2S 



A STUDY OK CHIRIQUIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



the dish-shaped plate to rest on a hollow stand that is somewhat larger at the 

 bottom than at the top. 



The hollow stand could be made still lighter by cutting windows in its sides 

 and ends. This is what is done in figure 20, which represents a metate of nearly the 



same size and shape 

 as the foregoing. The 

 outlines are a little 

 more nearly rectan- 

 gular. This is partic- 

 ularly true of the 

 stand, which is also 

 smaller at the bottom 

 than at the top. There 

 are eight large open- 

 ings, three on a side 

 and one at either end. 

 The plate at the top 

 has a low rim and is 

 thick enough at the 

 margins to admit of 

 a peripheral incised 

 ornament, consisting 

 of two parallel hori- 

 zontal lines connected 

 at short intervals by 

 transverse lines. We 

 have in this metate 

 all the essential con- 

 structional features to 

 be found in the so- 

 called stools, except 

 that the latter have 

 a circular top and 

 stand instead of oval 

 to rectangular ones. 

 The metate shown 

 in figure 21 is the gift 

 of Mr. Edwin Lamson 

 of Summit, New Jer- 

 sey. It resembles 

 the preceding in its 

 roughly rectangular 

 top and its sloping base. But the latter is hollow and entirely cut away at the 

 ends, so that it does not present a continuous contact support. The sides are 

 decorated with incised panels. The design is a faulted meander with branching 

 incised lines filling the angular spaces. This metate and one of the pottery stools 



Fig. 19. 



Fig. 20. 



Fig. 18. — Three-legged metate of the Nicoyan type; from Gualaca. 



Fig. 19. — Prototype of Chiriquian metate. V* 



Fig. 20. — Metate with openings in the hollow stand. */« 



