of 

 them, is long and oval, being 6 feet high 

 and 25 feet in circumference. The whole 

 surface is covered with figures in semi-re- 

 lief, which are in a much better state of 

 preservation than those seen on the other 

 monuments. One of these figures repre- 

 sents a woman without hands or legs, but 

 with the arms extending to the floor. 

 The forehead is narrow. Another figure is 

 that of a turtle whose eyes are one foot 

 across ; representations of many fruits and 

 flowers now found in the surrounding 

 mountains, covered the rest of this stone. 

 This fact seems to explode the idea of many 

 regarding a change of climate, since the 



Central American cities, monuments, etc., 

 were built. 



There are several sculptured stones which 

 are completely covered with moss and 

 tropical vegetation and deeply imbedded in 

 the' soft humus. On one of them a tiger's 

 head could be made out and wherever the 

 moss could be scraped away hieroglyphics 

 appeared. 



The truncated pyramid of Quirigua is 

 some 28 feet high. Oblong blocks of sand- 

 stone have been used in constructing it, but 

 the whole is a mass of broken rock to-day. 

 There are two platforms on the pyramid, 

 the second one having a series of circular 

 niches, usually two feet in diameter and 

 fairly well preserved. 



Although the monuments of Quirigua 

 are larger than those of Copan, they are 

 inferior in sculpture and their extremely 

 weathered and ruined condition would 

 prove them to be much older also. 



Some historians have stated that Quirigu4 

 was a large city, destroyed by the Aztecs 

 when at the height of their power, on the 

 plain of Anahuac. The site is indeed pic- 

 turesque. To-day it is the abode of the 

 denizens of the forest, reptiles seeming to 

 have taken to it with special gusto. 



John R. Chandler. 

 Guatemala, Central Ameeica, April, 1896. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 PRIMITIVE ETHNOLOGY OF FRANCE. 



Basing his researches on the measure- 

 ments of nearly 700 skulls and an exami- 

 nation of abundant artefacts of the palaeo- 

 lithic and neolithic periods, M. P. Salmon 

 has constructed a map showing the ethnol- 

 ogy of France in the stone age. The results 

 arrived at may be briefly stated to be that 

 the whole of the territory was down to 

 neolithic times occupied by a people dis- 

 tinctly long-skulled, though probably of 

 two difiierent types. These were not vio- 

 lently dispossessed or exterminated, but 



