156 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 295 



made at Los Angeles, at the Coast and Geodetic Magnetic Obser- 

 vatory, by means of automatic photographic registry, point to a very 

 recent (just before the establishment of the observatory in 1882) 

 occurrence of the maximum east declination at that place. 



In passing up the Pacific coast, we notice everywhere-in Oregon 

 and Washington Territory that either the reversal of the secular 

 motion has already occurred, or is about to occur shortly. The pres- 

 ent is therefore a very important epoch in the science of terrestrial 

 magnetism as relating to our western coast, and hence demands 

 special watchfulness on the part of the survey, in order that its 

 charts may show our latest knowledge respecting this, to the navi- 

 gator, most important information. C. A. S. 



Washington, Sept. 21. 



Archaeological Remains in the Costa Cuca (Guatemala). 



DtJRiNG my late archsological tour through Central America, I 

 met an intelligent countryman of mine, Mr. Hermann Wundram, 

 who spoke very enthusiastically of the mounds and idols on the 

 coffee-plantation Santa Margarita, of which he is the administra- 

 dor. After having visited the ruins of Iximche, Utatlan, and other 

 places of historical interest in the Altos of Guatemala, and being 

 anxious to see these remains, of which, to my knowledge, no ex- 

 plorer has made any mention, I rode from Quetzaltenango down to 

 Retalhuleu, in whose vicinity they are situated. 



Scattered over a vast area on the plantations of Santa Margarita 

 and San Isidro, they consist of foundation-walls of stone edifices, 

 and of a number of mounds of different heights and circumferences, 

 either single or in pairs. One of the mounds has been used until 

 recently as a burial-ground by the Indians. Their relative position 

 cannot be determined, as the dense coffee-plantations can be pene- 

 trated but with the utmost difficulty. 



In the neighborhood of the mounds stand upright sculptured 

 monoliths, or lie half buried in the ground. On two of these ap- 

 pears in low relief the figure of a twisted serpent, surrounded by 

 ornamental scrolls artistically executed. The ornaments have, 

 however, no resemblance to Mexican picture-writings or to Maya 

 hieroglyphs. One of the serpents looks at a rectangular shield in 

 the centre of the slab, 13 inches high and 9 inches wide, and divided 

 into four panels, the upper panel ornamented with two 

 figures such as here given. This stone is 4 feet 6 inches 

 wide, 5 feet above and i foot 6 inches below the ground. 

 In front of it stood a half-burned tallow candle, as an offering of 

 the Indians, who adore these relics of their ancestors as saints, — 

 a queer mixture of Pagan heathenism and Christian belief. 



The other stone is 3 feet 8 inches wide and 4 feet 4 inches high, 

 but the upper portion is broken off. On several of the monoliths 

 the figures are so much obliterated, that only a few triangles and 

 rectangles in groups can be made out ; and on one of them, appar- 

 ently of grayish marble (i2 feet 9 inches high and 5 feet wide), but 

 a few lines could be distinguished. A stone figure (5 feet 9 inches 

 high and 3 feet 2 inches wide) representing the upper half of a 

 man, and resting on a double base of oval form (4 feet wide), had 

 but four fingers on the clumsy hands ; and of the square face, only 

 the broad-cornered nose and half of the right eye could be recog- 

 nized. At the side of the figure lay a small statue, probably that 

 of a child, with mutilated arms and broken-off head. 



Near by was a cylindrical stone, of 28 inches diameter, in the 

 form of a millstone, with a cavity of 22 inches diameter in the 

 centre, and a half-oval annex at the lower end. A similar stone 

 found here, but without the annex, had been placed on one of the 

 corners of the yard in front of the planter's residence. The central 

 cavity was of the same width as that of the former stone, but the 

 margins were partially ornamented. I could not make out any 

 other explanation of their use, but that these stones had served as 

 receptacles for the hearts of the victims, after these had been torn 

 from the breast ; at least, they had a striking resemblance to the 

 Cuauhxicalli of the ancient Mexicans. 



At another side of the yard stood the sculptured bust of a man, 

 also found in the ruins, 3 feet high, and resting on a base 1 1 inches 

 high. The face was nearly round ; eyes, nose, mouth, and rectan- 

 gular ears, very large ; the forehead low and much receding ; the 

 arms bent over the chest, with no hands ; the back flat, as having 

 leaned against some object. An obtuse-angled collar, reaching to 



the middle of the chest, seems to indicate that the figure represents 

 a chieftain. 



The rude and clumsy stone figures contrast strangely with the 

 admirably correct and artistically executed reliefs of the monoliths : 

 hence the inference seems to be justified that both belong to dif- 

 ferent peoples and different periods, — an inference which indeed'is 

 confirmed by the tradition of the Indians. They report that a city 

 flourished here many years ago, but that it was destroyed by the 

 Chinantecos. The latter term is derived from chinamitl, a Nahuatl 

 word which signifies 'an enclosure of reeds' (^Seto 6 cerca de 

 cafias ; c/unati/za, hacer seto — Molina). The Chinantecos are 

 therefore the makers and inhabitants of such enclosures. But to 

 what known tribes does the term refer.' When I travelled from 

 Lake Atitlan, the most beautiful I ever saw, to Chichicastenango, 

 and from Santa Cruz del Quiche to Totonicapam, — districts still in- 

 habited by the Quiches and Cakchiquels, — I discovered the interpre- 

 tation of the name. The dwellings of these Indians, mere huts of 

 reeds and wooden sticks, nestle on the declivities of the hills or in 

 the ravines, surrounded by milpas, and enclosed by fences of the 

 above material, often scattered over an area of a square league. It 

 is the same mode of settlement, which, according to Ximenez, was 

 even at his time peculiar to the Quiche tribes, and bespeaks their 

 ancient social organization. A number of these chinamiiales 

 formed the amac (' clan, gens ') ruled by an ahagua. These 

 aliaguas, in turn, constituted the great council of the tribe, without 

 whose consent nothing could be disposed of. 



That in the Indian tradition above quoted the name ' Chinan- 

 tecos ' refers really to the Quiche tribes, is corroborated by other 

 aboriginal testimony. Indeed, we know from the ' Popol Vuh ' and 

 from the ' Titulo de los Sefiores de Totonicapam,' that the Quiches 

 had extended their conquests under Quicab, who seems to be 

 identical with the Hunahpii of luarros and of the ' Isagoge His- 

 torico,' down to the Pacific coast. Furthermore, we know from the 

 ' Titulo de los Sefiores de Quetzaltenango,' that the country be- 

 tween Mazatenango (Cakolqueh) and Mazatlan was tributary to the 

 Quiches ; nay, even in the list of tributes, fish from the rivers Sam- 

 ala, Uquz (Ocos), Nil, and Xab are enumerated. The fact that the 

 ruined city is situated between the two last-named rivers, renders 

 it almost a certainty that its inhabitants belonged to these tributary 

 tribes, and that, from giving their conquerors a Nahuatl name, they 

 were of Nahuatl origin. 



There is another circumstance which points in the same direc- 

 tion ; namely, the feathered serpents on the sculptured monoliths. 

 They doubtless bespeak a Quetzalcoatl cult, — a cult conspicuously 

 flourishing among the Nahuatl tribes. Four immigrations of such 

 tribes into Guatemala are recorded by the Mexican and Spanish 

 historians. The first one is that of the Toltecs after the destruc- 

 tion of Tollan, the seat of their great council-house (Ixtlilxochitl) ; 

 the second, that of the Mexicans and Cholultecas, driven from 

 Soconusco by the Olmecas, part of whom settled in Guatemala and 

 San Salvador as Pipiles (Torquemada) ; a third one took place 

 during a famine under the first Mocteuhzoma (Motolinia, Gomara, 

 Herrera, Oviedo) ; and the last one under Ahuizotl, who, at the end 

 of the fifteenth century, sent soldiers, under the disguise of mer- 

 chants, to the Pacific coast of Guatemala, in order to form a 

 nucleus for subduing the Quiche tribes (luarros). 



For chronological reasons, and from the fact that the Toltecs 

 were the most advanced of the Nahuatl tribes in the arts, I am 

 inclined to attribute to them the origin of the ruined city and of the 

 monolithic slabs, while I would assign to the Quiches the rude 

 stone figures, since the latter present some resemblance to the clay 

 idols found by Stephens in the ruins of Utatlan. 



But while the sculptures on the monoliths in Santa Margarita 

 and San Isidro show the same artistic skill and taste as those in 

 Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa, they are quite different from those in' 

 Quirigua, which I visited later on. The reliefs are lower, the ob- 

 jects represented dissimilar, and hieroglyphs totally absent. 



Careful explorations in the dense forests along the Pacific coast 

 would undoubtedly reveal more ruins and sculptures similar' to- 

 those of Santa Margarita, which, along with those of Santa Lucia, 

 would give additional proof of the Toltecan occupancy of this 

 territory. GuST. BrUEHL, M.D. 



Cincinnati, O., Sept. 12. 



